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All Chapters of Claimed by No One the Sea Takes Me Back: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

"What are you doing in the shadows?"Alaric's voice cut through the soft waltz.I leaned against the pillar. The four of them were bathed in light from the crystal chandelier.Evelina's brooch glittered. Three golden scales. My lifeline. Cruel.Grandmother told them. Before she died. They had to press the scales to my heart on the Night of the Tides.A sharp pain shot through my legs. Bones fusing. Like a thousand red-hot needles stitching my flesh together.I knew this feeling. The mermaid's curse.It was turning me into a monster.And I couldn't tell a soul. That was part of the curse, too.I tried to lift my right foot. It was nailed to the floor."I can't move my legs," I told Alaric. My voice was a whisper.He frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose."Seraphina, this is Evelina's coronation ball. Can't you be reasonable for once? We still love you, but that’s no reason to bully a poor girl."My brother Caspian turned. His eyes were full of condescending pity."We let you get away

Chapter 2

Morning.Salty seawater flooded my throat, choking me awake.I leaned over the bed and coughed up two mouthfuls of bloody water.It left a dark stain on the wood floor.My fingers went to my throat.From my collarbone to my jaw, my skin was covered in a layer of rough, blue scales.I tried to speak. My vocal cords were like a broken shell. Only a harsh, rasping hiss came out.I grabbed a wide scarf and wrapped it tightly around my neck, hiding the change. Then I went downstairs.My bones were still fusing.Every step made my skin bleed against the fabric of my clothes.The dining hall.Evelina was sitting at the head of the long table.That was my seat. For the last ten years.She was toying with a teardrop-shaped magic pendant.I saw it. I stopped.It was a ward against the water. It held a single drop of the Sea God's holy water.My grandmother's last gift. My last line of defense against the curse.Without that drop of water, the mermaid would consume my human body completely.Seein

Chapter 3

That afternoon, stylists and tailors from the court arrived at the castle.Tonight was the Eve of the Tides, the night of the royal Tide Banquet.Alaric, Caspian, and Lucian would all be there.In the past, I would be by their side, wearing a gown they had chosen for me.But today, all the stylists swarmed Evelina."Miss Evelina, this moonspun gown perfectly suits your aura.""Miss Evelina, your collarbones are exquisite. This starlight diamond necklace is perfect for you."I sat on a sofa in the corner, watching them.The scales on my left arm had reached my elbow. I had to wear a long-sleeved silk robe.The gills in my throat felt wider. Every breath was a dry, burning sensation in my lungs.To avoid suspicion, I picked up a glass of ice water and took a small sip.Evelina emerged in her gown. She looked like a saint, untouched by the world.Alaric, Caspian, and Lucian's eyes lit up."Evelina, that dress is perfect on you," Alaric said, his praise overflowing."You'll be the brightes

Chapter 4

The Tide Banquet was held on the palace's open-air terrace.The orchestra played a graceful courtly dance.Evelina stood at the center of the crowd in her moonspun gown.The three golden scales on her brooch glowed with a faint blue magic. She looked like a goddess come to earth.Alaric raised his glass, announcing to the nobles around them, "This is the coronation gift we chose for Evelina.""From now on, she will have the highest protection of the empire."The nobles raised their glasses in agreement.Caspian and Lucian stood on either side of Evelina.They blocked anyone who tried to get too close, keeping her in a perfectly safe bubble.I hid in the shadows at the edge of the terrace.Beneath my long robe, my legs from the knee down had completely fused into a grotesque, skeletal tail.The dress hid my deformed lower body. It couldn't hide my fading breath.The time was eleven fifty-eight.I leaned heavily against the long banquet table and stepped out of the shadows.My knee joint

Chapter 5

The cold water wrapped around me.I thought endless darkness was waiting for me. A prison.But when I hit the seafloor, I knew.This wasn't a curse.It was a blessing. A gift from the Old God of the Abyss.The price? Never return to the surface.The reward? Eternal life in the deep.I sat on my throne. A throne of bone and red coral.I lifted my hands. My skin glowed like pearls.My divinity had returned.All the mortal fear, the weakness… it was stripped away.I was finally a queen again. The Mermaid Queen.A guard swam up the steps. He offered me a shimmering water mirror.“My Queen. Do you wish to see the world above?”I gave a slight nod.The mirror rippled. The palace terrace appeared.The banquet hall was dead silent. Only the wind howled through the wreckage.Alaric was on his knees.He was clutching my robe. The one my tail had ripped apart. It was still damp with seawater and stained with my blood.He buried his face in the rough fabric.Greedy. Desperate to smell what was lef

