Nerissa
Every step away from the ocean felt like tearing my own skin away from my bones.
The air on land was thick, dry, and suffocating. It burned inside my lungs, nothing like the cold, weightless life of the deep. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the quiet terror churning inside my chest.
What have I done?
I kept my head down as I walked behind the two brothers, my bare feet dragging through the sharp pebbles and coarse dirt of the trail leading up the cliff. I glanced at my hands—small, pale, and entirely human in appearance now. There were no scales reflecting the dim moonlight. No webbing between my fingers. No shimmering tail to propel me through the current. I looked like one of them.
I had broken the oldest, most absolute law of the deep kingdom: Never interfere
