Deep Inside
The sea had changed her.
Maeve stood on the edge of the tide pool, watching her reflection shimmer over the surface. Her skin glowed faintly now, kissed with a silvery sheen that caught the moonlight. Faint gill-slits fluttered just beneath her jawline, delicate, new—and when she took a breath, she could feel them working.
Below her belly, the mark that Orun-Kai had left pulsed like a heartbeat. A star-and-shell spiral etched in her skin, warm to the touch. It ached—not in pain, but in longing.