From The Sea, But on Land

Prologue

It wasn't a night for going out. Not unless you had to.

Sharp tunnels of wind whistled and shrieked around every corner. Trees bowed and shook and broke. Rain splattered viciously down at the pavements.

Out at sea, it was even worse. On the water, the storm had turned into walls the size of tower blocks. Waves foamed hungrily, like giant rabid dogs.

Anyone who knew anything about the sea knew this meant one thing: The king was angry.

And anyone wild, crazy or brave enough to be out on such a night might have seen two figures in the distance, way out at sea, way beyond safe. A man leaned out from his fishing boat, calling to a woman in the water below him. "Take it. Raise it up, without me."

"I can't! It's your child too!" The woman called back, shouting to be heard over the thunderous waves. The man shook his head. "I can't hear you!" Leaning further out, he added. "Keep it close! Protect it at all costs!"

"How?" She called, panic hitting her as hard as the waves that were now dragging them further apart. "The necklace!" She thought she heard him say, and then he added something that sounded like, "There's magic in it!"

The woman thought about what their future would hold, if they survived this and the pain of it slapped against her harder than the next wave. "What about -"

The wave washed the rest of her question away - but he knew what she was asking.

"I'll look after myself." He called. "Just protect yourself and the baby. Don't worry. It will all be okay. Go now. Go, before it's too late."

A moment later, the onlooker would have seen them part, each disappearing behind the hills and mountains of the raging sea. Then they would have wondered if they'd imagined the whole thing, because surely no on would go out on a night like this.

Not unless they had too.

A few years later, the prince was growing up, a handsome young lad, like his real father would have wanted.

After his father drowned that night, his mother was forced to marry, a man of her kind. A merman. As she was a princess, of course she married a prince.

No one knew she was pregnant, so the whole royal family thinks he's really her husband's child but he's not. He was a human and a mermaid's child. A semi-mer.

Yes, I'm editing this book to make more sense, so chapter 10 won't be up for a while. Please reread it, please. I'm changing quite a bit. So yeah..