Nichole Giles, author of the Descendant trilogy, and the Water So Deep series, has lived in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Texas.
She is a fan of all things paranormal and magical, and her dreams include raising a garden full of fairies, riding a unicorn, and taming the pet dragon she adopted at a local Convention.
She loves to spend time with her grown children and two grand-babies, travel to tropical and exotic destinations, drive with her convertible top down—even when it rains—and play music at full volume so she can sing along.
Caspian is looking for his mother. Snatched from the beach as a child and raised as a half-breed Mer-Prince in the long-lost city of Atlantis, his turn to rule is coming fast. Caspian learns that the Mer in Oceania have found a method to visit land—a practice forbidden in Atlantis—and later return to the sea. Unfortunately, the “magic” method involves poison so potent that only half-breeds with undamaged lungs can survive it. When his Sea King father forces Caspian’s engagement to a mermaid he can’t stand, Caspian decides it’s time to go in search of his human roots, and the woman who gave him life.
Elise has nothing left to lose, except the house she grew up in and a beat-up classic car her father had intended to restore. While her friends leave home for college and abroad, she’s stuck waitressing at The Sea Turtle, begging for enough hours to pay her power bill, and using her lunch breaks to place flowers on her parents’ graves. Not only is she not looking for love—she’s not even looking for friendship. Loss is something she knows too much of, and she can’t survive any more. But when she finds a mysterious stranger wandering the cemetery, she takes pity on the pathetic soul and brings him to her work where she can feed him a solid meal.
The innocent meeting turns into an unbreakable bond, and sets off a chain of events that leaves them both questioning their place in the world—be it land or sea—and discovering just how essential love and family can be.
Snippet:
He swung into the cove, heart thudding with anxiety, and muscles bunching with frustration. This was no way to live his life. The sensation of being followed was not new or unusual to him, but hearing noises to substantiate the fear was a first. Breath tightening his chest, he listened at the thin, cave wall, and by the time his breathing evened out, decided he was being paranoid. He’d seen both birds and squirrels, along with the occasional stray neighborhood pet skulking around before.
James crossed to the ledge and secured the envelope under a heavy rock, next to the flower. Should he have written her a true love letter? He had zero experience in wooing a woman he couldn’t pursue in person, although, he also had zero experience being in love. “Pretty words aren’t necessary, right?” he asked the empty cave. “You already know, don’t you?”
“I do.”
James whirled, hope leaping into his throat, and then melting into panic at the sight of Emma’s best friend, Heather, standing barefooted on the sand. On Emma’s sand. In Emma’s cove. “You do what?” James croaked.
Her hands fisted at her side, and her face twisted into a vicious scowl. “I know you did something to Emma. You’re the reason she’s gone.”
James pressed his fingers to his eyes, shaking his head in a jumble of fear and anger. “We’ve been through this already. I love Emma. I would never do anything to hurt her. I miss her as badly as you do.” Worse, he was sure.
She stepped closer, inches shorter than him, but the fierce anger in her eyes sharp enough to cut down a ten-foot giant. “You were the last person to see her, to talk to her, and no one has seen her since. No trace of her has been found, except what you brought back with you. How can you have no explanation for where she’s gone if you weren’t part of her disappearance?”
“Because I don’t know!” he shouted. “Don’t you think if I knew I would be there too? Don’t you think if I knew, she’d be here right now?”
Another step toward him. “If she was still alive, Emma would be with her family. She would never let anything keep her from her brother.”
He swallowed a lump of pain lodged in his throat. “I know. I agree. You’re absolutely right. Still doesn’t make me guilty of anything. I would never try to keep her from Keith.”
Heather drilled a finger into James’ chest. “Tell me the truth. You killed my friend, didn’t you?”
