Chapter One

Hugging her tail to her chest, Divvy stared into the growing waves. They slapped against the rocks where she perched, throwing spray up into her face. She wiped it away. A few drops of ocean spray should have been nothing to a mermaid, but she hated the feeling. The wind whipped her long, dark hair about her pretty face as the storm began to swell. With it came a melancholy such that Divvy had never felt before. She would soon be forced to plunge down into the ocean’s depths, at least as far as the sea caves in the twilight zone. Kshithij was her home and even though it lay within the sunlight zone, it had always felt too deep, too wet. She often sought out places like this one, a small rocky islet darting up from the water. She longed for the warm blaze of the sun on her skin and scales.

Looking to the sky she saw dark clouds floating in from the east, blotting out the sun. She wondered if she dove in and began to swim as hard as she could if she might outswim the storm.

Her musings were disrupted by the sudden splash of two emerging forms. Twittering laughter rang in her ears as Teertha and Ashneer leapt from the water, spinning high in the air before splashing back down into the sea. The young twins were half-wild, having been orphaned long ago. Their brother, Varun, had inherited the responsibility of the two merchildren as well as those of the title of Lord of the Sea that day. Their ferality was evidence of in which responsibility he had chosen to place his priorities.

Divvy watched as Teertha swam to the edge of the islet. Placing her arms on the nearest rock, the girl pulled herself half out of the water. "Varun has called for all Satah to head to the safety of the caves," she said in her sing-song voice.

"Then why are you not headed there," Divvy asked sternly. The girl tossed her blonde curls, shaking loose saltwater droplets that showered down upon the iridescent green scales of  Divvy’s tail. With a heavy sigh the older mermaid swatted at the droplets sending them flying back at the girl. Teertha ignored the assault and merely continued fiddling with her hair, adjusting the small starfish she wore as decoration.

"We aren’t there because Varun sent us to find you, obviously," quipped Ashneer, who had been floating back and forth with lazy flicks of his tail, hands locked behind his head looking to the stormy sky above.

"Surely the Lord of the Sea has greater concerns at the moment than my whereabouts."

Teertha stopped her preening. The child shook her head and gave an incredulous snort before rolling her eyes at Divvy; a silent message that somehow screamed just how much Varun was interested in her. A chill swept over her skin and scales that had nothing to do with the rising winds of the storm.