Plot Idea!!

- Sirens (most are cold and unfeeling)

- Main character Emilie is kind and so is her father (he’s gay but married her mother for beneficial purposes, she needed a husband to move up in the nobility and she is now the sea witch and he wasn’t allowed to marry a man, maybe his family or the court was against it??)

- Emilie is 17, and greatly favored by the king, who is about twice her age. She doesn’t want to marry him

- Emilie doesn’t have a singing voice (this is kept secret; only known by her family)

- Sirens have black, cold eyes and black markings on their bodies that are unique to each one

- A monster has begun to murder sirens during the nights

- Every night Emilie has terrible nightmares, but one night she is woken by a scream and finds herself grotesque, unrecognizable, and covered in blood whilst surrounded by bodies

- She freaks out, realizing she is the monster that everyone is torn between fearing and admiring

- She goes to the surface, with the hopes that she may die and leave the rest of her world in peace

- However, she instead turns into a human, she then wanders the streets, not daring to stop and rest in case she falls asleep, until she stumbles upon a poison master’s shop

- Inside she finds a boy not much older than her, he bumps his head while rushing to sit up and see who could possibly be by at the late hour

- He’s good looking but generally awkward and a bit of an adorable dork, not quite knowing how to act around people

- He gets curious about why a young girl with such haunted eyes would want poison, and overwhelmed by the fact that he cared and seemed kind, Emilie ends up telling him

- Alex, who is the poison master’s apprentice and son, was reluctant to believe her, but decided to stick around and make sure she stayed safe, he didn’t want her to hurt herself

- They walk back to the beach and while Alex hangs back, Emilie sits at the shoreline

- Her mother surfaces and tries to convince Emilie to return home

- Emilie refuses and tells her mother, “No! You don’t understand, it’s me! I’m hurting all those people!” She begins to cry but her mother responds with, “Oh dear, believe me, I know,” and smiles viciously before singing a note and making Emilie pass out.

- Emilie wakes up in a bubble underwater, still as a human and her mother confesses to her that she was originally one anyway, but that her father found her drowning after a ship was brought down by the sirens and couldn’t leave her there. The mother agreed, but didn’t tell him that the real reason was that she needed a test subject

- She used her powers to place markings on Emilie and transform her into a siren, however, Emilie never developed a siren’s singing voice

- She experimented with potions and spells on Emilie while she slept and changed her to be a powerful monster with a singing voice stronger than any siren’s ever

- Emilie’s father tries to help her escape but gets killed in the process (Emilie doesn’t find this out until later)

- The sea witch continues to hunt down Emilie until Emilie runs into Alex on a boat, who had seen and heard their conversation and set out to try and help her

- Emilie desperately tries to get him to leave but he’s stubborn and her mother catches up

- In her panic, Emilie accidentally activates her monster form thingy

- This time is different however because she is awake and aware, she has more control but still doesn’t fully comprehend it and in her battle to stop her mother she wipes out Alex’s boat and faints afterwards

- She wakes up on the beach with him

- Yeah I’m not quite sure on the ending, maybe she kills herself anyway, maybe they end up becoming closer since they barely know each other so far, maybe there’s a second book since the king might have some harsh feelings about his sea witch being killed and the woman he fancied leaving and becoming human

- Also the song Little Talks (the Julia Sheer and Jon D version) really fits with the end battle and just the story in general and makes me think of it. Like, Emilie frantically screaming at Alex to get out of there and then to not listen to her singing or having memories of the nights resurface in flashes

- Update: I think Emilie might sing to make Alex leave and then she dies with her mother? Maybe? Or, y’know, I could actually give them a happily ever after (but maybe just as friends, extra love-interest??)