I inhaled substance thicker than air, feeling the tickle of sea in my lungs before dispelling a gentle current through my lips.

I was more than human here.

I was amphibious. A sylph. A naiad.

Water surrounded my limbs, my hair danced in the gentle eddies, and the crushing perception of a million tonnes of ocean above me provided a roof even though no beams or thatch existed.

As my mind settled deeper into the illusion, everything exploded around me.

The colours.

The detail.

The depth of perfection that Sully had gone to in his cypher.

I sat in a crevice as big as a cathedral. An amphitheatre that looked born from molten lava that’d dried into cracks and pillars. Within the shadowy spaces of stone and sand rippled sea grass, anemones, and rainbow coral. Fish darted with sapphire, ruby, and amethyst fins. Dolphins zipped above, followed by the slow sailing of lazy turtles.

Nothing was ordinary or dull. No whites or greys of dying reefs in today’s polluted seas but vibrant neon splashes of sea flora and fauna. Every way I looked, the flashes of life glittered and mirrored.

Lionfish and banded snakes, red crabs and waddling lobsters, puffer fish and graceful seahorses.

I never want to leave.

Sully had outdone himself.

Just when I thought this fantasy couldn’t be improved upon, a creature that only existed in storybooks swam into the cathedral crevice where I sat upon a shell and fishbone throne.

A hippocampus.

With the head and front legs of a horse and the serpentine tail of a fish, the hippocampus had been one of my favourite childhood myths. Said to pull Poseidon’s chariot into storms, be able to control tidal waves and tsunamis, and breathe firewater like dragons, it was a beast of burden and an unrivalled aquatic monster.

I held out my right hand as the beast swam closer, his muzzle snuffling my hand, blowing a string of bubbles up my arm. Its scales shone with opalescent beauty, its finned mane floating around inquisitive ears, and his gemstone eyes begged me to settle upon his back and go galloping through seafoam and crashing waves.

A noise sounded behind the hippocampus, stealing my attention as I looked up. The motion was quick and my marine body—that’d been designed for water life and all the perils that came with it—reacted with poise and power, shooting me from my throne into a graceful hover.

I felt the sway of sea eddies. Kicking my legs, I found no obstruction. I flew in the sea with just a thought.

“Sully...” I murmured as my gaze fell on the man behind the hippocampus. A man who dropped to his knees the moment our eyes locked.

“He’s a gift.” Sully motioned at the half-horse, half-fish beside me. “A gift for a sinful favour.”

I sank back down to my throne, never taking my eyes off him. Whatever internet site or book Sully had garnered his inspiration from was exquisite.

He was exquisite.

Naked, he swam slowly toward me before kneeling at my feet again. His skin glittered with iridescent scales over the sides of his waist, down his thighs, and over his toes. Scales also crowned his forehead and down his neck, continuing over his shoulders to a few glistening prisms on his fingers.

His dark hair swayed in the water. His blue eyes looked like sapphire pearls ripped straight from giant oysters, and his voice rippled through the water like sonar. The perfect pitch to make my nipples harden and belly quiver.

“What favour do you seek?” I asked, my hands curling as lust poured through me. My left hand tightened around a trident I hadn’t noticed, its magic humming against my palm.

I looked down at my body.

What avatar had he given me?

What powers did he bestow?

He himself was a man dressed in scales. His legs were that of a land creature. His bare cock just as perfect as it was on shore.

But me?

He’d given me fins along my thighs and calves. My scales flickered with silvers, pinks, and golds. My toes were longer and webbed, providing effortless power in my new domain while my bare body was gowned in a dress made entirely of bubbles, foam, and the sparkles of effervescence, all distorting water until it cloaked around me in blues, greens, and light.

Sully’s throat worked as he swallowed hard, drinking me in while he waited by my feet. “You surpass her in every way.”

“Who? Who do I surpass?”

“The goddess I based you off.”

“Which goddess?”

“Amphitrite, the goddess of the sea. Immortal, conjurer of creatures, wife of Poseidon, and mother to seals and dolphins.”

I brought my hand to my hair, touching the crown of coral, shells, and starfish. I wanted to ask Sully so many questions. I wanted him to teach me how to use imagination to sketch a fantasy that exceeded any reality I could picture, but I also couldn’t deny the power ebbing in my veins. A supernatural gift, given to a goddess of the sea, that swept me from who I’d been as Eleanor and ensured I became whoever Sully said I was.

I was Amphitrite. I was better and worse and neither.

I was his version of a mermaid, and pure desire coursed through me.

I wanted him to touch me.

I wanted to make him beg.

I wanted this to be real. To truly have the ability to breathe salt and command mythical monsters like the hippocampus.

Dropping my trident to the seafloor, I swiped my hand through the water. “Stand. You don’t have to bow to me.”

“But I do.” Sully’s head fell even lower, his torso bending over his scaled leg where he kneeled. “I bow because if I don’t, I’ll beg.”

“Beg for what?”

“For your attention.”

“But you have my attention. You have all of it. I’m mesmerized by what you’ve created here.”

“And I’m mesmerized by you.” He lifted his head, his gaze flashing with shadows from the deep. “I’m mesmerized enough to take what I so desperately want. I’m drunk on your beauty, and I’m running out of control.” His hand drifted to his bare cock, fisting himself. “I bow at your feet because I’m desperate to fuck you. I’m achingly hard to have you. I’m going fucking insane with the need to call you mine.”

“I am yours.”

“Not yet, you’re not. Not until my cock is deep inside you. Only then will you be mine in all realms. Shore and sea.”

I shivered, bubbles popping on my effervescent dress.

His voice had sound waves that stroked me. His honesty and hunger made me wet and throbbing.

The role-play he’d promised—the merman he’d conjured who would beg at an empress’s feet—made me slip into my own charade. Cocking my head, sending my hair floating around my head in kelp strands, I floated down the sandy stairs to the ocean floor where he kneeled. “And you think you’re worthy of fucking me?”

“No.” He shook his head. “But it doesn’t stop me from asking.”

“You can ask, but you won’t receive.”

“Deny me and I’ll stop asking. I’ll just take.” He gritted his teeth, the flash of iridescent scales on his cheeks and neck gleaming in the sea. “I asked politely. I gave you a gift.” He waved at the opal-shimmering hippocampus. “I know I’m not royal blood, but I do know what you need. Let me fuck you, and I’ll give you the best fucking release of your life.”