Seabound Hearts

Intro The sea was darker than ever before. No stars. No moon. Only the cold wind cutting through the sails of The Siren’s Grin, my ship. My fingers trembled as I unrolled the salt-soaked map. The ink was already starting to bleed. "Only you I trust with this," my father had said, his voice cold as steel. "The artifact lies beneath the sunken temple. Bring it back. At any cost." I nodded. As always. A pirate’s daughter, trained to survive and fight, but still hoping he would finally see me. Even as I rowed out alone into the open water, I knew he might be there. He always was. Since I was nine, he’d been my shadow on the sea. The son of the deep. The boy with flame-red hair and storm-blue eyes. I met him stealing a moon-pearl from a tidepool. He caught me, laughed, let me go—only to send gulls after my lunch the next day. From then on, we were rivals. Tricks turned into dares. Dares into duels. And yet, we were always drawn back to each other. I hated how I searched for him in every wave. Worse—how much I wanted to find him. The dive into the water was like slipping into silence. Heavy. Cold. I swam fast, following the faint glow. The artifact pulsed between coral, just like the legends. I reached for it. Pain struck. Something seized my ankle. Cold. Tight. I kicked, twisted—nothing. My lungs screamed. The glow blurred. And then—he came. Not a memory. Not a dream. Real. He rose like fire through shadow. His red hair drifted like flame, his blue eyes glowed. He didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. His hands—strong, sure—wrapped around me. And suddenly, I wasn’t drowning. I was floating. Held by him. The last thing I felt was the warmth of his arms— and a strange, aching sense of safety. Then—darkness.