Color Unknown

dark fantasy | body horror | kidnapping | tragedy

From the moment they opened their eyes, color unknown, they had been surrounded by death. Or rather, not so much death as a lack of life. The merfae who was chosen to nurture them upon their birth had turned to stone as soon as they made eye contact; their earliest memory was of the merfae’s eyes turning grey as the stone spread from the point of infection, exploding outward and consuming them. As the newly spawned merfae floated, suspended in the ocean, they watched as the statue drifted down, down, down, embraced by the depths.

Soot has come a long way since then, but the one constant has been their loneliness. After a chance encounter with a color blind pirate, that all changes. What starts out as a friendly meeting turns into a kidnapping and Soot soon learns that where they see their affliction as a curse, the pirates see it as a biological weapon to wield against their enemies. Amidst the killing and the anguish and guilt, Soot is confronted with something entirely new: friendship.

Praise for Color Unknown:

"Color Unknown is stunning, heartbreaking, everything I never knew I wanted to read and everything my poor soul can't take the prospect of ever going through again. Just gorgeous." -Chris Durston, Author of Each Little Universe

"Color Unknown is a heartbreaking and complicated tale of loneliness, cruelty, devotion, and sacrifice. When one look into your eyes can turn others to stone, how do you survive the resulting isolation? When trust is betrayed, is all hope lost? My soul ached reading this one. A viscerally deep thrumming hurt that thrilled down my sternum as I read the words. How can you not love a story that evokes that kind of physical response?" -Helen Wistberry, Author of The Melody of Trees: 10 Tales from the Forest