Surrender Your Soul

Chapter One

[MARINA]

As the break of dawn approaches, a life is taken. A girl—young and beautiful—descends toward the bottom of the Atlantic where her watery grave awaits. She fought hard against the tides, but lost. I could've saved her, yet I did nothing.

Humans. They destroy each other and their world. All my life, I've been taught they're disposable creatures and I'm forced to show them no kindness.

I swim to the air-breather, despite my orders to be merciless, and hold her close. She's gone.

With quivering fingers, I urge the girl's vital force from her weightless body. The light of the moon allows me to easily see the human's soul. Using only the plain eye, it's hard to spot, but with my enhanced senses I can see the glittering contour of the soul as it rises from the human.

Weaving my fingers inside the soft essence, I draw the soul's power into my Nutmeg shell that has been spelled by Cordelia Anahi, the sea empress.

The empress consumes human souls with such urgency it may as well be the water she breathes. The human souls revitalize her essence, keeping her youthful and strong. "This won't be enough to please the empress," Harbor, my friend and younger apprentice, informs me. Thrashing her violet-scaled tail through the water, she circles me anxiously.

She's right. Of course, I know that. We've only collected three souls, and dawn will be here in little over an hour, meaning our collections will be due back at Cordelia's caverns.

As Head Collector, along with my usual partner Caspian, I'm well aware Cordelia requires a minimum of six souls per day. Harbor, on average, brings in one. This doesn't make Harbor a favorite of the empress. Which is exactly why Cordelia sent me out with her tonight instead of with Caspian. I suppose that isn't exactly true. I begged Cordelia to let me train Harbor—to just give her one more chance. After saving her two months ago from an almost deadly shark attack, I've felt overprotective of her. When I heard word that Cordelia wanted to turn Harbor into one of her slaves, I knew I had to get Cordelia to change her mind.

Slicing through the water, I whip my tail away from Harbor, causing me to shoot through the salty ocean. With a burst of arrogance, I leap a few times above the Surface—a place where the human world begins and the merfolk community ends—and return to the Atlantic, diving deep down to the sandy bottom. Harbor needs to realize that collecting isn't all about the collections themselves, but exploring and appreciating the world we live in.

The air-breathers believe we're a myth—nothing more than a fairy-tale—and that we don't really exist. They refer to us as mermaids. I guess the name kind of stuck.

"Marina," Harbor yells to me, "is this a joke to you? We need at least three more to make Cordelia happy."

"You have so much to learn." Tucking my arms around my golden tail, I take a seat on the soft ocean floor. "All we have to do is wait."

Harbor's brows knit together; she's confused. I point to the Surface where I've spotted three figures above the water's edge, near the coast of South Carolina.

"Surfers," Harbor whispers in excitement.

The group of air-breathers look promising, considering it's often hard for humans to maneuver the waves in the dark.

We wait for forty minutes before I begin to think that this group is a waste of time. But then something wonderful happens: A blonde man wipes out and loses his balance, falling off his board.

Harbor moves for him, but I hold her back. "You've got to practice some patience! As soon as they've expired, we'll collect their vital forces." All night I've had to remind Harbor to wait. She's far too eager.