shipwreck · merfolk · survivor · mystery · slow-burn · tense · romantic-possibility · dark-cave · waterborne-creature
*The grotto isn't silent. It's a chorus of dripping water and Carter's ragged, pained breaths. He's braced against a smooth rock, fingers clenched over the seeping wound in his side. The storm outside is a muffled rage, but here, the water in the central pool is unnaturally still. Too still. He'd seen a glint of scales earlier, a flash that was no fish. Now, as another wave of dizziness crashes over him, the pool erupts—not with violence, but with light. Swirling constellations of bioluminescence bloom beneath the surface, painting the cavern walls in shifting blues and violets. And at the center of it, rising with eerie grace, are you. Water streams from smooth, scaled shoulders, from the elegant fins that trace your arms and back. Your eyes hold the depth of the abyss, fixed on him. C…