(The title may change)

Hi guys, hopefully you remember me, it's Sorrel and I'm back for volume two. If you're new to me and this story, this is a sequel, so if you like, have a read of Melody of the Ocean, which I completed in 2016. It's been quite a while.

Last time we saw, Melody chose to live in the sea to be with Finn and her merfamily. They're now living together, as are Zafrina and Bay, and Ariel and Eric have had a baby boy, who's now a few months old. They get along just swimmingly and things are hunky-dory... how interesting, a story where nothing happens and we just see cute double dates between our lovey dovey couples? What's boring about that?

In all seriousness, here's the reality - picking up a year after Nia's defeat, Melody is now 18. Relationships and characters have evolved, but despite this, the scars from Nia are still fresh, and a dangerous task will make our four question themselves - and each other, while dark figures lurk in the background, threatening their journey and their lives along the way.

The artwork is entirely my own, a hand drawing of Melody and Finn - and Mel looks furious. There'll be a reason for that.

Anyway, buckle up. We're off on a journey...

Melody wandered over to the window - she called it a window, but to merpeople, it was a hole on the wall. A fond recall to a past life above the waves, Melody still used human sayings and terms to remind herself of it, even if it made her ocean relatives look at her in confusion. She missed it, but not terribly. She had reminders of it littered around her new home; from the books sealed by Triton's magic to stop the soaked pages disintegrating, to a few things Melody had asked her parents to retrieve from her bedroom, such as the prettiest stones and shells she'd collected over the years.

She gazed out across the seabed, ocean blue eyes soft with fatigue. Rays of silver streaked through the seawater, illuminating the sea floor. At first she thought it was empty, but then an arrow flew through the space, striking a rock column, where it embedded in a crack. At first she was disturbed by memories of a bow-wielding mermaid, but then she saw a familiar mint-green tail. Someone pulled the arrow out of the rock column, running a finger on the arrow tip.

"Nice shot!" Called a distant voice. Zafrina laughed and turned, fingers briefly twirling a piece of his blonde hair. She took the bow from Bay, and said something to him that Melody couldn't hear, in a warm voice was tinged by the accent of her father's native kingdom down south.

Bay rolled his silver eyes playfully, before looping his arm with Zafrina's, and they swam out of view. Zafrina and Bay were more nocturnal than anything. They slept in late and stayed up late. They had no daylight priorities, so why not, was their excuse. Melody smiled to herself, before she twirled a piece of hair in her fingers, fingernails searching for split ends. She glanced back, noticing how the moon briefly illuminated the scarring on Bay's upper tail; proof of where he'd been savagely bitten by a sea serpent over a year ago.

Scarring... their battle had left more than one, as in the next few minutes, she was to be made aware of. But for now, she reflected on other things.

Melody turned away from the window, breathing in seawater, head leaned back. She loved her new home - she and Finn had a small network of about three caves connected by tunnels for their new home, near Zafrina and Bay's own living space. The entrance was framed by thick seaweed 'curtains', as was the 'window'. Their bedroom was simple, with a few things about. A vase, given as a house - or cave-warming - gift from one of her aunts, Aquata. A chair, pretty things, alongside the human possessions Melody owned.

A square of rock, like a cabinet, held some possessions; pictures, Melody's locket when she took it off to sleep, a few rings she'd started wearing, and Finn's mother's knife, all he had of her. Melody's parents were one picture, with a month-old Florian in Ariel's arms, and Max just underneath, the picture being a few weeks before the faithful old english sheepdog had died peacefully in his sleep. That had been an upsetting time, and she missed him.

And yet she truly belonged here, even if there had been a few bumps in the road since she'd been turned into a mermaid by Triton. He had seemed under the weather lately, both a little ill, and worried about something. No matter how many times they had crept into the palace, they'd never overheard what was worrying him, but he was Triton - he'd bounce back. When he'd met Florian at the christening, he'd been just like his old self...

