What good is a fisherman's daughter who can no longer sail? After nearly getting eaten by a kraken, Solstice Lemayne has sworn off going anywhere near the sea.

Nobody knows that the kraken left her with a curse; a power over the sea in a land where magic is kept behind locked doors. Her parent's livelihood and her brother's military career would be in jeopardy if she didn't hide her new ability.

Under her mother's thumb, Solstice agrees to an arranged marriage with the town's blacksmith, a middle aged widower with several children. She'd rather go back to the kraken than have to go through with it. Especially once she meets a handsome stranger who's new in town, a mercenary captain with a ship who's living the kind of life Solstice had always wanted for herself.

But once foreigners invade their town, rebels from a kingdom that hates magic much more than her own, she has to flee for her life. The mercenary captain kidnaps her onto his ship, presumably for her own safety, but she isn't sure she can trust him. Leaving her family breaks her heart, but she knows they're safer if she's far away.

If only the family heirloom she guards-a dangerous talisman with great power-could be left behind, too. It will be much harder protecting the secret her family has kept for centuries while out in the big world, away from the anonymity of her hometown.

Solstice can't let herself enjoy being out at sea, using her magic, and developing feelings for a certain mercenary captain. She has to find a way to get back home, protect her family, and keep her family's talisman from falling into the wrong hands.