Magic was everywhere. More precisely, energy was everywhere. Those who were born with the ability to use energy to create the miraculous could always find what they needed in the world around them. But power, true power, could only be found in the Earth’s nexus points that were scattered across the planet along ley lines forgotten by all save a few.

Teran Dee, a 16-year-old Boston science nerd with dreams of open-water swimming, never expected a family vacation in Scotland to hurl her into a nightmare. When a whirlpool capsizes their tour boat in Scapa Flow, Teran swims to a lonely skerry—only for her seven desperate tears to trigger an ancient curse. Enter Luca, the brooding Prince of Finfolkaheem, summoned by her tears from his dazzling underwater realm in the Arctic’s Molloy Deep. The curse binds them: Teran must become his Finwife and bear a child within a year, or both their families perish.

Whisked to Finfolkaheem—a monster nautilus-shaped city of magic and tech, teeming with 300-year-old pirates and Titanic survivors—Teran’s got no intention of playing along. Armed with Boston grit and a snarky tongue, she’s hell-bent on escape. But magic swirls everywhere, and something’s shifting inside her. Could she wield power of her own? As Luca grapples with forbidden feelings for this defiant human, a sinister sea witch lurks, her motives and interest in Teran a mystery. With time ticking down, Teran must unravel the curse—or lose everything.