The past year had been the brightest time of her life; she was relishing life in the sea - life was good. Over the past year, she'd grown stronger. It seemed as though natural merfolk seemed to have enhanced stamina, durability and physiologies, likely from life in the ocean. Melody was finally catching up - she could even beat Zafrina in an arm-wrestle on a good day, and Zafrina was probably the strongest mermaid she knew.

But it wasn't all seamless. The minutes were up.

Melody lifted her head, listened briefly, before shrugging and refocusing on the picture of her family. She ran a fingertip around the edge of the frame, the picture made possible by the trident's magic. Her heart warmed, but before she could look at Florian, she realized she'd heard something the first time.

"Go... away." Muttered a voice. Melody looked over her shoulder - she had thought she was just hearing things. But then he said it again, muffled under the covers. "Go away..." Melody blinked, and placed the frame down.

"Finn?" She asked, perplexed. He was concealed from her view, so she moved away from the window, and gently pulled back the covers, so not to disturb him. Her eyebrows knitted together into a frown. He was flinching, his head turning this way and that, occasionally slowly, then twitching rapidly from left to right. His hands were clenched into fists, gripping the covers so that his knuckles turned white, and his tail fins twitched. When she outstretched a hand to feel his face, it was cold. She pulled her hand away quickly, heart suddenly beginning to thud against her chest. Should I wake him up?

Finn's eyes moved rapidly behind his eyelids. His eyebrows were creased with fear, a muscle contracted on his throat, and his breathing was fast and shallow. "Finn..." Melody whispered, her hand on his arm, but he didn't wake.

"Get away from her..." Me? Zafrina? His mother? Finn had only ever been close to three females in his life, but something told her it was herself. "Nia... leave her alone..." his voice rose, as she froze in horror at the memory, of seeing Nia turn her bracelet thrice in hand, and then, a few days later, of her crushing it into oblivion with a rock in her dying moments. Melody had almost died. Finn was dreaming of the queen, the seawitch who had murdered his mother, Merissa - Nia's own sister - when he was just five years old.

She had to wake him up.

"Finn... Finn!"

Suddenly Finn's eyes flew open and he jerked, sat bolt upright, frantically scrabbling backwards so his spine was pressed against the wall; he was still immersed in his vision. Melody sprang away, the hairs on her neck on end, nails digging into her palms. He eventually looked at the sound of his name, eyes reflecting Melody's in the dark.

Consumed by what he'd seen, terrorized, he looked close to tears. Finn's lean torso shuddered as he breathed heavily, and his veins had risen around the simple flame-outlines tattooed on his biceps. They had been a mandatory thing Nia had demanded of her warriors, to have at least one tattoo to be identifiable as her own - Finn especially hadn't been able to escape, being her nephew.

"Mel?" Finn was pushing his hair away from his face, the terror fading as he realized that it was only a nightmare. When Melody embraced him, she felt his heart thrashing against her ribs like a caged bird. He clung to her, eerily cold.

"It was only a dream. It's not real." She whispered into his hair, while Finn covered his face with his hands, trying to escape the memory. Melody then pulled away, placing her hands on the sides of his face; over the past months he'd grown stubble, darkening his jaw and around his mouth. His dark brown hair, which fell about two inches past his jawline, was messy, and she had to brush it out of his eyes. She searched the sea-green depths of his irises; they were filled with a fear she hadn't seen in months, and it frightened her.

"I saw her, Melody... she was here..." his eyes flickered from side to side, as though expecting Nia to jump out at them. Melody was disturbed.

"She's dead, Finn. She can't hurt you anymore." Finn blinked at her, as if confused by her words. He covered her hands with his own, where they were still placed on his face, and closed his eyes.