Chapter 6

Half a year.For me, just a few tides.For them? An eternity of torment.I leaned on my throne, bored. I tapped the edge of my scrying pool.The image cleared. A ruined temple on the southern coast.Alaric. The once-great Knight Commander. He looked like a ghost.His face was thin, his beard a mess.In his hand, he clutched a burnt piece of a charm. The amulet Evelina tossed into the flames months ago.“One hundred thousand gold pieces. All of it.”Alaric pushed a heavy chest towards a dark priest. His voice shook. “Bring her back.”Six months.They had stopped everything. Knightly patrols, council meetings.Their power spread across the continent like a weed, all of them desperately searching for a ghost made of seafoam.The priest just shook his head.“This woman’s soul is beyond the laws of this land.” His voice was full of awe. “She has returned to the Abyss. She has become a god.”Alaric lunged.He grabbed the priest's collar, his eyes wild. A cornered beast.“Don't feed me that b

Chapter 7

“Nine hundred and ninety-seven… nine hundred and ninety-eight…”A hoarse whisper from the mirror broke the silence of my palace.I watched the three of them. Wrecks of men.For three months, no rain had fallen on their empire. The rivers were dry.I had taken back the blessing from the golden scales.Their water magic was gone. Their lands were barren. Their empire was a wasteland.And without the water element, the magical recoil was brutal.The great knight, the duke, the prince… now powerless. Their bodies were failing.They heard a legend. An ancient sea god altar that could reach the merfolk.So they abandoned everything and came.Nine hundred and ninety-nine steps. Jagged black rock.Barefoot. Leaving bloody footprints. Crawling on their knees, tearing their flesh on the stone with every step.Alaric’s forehead was a bloody mess.Caspian’s knees were shredded raw.Every inch was agony. Every movement scraped more skin from their bones.Lucian was pale as a ghost.He coughed up bl

Chapter 8

The wind and the sea smashed against the broken altar.Alaric’s hands gripped the stone.His fingernails bent backward, bleeding. He didn't notice.He just stared up at me, his face a bloody mask.“Seraphina, we don’t deserve to die!” he begged. He pulled a necklace from his pocket. It was crudely pieced together. “Look. Your favorite silver necklace. I fixed it. Please, just come back.”“Shut up!” Caspian roared, shoving Alaric aside.He dragged his bloody knees forward. He held up a crystal hairpin.“Seraphina, don't listen to him. This is your favorite. Come back with me. I’ll put it in your hair every day.”Lucian, lying in a puddle of filth, pulled out a soggy, stuffed rabbit.“You can’t sleep without this,” he whispered. “You have nightmares. I remember, Seraphina. I remember.”They held up their pathetic treasures. I wanted to laugh.And so I did.My laughter, cold and empty, echoed across the cliff.“My favorite?” I looked down at them. No pity in my eyes. Just ice.I pointed a

Chapter 9

I knew I could never walk on land again.So what?The deep is where I belong.My palace was quiet. The water gently moved through my hair.A month in the Abyss is a year on land. Time means nothing to a god.I stopped watching the mortals.Sometimes, I'd have my guard bring the scrying pool.Like watching a bad play.Snow was falling in the mirror.Evelina had been in the dungeon for three years.When the guards threw her out, she was completely mad.She still wore the rags of her white dress.She crawled through the sludge of a gutter, digging through the mud.“My scales. These are my scales,” she’d cackle, sticking a rotten fish scale in her matted hair. “I’m the luckiest girl in the empire. I am chosen.”No one listened to the madwoman.One winter night, she curled up by the city’s dry fountain.The ice took her breath.Her dead face was frozen in a look of greedy obsession.The three men didn't get off so easy.The curse worked. They lived on.And immortality was their punishment.

Chapter 10

Sixty years passed on the land.The three powerful men were now just… old.Like insects, hiding in the dark corners of the world.The tide night was the only thing they lived for. And their greatest torment.They spent the whole year scavenging.Begging. Getting spat on, kicked.Fighting dogs for rotten fish heads.They saved every penny.They endured the scorn of black market dealers. They spent everything they had.For three perfect black pearls.They carried the pearls and crawled up the cliff.They placed them on the broken altar.This year, the tide moon was huge. Heavy.Alaric was blind now.He leaned against a mossy pillar, his gnarled fingers feeling the pearls.“So smooth,” he whispered to the empty air. A sick, fawning sound. “Like the ones she used to wear. She’ll love them.”Caspian and Lucian huddled beside him. Skin and bones.The wind cut through their rags.“Stop lying to yourself,” Caspian rasped, his cloudy eyes on the empty sea. “We don’t even have the right to give

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