Chapter 1

The first time I catch Adrian and Celeste in our bed, I cry black pearls all over the floor.

Afterward, he holds me and says it was only an act.

He tells me only real heartbreak can turn my tears black, and black pearls can hold back the storms threatening the coast.

He says hurting me is for the ocean, for our home.

I believe him.

Later, Celeste suddenly falls critically ill.

The doctors say my bonded jellyfish might save her, so Adrian orders them to cut off her tentacles and take tissue from her while she is still alive.

I kneel in front of him, shielding my dying jellyfish with my arms.

“Adrian, please stop. She’s been with me since birth, and when she hurts, I hurt too.”

He only laughs.

“My father is the only one who still believes in that bond of yours. It’s just a jellyfish. Once Celeste gets better, I’ll buy you another one.”

That night, I carry my bonded jellyfish, her light almost completely gone, to Adrian’s father.

“Because of an old debt, my people and I have protected your family for generations. I have held back storms, guarded your shores, and protected your family again and again.”

I look down at the dying jellyfish in my arms.

“Tonight, that debt is paid in full. From now on, whatever the sea comes to collect from your family, I will no longer stand in its way.”

“Let me go home.”

-

“What shared pain? My father is the only one who still believes that ridiculous story.”

“It’s just a jellyfish. Once Celeste gets better, I’ll buy you another one.”

The blade comes down.

My knees give out, and I hit the floor hard.

Pain tears through me as if the same blade has sliced into my body.

“Stop!”

I wrench free from the people behind me and throw myself toward the treatment tank.

My bonded jellyfish convulses in the water.

Her tentacles used to be long and transparent, glowing a soft blue like moonlight as they drifted through the water.

Now one of them lies severed on a silver tray, still twitching.

“No…”

I grip the edge of the tank.

“Please.”

Tears blur my vision as I look up at Adrian.

“Adrian, please. She’s going to die.”

“So is Celeste.”

“Then at least prove this will actually work first!”

My voice nearly breaks.

“No one has ever used my bonded jellyfish to make medicine for humans. You don’t even know if this can save her!”

“The doctors say it might.”

“Might?”

I step in front of the tank, blocking the doctors.

“You’re willing to hurt me like this just because it might work?”

Adrian’s eyes fill with impatience.

“Enough.”

“Every time something doesn’t go your way, you start talking about merfolk rules and this so-called bond.”

“I know you’re a mermaid. That doesn’t mean I have to believe everything you say.”

I stare at him.

Of course he knows what I am.

He has seen my tail. He has watched me walk out of the sea.

He has also known for years that my bonded jellyfish and I share pain.

When the first blade came down, he watched her convulse and saw me collapse at the exact same moment.

It isn’t that he doesn’t know.

He simply chooses not to believe me anymore.

But I do not understand.

He used to care about this jellyfish more than anyone.

Once, when her blue glow dimmed slightly, Adrian woke me in the middle of the night and stood beside her tank, asking over and over if she was sick or if the water was too cold.

That night, he told me himself,

“She’s been with you since you were born. That makes her family too.”

I refuse to believe the tenderness in his eyes back then was fake.

But now he watches that same “family” have her tentacles cut away.

He watches me collapse with her.

The doctor reaches for the tank again.

I throw my arms around it.

“Don’t touch her!”

Two people grab me from behind.

I struggle until my shoulders ache.

“Let me go! Adrian, please!”

I call his name again and again because even now, I am still waiting for him to change his mind.

Instead, I hear his cold voice.

“Take what you need for the medicine.”

The blade comes down a second time.

Pain rips through me.

I cannot even scream. I curl up on the floor as a tear slips down my cheek.

Before it hits the ground, it hardens into black.

Click.

A black pearl lands beside my hand.

Then a second.

A third.

Black pearls roll across the white floor.

The room falls silent.

I force myself to look up.

Adrian is staring at the pearls.

Not at me lying on the floor.

At my tears.

I know his eyes too well, so I see the change almost immediately.

It isn’t pity or guilt. He has just realized something.

He motions for an assistant to pick up one of the pearls.

“Send it to the port.”

I freeze.

“What?”

No one answers.

The assistant leaves with the black pearl.

I remain on the floor, staring at the man I have loved for years.

He does not help me up.

He does not even look back at me.

That night, the waves threatening the port begin to weaken.

Everyone celebrates the black pearl that arrived just in time.

I stay beside my bonded jellyfish’s treatment tank until sunrise.

After treating her wounds, the marine specialist tells me that if we had waited any longer, she might have died.

Through the glass, I stare at her severed tentacles.

Even now, I can still feel the pain of her severed tentacles tearing through me.

Her blue light flickers weakly.

I suddenly remember Adrian sitting beside her tank all night years ago, simply because her glow had dimmed.

Now he watched her being cut open.

He watched me collapse in pain.

And in the end, he took my tears.