Shadow in the Sea
by Sheila A. Nielson
Publication date: July 15th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publication date: July 15th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Synopsis:
When sixteen-year-old Sadelyn Hanson washes up on the shores of Windwaithe Island, her beauty and the strange marks on her wrist make superstitious locals suspect she is a mermaid. Feigning amnesia, Sade hides a far worse secret: she was sailing to her own murder trial when she was thrown overboard by the real killer, the cunning and cruel Captain Westwood.
Sade’s quiet effort to rebuild her life on the island is threatened when she meets an actual young merman. Unable to speak his language, Sade still longs for the warm companionship he offers, despite the locals’ dire legends about merfolk and their dark magic. But her confused feelings for the impossible boy become the least of her problems when Captain Westwood’s ship docks at Windwaithe. With nowhere to escape, Sade must trust in the one person who doesn’t fear the merfolk. A woman who had dealings with them herself—years ago.
Sade’s quiet effort to rebuild her life on the island is threatened when she meets an actual young merman. Unable to speak his language, Sade still longs for the warm companionship he offers, despite the locals’ dire legends about merfolk and their dark magic. But her confused feelings for the impossible boy become the least of her problems when Captain Westwood’s ship docks at Windwaithe. With nowhere to escape, Sade must trust in the one person who doesn’t fear the merfolk. A woman who had dealings with them herself—years ago.
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I forced myself to lift my head
and look around. The Bonny Mary was adrift, the towline having fallen
into the water when I dropped it. I was now a full twenty yards from shore and
drifting farther every second.
“No, no, no, no!” the horrified
words were wrung from me as I looked madly about for the oars. I caught sight
of them bobbing on the waves far ahead of the boat. I looked helplessly about
me. Only the sound of the ocean filled my ears. How was I supposed to get back
to shore? The ocean pulled at the Bonny Mary as if she were a piece of
driftwood.
Clawing at the water like a
panicked dog, I vainly tried to propel the boat towards shore with my bare
hands. It was useless.
“Help! Someone help me!” I
shouted at the deserted beach.
The whole boat jerked suddenly
beneath me. I was thrown forward and clutched at the gunwale for balance. The
boat stopped drifting. I could see the water rushing beneath its bow as if it
moved against the tide under its own power. Like a needle of a compass, the
boat’s nose turned slowly in a circle until she once again faced the Rumbles in
the same direction we just came from.
“What in heaven’s name…” I said
under my breath.
Out of the water just in front of
the bow of the Bonny Mary emerged the top of someone’s head. My mouth
gaping, I stared into a pair of dark eyes, fringed by a full head of
wet, corn silk colored hair. It was a boy—at least I thought it was. His
nose and mouth were still hidden beneath the shimmering surface of
the sea. He blinked. I caught my breath. Something wasn’t right. His
slightly slanted eyes, his pointed ears, they did not look quite—human.
The boy’s head and shoulders rose
from the sea, in one smooth movement. I gasped aloud as I finally got a
good look at him. He was without a doubt the most incredibly handsome creature
I had ever laid eyes upon.
The apparition looked like he was
almost a man, eighteen or nineteen perhaps, with skin the color of fine
porcelain and fair hair that shone with the same warm luster as cream colored
pearls.
Though they were dripping wet, I
could see his clothes were made of the finest material. A long sleeved, loose
fitting white shirt clung wetly against his powerful arms. Over the shirt he
wore a vest of the strangest cloth. In some lights it looked gold, in others a
shimmering green like the scales of a fish.
“Who are you?” I whispered in
awe.
As if in answer, the young man
lifted his hand from the water. Wound tight around his wrist was the lead line
of the Bonny Mary. He pulled back on it. The muscles along his arms
flexed and grew taut as the boat surged back toward shore. I clutched at the
gunwale, bracing myself against the sudden movement.
He’d come to save me.
The young man heaved himself
backward against the towline. A large, supremely golden fish tail broke the
surface of the water for a moment, stroking powerfully against the force of the
tide. It took me all of five
heartbeats to realize it belonged to my strange aquatic rescuer.
James had been right about the existence of mermaids
after all.
Sheila never did figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up. She graduated from college with a BFA in illustration, has worked as a children's librarian for over eighteen years, and would eventually like to be a full-time author. Why pick one career when you can have many? Sheila lives with her two pets, a goffin cockatoo and a tiny toy poodle. She was born and raised in California but has come to also love her adopted home in Utah where she currently resides.
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1 comments:
Sounds interesting. Thanks for the review.
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