Marrying My Cheating Ex's Comatose Uncle

Aiyana POV:

On the day I was supposed to marry Gideon Glass, my adopted sister, Cristal Burks, was moaning his name behind the doors of my bridal chamber.

"Darling... your Brow Scale is glowing. If Aiyana sees you rutting me on her wedding bed, she'll lose her mind..."

I had not even reached the doors when Cristal's breathless voice carried into the corridor. Beyond the arched windows, the black ocean pressed against the luminous Tidal Bubble surrounding our city. Inside its dry protection, we merfolk walked on human legs instead of tails.

My steps stopped. The heavy skirt of my white sea-silk wedding gown settled around my feet as another sound came from inside-the wet, rhythmic slap of bare flesh.

A sickeningly sweet scent seeped through the narrow opening. Deep-sea blood-algae incense. An aphrodisiac favored by Inner Atoll nobles.

I reached the door without making a sound and pushed it open another inch.

Dim light spilled out, followed by ragged panting and the violent creak of the coral bed.

My breath caught in my throat. I bit my bottom lip hard enough to taste blood and pressed my eye to the gap.

On the carved coral wedding bed, two naked bodies writhed together. Gideon's broad back was unmistakable. Beneath him, Cristal's light chestnut hair tangled across the pillows, while the silver seal of House Gould hung from her discarded belt. My adopted sister-the woman who had stolen credit for my healing potions for years-was fucking my fiancé on my wedding bed.

Cristal dragged her fingernails down Gideon's back. "You keep mocking her, but she survived the Outer Shoals. What if she expects to follow you into the open sea after she becomes your wife?"

Gideon laughed against her neck. "She survived because she stayed inside one of the dry Tidal Bubble cities and walked around on human legs. Aiyana has no Tide-Spirit. The moment she crosses the barrier, she cannot grow a tail or open her gills. Without a sealed submersible coach, she would drown like any human."

"Then why marry her at all?"

"Because House Glass requires it," Gideon grunted. "She will be my wife in name only. She will never share my bed, wear my family's ring, or stand beside me before the court. Those privileges belong to you."

My fingernails dug deep into my palms, yet no tears came.

The ash-gray Brow Scale embedded in my forehead marked me as Spirit-less, while my bare fingers carried no Tide-Oath Ring to grant me rank, inheritance, or even a legal voice. Gideon had not bothered to give me so much as the cheapest bronze betrothal ring.

He had mistaken my lack of power for a lack of spine.

One corner of my mouth curled into a freezing smirk.

Crying like a wronged bride would only give Cristal the show she wanted. I quietly eased the door back into place, sealing the lovers inside, and turned toward the heavy bronze wall lamp beside the bridal chamber. It burned with deep-sea phosphor fire harvested from the high-pressure trenches-a blue flame that even seawater could not extinguish.

I lifted the cold bronze lamp from its bracket and tilted it toward the doorframe. The blue phosphor flame caught the hanging siren-gossamer curtains. Like starving vipers, the fire shot up the lintel, casting blue shadows across my expressionless face as thick smoke drowned out the aphrodisiac incense.

I hurled the bronze lamp onto the marble floor with an ear-splitting crash.

"Fire! The bridal chamber is on fire! Somebody help!"

Inside the room, the rhythmic creaking stopped, replaced by Gideon's panicked curses and Cristal's muffled shriek.

An alarm conch began to howl through the estate. Footsteps thundered toward me from both ends of the corridor as servants and Perimeter Vanguard guards rushed to the chamber carrying rune-woven fire blankets and urns of smothering trench sand.

I caught the nearest ceremonial attendant by the arm and shoved her toward the stairs.

"Lord Gideon is trapped inside! Fetch First Madame Caro!"

The attendant fled, screaming for help. I stepped into the shadows as the guards surrounded the burning doorway. Moments later, heavy footsteps struck the marble stairs. Gideon's mother, Caro Levine, appeared in a velvet gown, her face twisted in terror for her only son.

Aiyana POV:

Caro clutched her heavy velvet skirts and stumbled up the marble steps to the burning doorway, the cerulean Brow Scale on her forehead flickering wildly with panic.

