Adeline was birthed in the ocean. Twenty years ago, her Ascent Storm raged for thirty hours, battering the navy sea and churning white crests of waves into the inky black sky. Her mother held her body close for only a moment before they were pulled into the depths below. Her father had to choose. His wife or his child.
He chose wrong.
It is the origin of all Virtues to be born in an ocean storm. To come into the world the way they leave. Screaming. Voices drowned by the power of the crashing waves.
Adeline’s parents were only young. Like all Virtues and Sirens younger than thirty, they were supposed to be protected by the Truce of a Thousand Tides. But in the watery gap of the world between England and France, they were taken from Adeline.
It is a Siren’s nature to lie. To cheat. To kill. Adeline would never know which wicked beast had killed her parents but it didn’t matter. They were gone all the same.
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When the Gulf clan plucked her out of the shore break, small body cold and silent among the salty sea spray, they swore they would protect her like their own. Her emerald green tail revealed her as a daughter of the Delta. Yet, it was too dangerous to return her to her people. The Gulfs would keep her safe in a world created to tear her apart. If only Adeline had listened to their warnings as she grew.
Shopkeepers Maggie and Dennis welcomed her into their beach side home with its tall windows and European Oak floors and endless laughter. They had already handled twin babies, Samuel and Sara, who were four when Adeline arrived. So, it was decided that they would also be able to handle their newborn, Simon, while raising the orphan babe. It would be good for the newcomer to have some family, the Elders of the Gulf reasoned. To feel a connection to people with the flaming orange scales.
Adeline grew up on Glacier Isle with her five adoptive siblings, hair bleaching in the sun, skin tanning, and eyes always watching the horizon. Something told her that the Siren who killed her parents would not be contented until she was gone, too. Something told her that her involvement in the Tide Wars had only just begun.