The Bride Below

By Mrs Amy Wertz

After years of being dismissed as talented but forgettable, painter Malaya Marcelli accepts a residency in a decaying coastal town, where a ruined cathedral above the sea promises solitude, history, and a final chance to create something that matters.

Instead, she hears singing beneath the stone.

In the flooded crypts below the cathedral, Malaya discovers a haunting mermaid who offers her everything she has ever wanted: transcendent art, immortal legacy, and beauty that will outlast death itself. But the bargain is merciless. The more brilliant her paintings become, the more of herself she surrenders.

As her work turns luminous, alive, and impossible to ignore, Malaya must choose between an ordinary life of obscurity-or a masterpiece paid for in blood, soul, and eternal captivity.

THE BRIDE BELOW is a gothic fantasy novel about artistic obsession, seduction, and the terrible cost of creating something eternal.

For readers of Mexican Gothic, The Starless Sea, Our Wives Under the Sea, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FPCCT9JQ
• ISBN13: 9798262953745
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 130 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"