"Gideon! My son! Smash the door down, don't let the fire touch him!"

She waved her red-lacquered fingernails in the air, losing all her usual poise as First House Madame. Four Perimeter Vanguard guards-warriors who normally rode bone-crusher sharks outside the city bubble to stop abyssal demons from puncturing our dome-stepped forward in pearl-shell armor and swung a massive basalt battering ram at the phosphor-lit stone doors.

Standing hidden behind a shadowed pillar, I watched the guards heave.

With a deafening boom, the vine-carved stone doors tore off their hinges and crashed inward, sending up a cloud of black smoke. Caro, her husband Brody Glass, and dozens of Inner Atoll wedding guests surged toward the threshold.

Everyone expected a tragedy, but as the air-current vents sucked the smoke away, the scene inside made several noblewomen gasp.

The flames had only burned the outer doorframe. On the wide coral bed, Gideon was stark naked, clutching a sea-silk quilt over himself and the woman beneath him like a pair of startled volt-rays. The hall fell dead silent save for the low hum of the Hydrosun overhead, every eye fixed on the shredded female undergarments littering the floor.

"Gideon... what are you doing? Is that lowborn Aiyana under there?" Caro's voice trembled as she tried to pin the blame on me to save face.

Gideon poked his sweaty head out, his eyes darting across the crowd. "Mother... fire... someone yelled fire..."

"Even with a fire, how dare you rut in broad daylight before the vows! You have disgraced House Glass!" Brody roared, his face livid as he assumed the woman was me.

Under the stifling quilt, the woman squirmed for air, revealing light chestnut hair and a tear-streaked, delicate face.

A Countess in the front row pointed a shaking finger. "That isn't Aiyana! That is Minister Gould's adopted daughter, Cristal Burks!"

Caro froze as if struck by lightning. Her proud son was bedding his fiancée's sister in the bridal chamber on his wedding day.

"No... it isn't what it looks like... Darling, save me..." Cristal clutched the quilt to her chest, tears spilling down her cheeks as she played the victim.

"Shut up, you shameless counterfeit!" Caro lunged forward and swung her heavy crystal-bracelet-clad wrist, slapping Cristal across the face.

"Mother, don't hit her!" Gideon shoved Caro back and shielded Cristal in his arms. "She is pregnant! She is carrying my child!"

The hall erupted into chaos as nobles whispered and sneered openly. Caro swayed on her feet, while Brody pointed a trembling finger at his son, speechless with rage.

I stepped out from the pillar's shadow, my white sea-silk gown glowing under the blue coral lamps. The crowd parted automatically until I stood at the shattered threshold, looking down at the naked pair on the bed.

"It seems my bridal chamber is a bit crowded."

Gideon's face drained of color. "Aiyana... listen to me, she seduced me..."

Cristal stared at him in disbelief before clutching her stomach and wailing. "Aiyana, I didn't mean to! Gideon and I truly love each other!"

"Truly in love?" I laughed coldly and held up my bare right hand, devoid of even a bronze betrothal ring. "Your love is so noble that you had to conceive a bastard on my wedding sheets. You make me sick, Gideon."

I untied the cheap silver seashell token from my waist-the shabby betrothal gift Gideon had tossed me-and whipped it straight at his face.

The sharp shell sliced his forehead, drawing a line of blood. "I, Aiyana Gay, annul this betrothal before the entire court!"

Caro shrieked, pointing at me. "You wild bastard from the Outer Shoals, what right do you have to annul anything? It's your fault for failing to keep your man!"

I snapped my head toward Caro, my cold glare making the First Madame flinch half a step back.

"My right? I am the trueborn blood of House Gould, while your son is a rutting beast who cannot keep his breeches on!"

Leaving Caro choking on her fury, I lifted my hem and strode toward the opposite end of the corridor. I had no intention of leaving House Glass in disgrace. Ahead lay the estate's most sacred forbidden ground-the Sea Burial Sanctuary of Corbin Glass, the fallen High Lord of Tides. Before his supposed death, Corbin had been the empire's supreme military commander, wielding absolute authority over its elite merfolk cavalry legions and the defense of every realm.

