Echoes Sneak Peek: The Breathless

Note: This sneak peek was first provided in the Fall 2023 newsletter.

When people ask what Echoes of the Tides is about, I defer to a few key words: time travel, high-stakes, slow-burn romance, and mermaids.

But that is not entirely accurate. There are no mermaids. I use that word for simplicity’s sake, because the real answer is slightly more complex.

Echoes features a magical aquatic people who call themselves the Breathless. The Breathless were inspired by mermaids, but they are not mermaids.

Think of them as humans with adaptations to survive underwater. They have pointed ears, gills on their ribs, and webbing between their fingers. Where mermaids have a single tail, Breathless have two legs that each end in a fin.

But don’t worry, they’re not just naked people swimming around. They wear swimsuit-like garments made from sea silk, and parts of them are coated in scales.

Want to know more? Check out this excerpt from Echoes. (Disclaimer: this is a work-in-progress and subject to change.)

In this passage, Endryn Kingdotur (our main character) is comparing herself to her mother. 

In the blue light from the glow window, Idunn looked tired. Endryn didn’t miss the deepening wrinkles on her forehead, the hollows beneath her eyes, the frayed edges on her white body wrap. Still, her mother remained poised. Elegant.

Endryn had always wished she’d inherited more aspects of her mother’s personality—such as the quiet, gentle strength she displayed now—but their similarities seemed to stop at the physical. Looking at Idunn was like glimpsing her own future. She had her mother’s grey eyes, her wide hips and strong limbs, her brown hair and full cheeks.

Even their scale patterns were nearly identical.

On a macro level, there was uniformity in Breathless scales. Each was manta ray black and no bigger than a knife point, but they were tough, and together they provided a thick layer of protection. Idunn, like most women, was fully coated from her fins and hands, over her knees and elbows, to her thighs and upper arms.

But in the transition zone, in the space where scale met skin, there was variation. Individual expression. Asymmetry. Endryn’s didn’t match Idunn’s scale-for-scale, but from a few feet away, the resemblance was uncanny.