Pearl of the Abyss, Duke’s Long Wait

Nerida is the last royal Siren of the deep sea. When the Emperor’s Inquisitors slaughter her people and rip the scales from her tail, she escapes, broken and dying, onto the shores of the Sterling territory. Lady Beatrice, the Dowager Duchess, takes her in, names her Nerida, and grants her five years of sanctuary. But the Sterling family falls from grace. The Duke is exiled. His son, Tristan——once the proud Commander of the Imperial Knights——is thrown into the deepest dungeon of the Black Iron