By the time I reached Corbin Glass's mourning hall, a far better plan had already taken shape in my mind.

If House Glass insisted on holding a wedding today, I would give them one-just not with Gideon.

Aiyana POV:

I stopped before the towering basalt doors of the Sea Burial Sanctuary, where carvings of ancient leviathans radiated a suffocating pressure. Behind me, the wedding guests followed like bone-crusher sharks scenting blood, whispering at my back.

Ignoring them, I braced both hands against the stone and shoved the heavy doors open with a low rumble.

Inside, there was no warm Hydrosun-only eternal blue phosphor lamps illuminating a massive white jade altar in the center. There was no corpse on the altar, only a set of shattered platinum armor stained with dried black blood, and a dull obsidian-platinum Tide-Oath Ring.

Those were the relics of the empire's supreme military commander, the High Lord of Tides, Corbin Glass. Three days ago, while blocking an abyssal demon horde at the Northern Frost Bastion, he had plunged into a crushing deep-sea trench, leaving no body behind.

Beside the altar stood the head of House Glass, Duke Reginald, and his wife, Duchess Eleanor, dressed in mourning black.

My intrusion broke the silence. Eleanor raised her bloodshot glacial-blue eyes, while Reginald's voice boomed with a Warlord's authority.

"Aiyana? Why are you trespassing in the hall of the dead instead of marrying in the First House? Get out!"

Instead of retreating, I lifted my white skirts and walked up the white jade steps until I stood right before the bloodstained armor.

"Your Grace, Lord Gideon just got my adopted sister pregnant on my wedding bed."

Murmurs rippled through the guests at the door. Reginald's jaw tightened as his face turned iron-gray. "I will settle that score with Brody's family, but that gives you no right to storm this sanctuary!"

"I came here to fulfill the marriage alliance between House Glass and House Gould." I met Reginald's gaze without blinking.

"The betrothal is ruined," Eleanor said wearily. "What more do you want?"

"Who says it is ruined?" I turned toward the obsidian-platinum ring on the altar. "Gideon is unworthy, so I will marry the High Lord of Tides, Corbin Glass! I will become his widow, the Fourth Madame of this house!"

Gasps echoed from the doorway. Eleanor's eyes widened in shock. "Have you lost your mind? Corbin has returned to the sea! Marrying his tablet means guarding an empty chamber for three hundred years, forfeiting any chance of a Fated Mate at the Royal Cathedral!"

"Being an Outer Shoals outcast has brought me nothing but humiliation," I replied, each word crisp and cold. "I would rather be a dead Sovereign's Duchess than a living Viscount's joke."

Reginald narrowed his eyes, studying me closely. "You want the title of Duchess to crush the First House, yet why should we agree?"

"Because the High Lord died unmarried and childless," I said rapidly. "Under High Council law, his fiefdoms and Mana-Crystal quotas-the deep-sea energy stones that serve as our empire's currency and life force-will be reclaimed by the crown. As his lawful widow, I can hold his estate together for House Glass. You need his wealth, and I need his rank."

Silence fell over the sanctuary. Reginald and Eleanor exchanged a heavy look.

"Even if there is only a cold ring left?" Eleanor's voice trembled.

"Even if there is only a ring."

Before the watching nobles, I reached out and picked up the bloodstained obsidian-platinum Tide-Oath Ring. Pulling a sharp silver hairpin from my coils, I pricked my fingertip and let a drop of crimson blood fall onto the dead metal.

A dead ring taken from another should never respond, yet the moment my blood touched the platinum, a faint gold-violet crest flared inside the band!

Eleanor gasped, covering her mouth. "The Deep Mother bears witness... his ring accepted her blood!"

"Since the ring has claimed you," Reginald declared, his voice ringing over the hall, "from this hour forth, you are Corbin's wife, the Fourth Madame of House Glass!"

I slid the loose obsidian-platinum ring onto my right ring finger, the cool metal steadying my racing pulse. Just as I turned to face the stunned crowd, frantic footsteps pounded down the outer corridor.