A Tide of Salt and Ruin: Deep-Sea Dark Romantasy

She drowns for a living. He has been drowned for nine hundred years. Maren Voss dies every morning. One hour beneath the water, the sea makes room, then collects: an hour of sleep, taken nightly, for ten years. It's a curse she has learned to profit from. It's also an invitation she never knew she'd answered. When a nameless order hires her to loot the drowned court of a forgotten god-king, Maren discovers the palace is still lit, its household still waiting, and its king still alive. Chained to his throne by nine oaths of his own making, he doesn't want rescue. He wants a witness. Ancient law declares that only her voice can break the silence of nine centuries. Every hour she spends in his kingdom, he repays her curse with an hour of a god's endurance, granting her the first real sleep she has known in years. But her employers came searching for power, not history. The chains feed on desire. And somewhere beneath the ninth wave, a blade forged to sever impossible bargains has begun to wake. A slow-burn, closed-door dark romantasy of curses, bargains, yearning, and impossible devotion. Perfect for readers who enjoy: - Slow-burn fantasy romance - Morally gray immortal heroes - Underwater kingdoms - Gothic atmosphere - Ancient curses > Book One of The Drowned Court. Content notes: war, grief and loss, drowning imagery, captivity themes, coercive-contract themes. No explicit sexual content.