Captain Elias Draven was once a master smuggler, cutting through the treacherous waters of Saltmarsh with skill and cunning. His ship, swift and true, carried fortunes in the dead of night—until the sea turned against him. Dragged to the depths in a storm no sailor could survive, he made a desperate bargain with the Drowned Mother, a power as vast and unknowable as the abyss itself. She spared his life, but at a cost—he is bound to her will, cursed to serve until his time runs out… and he knows not when that day will come.

Now, Elias sails with purpose, searching for the truth of what doomed his ship and how to break the chains of his accursed pact. A man of discipline and law among his own, he holds fast to the Smuggler’s Code, yet deception runs in his blood like salt in the sea. He’s a captain with a secret, a liar with a death sentence, and a man racing against time. Saltmarsh may hold the answers he seeks—but the deeper he digs, the darker the waters become.