Chapter 1

The gavel fell with a loud crack, a sound that echoed the breaking of my heart.

"Sold! For one hundred million dollars to the esteemed Mr. Croft!" the auctioneer's voice boomed through the grand hall, but to me, it was just noise. A final judgment.

I was Lot 734. The prize of the evening. A living, breathing mermaid, displayed in a massive, bulletproof glass tank for the world's wealthiest monsters to bid on. The water was cold, but the stares of the crowd were colder. Each face was a blur of greed and morbid curiosity.

And in the front row, watching it all, was Dr. Aris Thorne. The man I had once loved. The man who put me here.

My mind drifted back, away from the sterile chill of the tank, to the warmth of the sun on a hidden beach. That was where I first met him. He was a marine biologist, he' d said, studying coastal erosion. His boat had capsized in a squall, and I had found him, half-drowned, clinging to a piece of wreckage. I pulled him to my secret cove, a place no human had ever seen.

For weeks, I cared for him. I brought him fish and fresh water from a hidden spring. He was gentle, his eyes full of wonder, not a trace of the cold ambition I saw in them now. He would touch my face, his fingers tracing the patterns of my scales where they met my skin. He told me I was beautiful, a miracle. I believed him. Love was a new, intoxicating feeling, a current stronger than any I' d known in the deep.

The end came suddenly. One afternoon, as he was sketching in his notebook, he slipped on a wet rock. He fell hard, and I rushed to his side. In my panic, I didn't hide my tail properly as I scrambled out of the water. It slapped against the rocks, a loud, wet sound. He stared, his gentle expression freezing over. The wonder in his eyes was replaced by a different kind of light, a sharp, calculating gleam. My secret was out. My world shattered.

The next day, his colleagues arrived. He didn't look at me as they surrounded my cove with nets. He didn't say a word as they sedated me and lifted me from the water. He just stood to the side, avoiding my desperate gaze, silently permitting my capture. He had chosen his ambition over me.

I was taken to his research facility, a place of white walls and humming machinery. I was no longer Lyra, the creature he loved. I was a specimen, an unprecedented biological discovery. The first day, they took blood samples, tissue scrapings. Aris was there, his voice calm and professional as he dictated notes to his assistants. "Subject exhibits high cellular regeneration. Note the unique composition of the epidermis." He never used my name.

The second day, a woman named Isabelle Vance arrived. She was the daughter of the corporation's biggest funder, and she clung to Aris's arm like a beautiful, venomous snake. She looked at me through the glass of my new prison, a custom-built aquatic tank in the center of the main lab.

"So this is a little pet," she said, her voice sickly sweet. She tapped on the glass. "Can it do tricks?"

Later, she came by during my feeding time. As I reached for the piece of fish an assistant dropped in, she "accidentally" kicked the bucket, sending my meal scattering across the dirty floor outside my tank. She just giggled and apologized to the flustered assistant, her eyes locked on me with pure malice.

I tried to reach Aris. The tank had an underwater communication system, something he' d designed so we could talk. One night, I saw him alone in the lab, staring at a screen of my biometric data. I activated the speaker.

"Aris," my voice was hoarse. "Please. Why are you doing this?"

He flinched, his whole body going stiff. He looked at the tank, his face a mask of coldness. "You are a scientific anomaly," he said, his voice flat. "A new species. You don't belong in the world." Then, with a single click, he shut off the listening device. He cut me off completely. He had just called me a different species, a thing.

The day of the auction arrived. Two technicians in sterile suits came to my tank. They ran a series of checks, their instruments cold against my skin. Aris stood outside, watching.

"Make sure her vitals are stable. We need her in perfect condition for the auction," he told them, his voice devoid of any emotion. He was talking about me like a car he was about to sell.

He came to the tank one last time before they moved me. He stood so close I could see the tiny lines around his eyes, the ones that used to crinkle when he smiled at me.

"I'm doing this to protect you, Lyra," he said, his voice a low murmur. "The world isn't safe for you. This way, you'll be owned by someone who can provide the best security, the best care."

A bitter laugh escaped my lips, bubbles rising to the surface. "Protect me? You put me in a cage, Aris. You're selling me."

His face hardened. "It's too late for that now," he snapped, his voice sharp. "Accept it." He turned his back on me and walked away. The heavy laboratory door swung shut behind him, blocking out the light, blocking out the last piece of the man I once knew.