Siren’s Bargain

Prologue

Tidecrest clings to the rocks like a barnacle refusing the tide. The village is old, weathered by salt and sorrow, its people bound to the sea by necessity and ancestry. But the sea has begun to take more than it gives. For seven months, disappearances have plagued the fishing boats and merchant vessels that venture from the harbor. Men are found drowned on calm nights, their eyes wide with terror, their lips still curved as if singing along with something only they could hear. The Harbor Watch speaks of a siren—a creature of legend made flesh, luring prey to watery graves. But the Tide Keepers, keepers of older knowledge, whisper a different truth: the song is not hunger. It is anguish. It is a cry for help, distorted by dark magic into something that kills. The curse binding her weakens with each passing season, and her voice grows louder, reaching farther into the living world. Soon it will be loud enough to drown entire ships, to empty the harbor itself. Someone must act—to end the threat, to free the prisoner, or to discover the truth that lies beneath both possibilities. In Tidecrest, where the fog never fully lifts and the sea keeps its counsel, the answers wait in the deep. And they will demand a price.