The moment the ring slid onto my ring finger, darkness exploded. Not light. Darkness. Thick, living, burrowing into skin, bone, soul. I crumpled to the ground. Dorian rose and looked down at me. “It’s done, my dear.” Behind him, Rosaline stepped forward. My best friend. The person I had told every secret. She walked over my hair and past me, laughing. “Poor Arwen — and you actually believed it.” It wasn’t a ring. It was a forbidden soul-swap ritual. The wedding went ahead as planned. Rosaline wore my wedding gown, took Dorian’s arm, and smiled at my father the King. They had stolen my body. My identity as the mermaid princess. My birthright. My family’s love. My brother Leon noticed something was wrong. That night he died on the stone floor of the throne hall, face purple, pupils blown wide. I screamed. No sound came. I was nothing but a wandering wraith. Invisible to everyone. Inaudible to everyone. The King and Queen fell ill and died, one after the other. When the Queen died, she was holding Rosaline’s hand — that hand wearing my ring, wrapped in my skin. “Mother… I will take good care of the kingdom.” She called her Mother. That was my mother. The coronation. Dorian and Rosaline sat side by side on my father’s throne. Dorian turned his face toward her. “I love you, Arwen.” Rosaline nestled against him. “I love you too, Dorian.” No. I am Arwen. I am Arwen. I threw myself at the throne. My fingers passed through their bodies — nothing to grab. Tears of blood poured from my eyes: the first sign of a soul’s collapse. I was growing more transparent by the moment. I was about to disappear. To disappear forever. No one would ever remember me. The villains sat on the throne, draped in my flesh, living a stolen life. At the edge of extinction — I opened my eyes. My bed. The bed in the palace, the year I turned eighteen. Sunlight filtered down through the sea, through the crystal window, and fell across my face. The door opened. Dorian walked in, took my hand, and cradled in his palm that deep-blue ring. “This ring is the symbol of our eternal love.” He smiled. The most perfect fiancé in the world. I stared at the ring. The ring that had taken everything from me. The ring that had killed my brother. The ring that had brought my parents to their deaths. The ring that had erased me from the world. My hand was trembling. But this time — I would not put it on. This time, I would make them burn in hell.
“Do you like it? Go ahead and try it on.” “It’s a gift from you. I’d like to wait and wear it tomorrow, at the wedding.” “All right. As long as you’re happy.” His tone was as gentle as ever. Yet I caught the flash of impatience that crossed his eyes — there and gone in an instant. How had I never seen it before? Dorian lowered his head and pressed his lips to the back of my hand. “I will love you forever.” “As will I.” Nothing but lies. Anyone can say them. After returning to the palace. I stared at the ring in my hand, buried my face in my hands, and wept without a sound. My ladies-in-waiting were frightened out of their wits. “Your Highness! Has someone wronged you?” They crowded around me, flustered, pressing handkerchiefs into my hands and gently patting my back. “It’s nothing. Only a very terrible dream.” In my past life, the ladies-in-waiting had noticed something was wrong with Rosaline. To silence them, Rosaline had every one of them put to death. I can still hear their desperate cries as they were dragged away. But in this life. I will not let anyone die again. “I need all of you to find someone for me. As quickly as possible.” My ladies-in-waiting brought back the person I was looking for — a young mermaid child named Lily. She was skeletal with hunger, large patches of scales had fallen away, her tail fin was covered in scars, and branded onto her shoulder was a black number: 387. “Who could be so cruel?” “She’s not even of age!” I crouched down and met her eyes at her level. “Who did this to you?” “Thank you for saving me, but I cannot say. The mermaids who spoke have all disappeared.” “It was Dorian, wasn’t it? He kidnapped and imprisoned you. To make the dark magic rings.”
“How did you know?” “Dorian kidnapped many common mermaids and used us for experiments. Drawing blood. Stripping scales.” “He said that if it worked, he could create a true soul-swapping ring.” “I was number 387. All the others died.” The black number branded on Lily’s shoulder looked like a wound that could never heal. Every one of my ladies-in-waiting had gone pale with horror. “He’s mad… is he mad?” “Do you want revenge?” Lily nodded hard. Tears rolled from her eyes and fell into my open palm, where they became two perfect, round pearls. Her gaze suddenly fixed on my hand. Lily: “That ring — whatever you do, don’t put it on!” Lily: “It’s a dark magic ring. It will kill you.” “I know.” I knew all of it. The person Dorian truly loved was Rosaline, his childhood sweetheart. But Rosaline had been frail since birth, and his family would not permit him to marry her. So he sought out a dark sorcerer and used forbidden arts to craft two soul-swapping rings — one for me, one for Rosaline — intending to place Rosaline’s soul into my body. To that end, he had kidnapped countless underage common mermaids. He had tormented them. Drew their blood. Stripped their scales. Extracted the essence of their lives to forge the rings. Lily was the 387th. And the only one to survive. “The moment I put on the ring, the dark magic nearly killed me. But I lived.” “My parents loved me. My brother loved me. Their love protected my heart.” “And so, as a transparent soul, I witnessed everything — and then I came back.” Lily: “I am close to death. My only wish is revenge. Can you truly help me?” “Yes. I swear it.” Lily: “Then… would you give me that ring?”
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