Tidebound

She was never meant to be a hero. The sea had other plans.After a mutiny leaves her stranded on a deserted atoll, sixteen-year-old navigator's apprentice Mara Vega discovers two impossible things: a wounded mythical sea creature called a hippocampus, and a cryptic riddle-brand burned into her arm by her dying captain. When she bonds with the creature—a forbidden connection the empire has spent centuries trying to destroy—Mara becomes the most wanted fugitive on the ocean. Hunted by a relentless commander and his armored war-shark, she must cross treacherous waters, face ancient guardians, and unlock the secret of a sunken treasure that could free the seas forever—or doom them to eternal chains.The tide is turning. And the deep remembers.