Had Finn not killed Nia, Melody wouldn't be here. Finn didn't feel that guilty - Nia had killed his mother, she'd been cruel to him; he had been raised to hurt without feeling the guilt. But even so, he'd never killed anyone until then, and the image of a dying Nia, laughing like a maniac as she'd destroyed Melody's bracelet - the thing that had allowed her to switch between being human and mermaid, before the change had been made permanent - couldn't escape his mind. Finn pulled away, one hand buried in his hair. Melody sat at the bedside, stroking his free hand.

"Again?" The word echoed throughout the stone walls. Finn, his arms wrapped around his tail, looked away, as if ashamed. Melody's fingertips strayed to her lips, she was uncertain what to do, what to say. "You haven't been sleeping well recently. You mutter, you toss and turn... why haven't you told me they're about Nia? Have they been about her the whole time?" Finn looked back at her, darkness pooling under his eyes. His trouble sleeping had taken its toll.

"Not all her... Otan, Ontari..." Melody shivered at the memory of them. Otan had once turned the caramel skin of Zafrina's throat black when he'd ambushed her and trapped her neck in his iron grip. Zafrina had used the trident to burn his face beyond recognition in return. Ontari was responsible for a scar that ran diagonally on the side of Finn's left ribcage, an arrow that had sheared four inches of darkness into his olive skin.

"But... they were her right-hand merfolk. It's all linked." She ensured to place emphasis on 'were', to remind Finn they were gone. Otan had been disintegrated into ash by the trident, and Ontari was currently imprisoned in Attina's kingdom-by-marriage of Delorea, having turned to crime following Nia's death. They'd trained viciously alongside Finn and Bay growing up.

"I don't know why, why now, of all times. It's been over a year... they should be going away, not getting worse." Finn had been troubled by nightmares ever since settling in Atlantica. At first he'd brushed them off, thinking they'd go, but they kept happening. Never had he said Nia's name until now.

"What happens in them?" Melody pressed, but he didn't answer her, avoiding eye contact. She lifted his chin, forcing him to meet her gaze. "Are you sure you don't want to talk to Chandra about it?" Chandra dealt with delicate matters of the mind. Alana had felt low following the birth of Zafrina's sister Zoe, but Chandra had been there to help. Maybe there was something she could do for Finn?

"No, I don't want..." Finn hesitated to tell Melody this - he was afraid of how Chandra would perceive him. Sebastian the crab wasn't fond of Finn and didn't seem to trust him, although he didn't mind that so much; Finn enjoyed calling him 'Seb' to annoy him in response. But he wasn't alone - several of Melody's cousins hadn't done much to get to know Finn and Bay, and Andrina was particularly nervous around them after she'd been viciously pursued by Nia's forces last year. Only Triton, Ariel and Eric, and Zafrina's family seemed to trust and even like him. Anyone else was polite, albeit uneasy.

"Why not?" Melody pleaded. "Please. I want to understand..."

"I can't bear the thought of her giving me one look and sending me away. What if the fact that I dream about... about them... my past... makes her suspicious or feel threatened? All my life I've been hissed at, chased by strangers - because of where I come from. If they'd known me and Nia were related... but that doesn't matter now."

They'd all sworn not to tell anyone, but somehow, someone had found out he was the nephew of a murdering tyrant. Strangers looked uncomfortable in his presence, even afraid. Melody felt her heart twist, for she realized what made Finn so reluctant to talk to someone about Nia and his past.

"She's not like that. But... I won't force you." Her eyes moved to his. Unable to resist, she pressed her lips to Finn's. His eyes slid shut briefly, and when she pulled her face away, his eyes had opened to a translucent, dream-like quality. She curled up alongside him, her head nuzzled against his throat. Melody's cheek rested on his chest, fingers interlacing with his. "Go to sleep... we'll talk about this some other time." She murmured into his skin. Finn lay awake for a little while, but then Melody's breathing slowed and lulled him to sleep, the rhythm he fell asleep to every night.

She had only slowed her breathing to fool him into thinking she was asleep. Melody lay awake, her free hand placed over his heart, her mind racing as fast as his heartbeat.