11

Tessa

It rained hard that evening and on into the night. Luce was grateful for the awful weather; as long as the mermaids lounged around inside the cave they wouldn’t notice the yacht. Surely it would sail off soon?

Once everyone was asleep Luce slipped out, taking a sharp rock with her just in case the yacht was still there. She had the idea that she could scratch a message on one of the seats of that trailing motorboat, making the letters big enough that anyone who looked out from the yacht’s deck would notice. She swam slowly, trying to think up a warning that the crew would take seriously. She had the queasy feeling that Tessa might sometimes play practical jokes.

Even though she was swimming well below the surface of the water, Luce saw the yacht before she was anywhere close to it. A huge blob of glowing light wavered in the water ahead of her; the yacht was blazing with lamps in every window and large floodlights that shone down on the deck even in the pounding rain. There was a ruckus of drunken voices shaking up the quiet evening, and the thump of ugly music drowned out the soft rhythm of cresting water.

Luce was beside herself with rage. Why did they have to make such a clamor? Did these people want to die? At least the motorboat was still where she’d seen it last, swinging around with the rising waves. The currents were so strong tonight that swimming through them forced Luce into a kind of dancing motion, her body constantly adjusting to counteract the heavy push and pull. She was worried. She’d have to hold the boat with one hand while reaching far enough in with the other to gouge the paint on the seats, without either tipping it over or pulling her tail out for too long. She circled the little boat for a moment, wondering how to proceed, while the water popped all around her with the impact of the rain. No matter what she did, it was going to be tricky. At last she took hold of the side and peered in. Two inches of grayish rainwater slopped around the bottom, and there was a pile of old tarps Luce hadn’t noticed earlier. She’d decided to keep the message simple: GO AWAY NOW. She bent in as far as she could without putting too much of her weight on the side and began scratching the G. It was harder than she’d hoped, especially with the boat bucking around so hard. She was digging in with the rock, trying to ignore the slippery, repulsive sensation of fresh water pouring down her face, when something moved, and the tarps shuffled over . . .

Luce lurched backward, but the hand was already tight on her wrist, and Tessa’s face was wild and determined. If Luce yanked any harder, she’d just pull Tessa in with her.

“I knew you’d be back!” Tessa whispered fiercely. Ribbons of rain-drenched hair striped her face, one cheek lit up by the shine from the boat. They pitched dizzily together with the manic gesturing of the waves. “Do you know how bad you upset my mom? She thinks you drowned because we didn’t help you fast enough. She’s still crying about it.”

Luce didn’t answer. Her thoughts were in chaos: this definitely seemed like contact with humans, but on the other hand she hadn’t actually said anything, and she hadn’t touched Tessa on purpose either. A second human hand was gripping Luce’s arm now, and Tessa gave such a vicious tug that she almost overbalanced the boat.

“I think you owe my mom an apology,” Tessa snapped. “You’re going to come on board and tell her you’re fine. Okay? Why don’t you say anything?”

If Tessa was still talking about Luce coming on board, then she must not have seen Luce’s tail . . . That was a relief. But she had no idea how to make Tessa let go without drowning her, and for a second Luce felt tempted to do exactly that. In just a few minutes the problem would be completely gone. Tessa was squeezing her arm so hard it ached, and the throbbing bass from the yacht made her head hurt.

“Seriously,” Tessa insisted. “Seriously. Why are you acting like this? What’s your problem? I thought we could be friends, but not when you’re being so selfish!”

“Shut up!” Luce exploded. She was crying now, and she couldn’t control herself any longer. “Just shut up! If I was that selfish I’d kill you right now. It would be easy.”

Tessa looked shocked, but she didn’t let go of Luce’s wrist. Luce didn’t know whether to be impressed by her courage or infuriated with her stupidity.

“You’re the one who’s being selfish!” Luce added. “You’re making me break about fifty laws when I’m only here to warn you. At least you and your mom, if you can’t get anyone else to listen. Just steal this boat and get away!” Tessa was so surprised that her grip relaxed, and with a wrench Luce was free again, floating far enough from the boat that Tessa couldn’t grab her.

“What are you talking about?” Tessa squealed in exasperation. “What are you, anyway?”

“That’s a really rude question,” Luce snapped. The brilliant light from the yacht made the raindrops look like tiny bursting stars all over the black water. She was still half out of her mind with fury, both at Tessa and at herself. “What, you think everybody’s supposed to be human?”

For half a second longer they stared at each other, the only sounds the harsh thudding music, the slap of waves, and the sigh of heavy rain. Then Luce dove. It would have been easy enough just to slice straight down, keeping her body hidden, but from some mixture of defiance and heartache, Luce deliberately let her tail flick above the surface. No one would believe Tessa if she said she’d seen a mermaid, Luce knew. Not even her mother. Luce felt a little gleeful at the thought of Tessa trying to convince anyone of that.

And besides, it was too late anyway; she’d already ruined everything. Somehow the other mermaids would find out what she’d done and banish her, and even if they didn’t, Luce wasn’t sure she could live with the shame. The honorable thing would be to go ahead and expel herself from the tribe. Swim away tonight. She wouldn’t necessarily die. After all, Catarina had somehow survived a journey all the way from Russia!

Had Catarina been caught breaking the timahk by her first tribe? Luce realized she’d never heard any explanation of why Catarina had left the Russian coast. Suddenly Luce imagined that was it: Catarina’d been seen kissing some drowning human boy and cast out, and she’d swum across the Bering Sea in disgrace.

All at once Luce was overcome by exhaustion. Maybe, she thought, maybe it would be okay to sleep in her own little cave away from everyone, just for tonight. She could decide what to do in the morning.

She curled up against the cave wall to keep out of the rain that slashed down through the crack in the roof and sang herself to sleep. A new song, a dreamy song, made of sweet, spreading chords. It would have taken half a dozen great human singers all working together to try to copy it, Luce knew, and even then they couldn’t have come close.

***

Luce woke to brilliant sun striping the dimness of her cave. The water covering her was dotted and streaked with luminous green where the light hit it, and for a minute Luce lolled happily. She loved swimming on sunny days, watching the beams of golden light parting around her outspread fingers as if she were running her hands through long, shining hair.

Then she remembered the night before and sat up abruptly. The other mermaids would be out enjoying the sunshine, and they’d catch sight of that yacht in no time. Luce could only hope that the yacht had moved on, or at least that Tessa had persuaded her mother to run off. But how would that sound? “That girl came back, but she’s actually a mermaid, and she said we should get away . . . ”

And then there was the other problem: Luce had spoken to a human. She thought about the plan she’d made the night before of traveling down the coast alone and shivered. It wasn’t sharks and fishing nets that scared her as much as the idea of being so utterly lonely. How could she give up the only family, the only home she had anywhere in the world? Even if she lived, no one besides this tribe and her father had ever wanted her, and she couldn’t imagine that anybody else ever would.

But had she really broken the timahk? Luce told herself that she hadn’t planned to speak to Tessa, after all. Tessa had grabbed her and held her by force. There must be some kind of exception for cases where mermaids were taken captive by humans against their will, even if Catarina hadn’t mentioned it. And how was Luce supposed to make Tessa let go of her if she didn’t say anything? Luce deliberately suppressed the thought of the other way she could have forced Tessa to release her arm, but for a second the image pushed its way into her mind: Tessa’s enchanted face, her eyes wide in dark gray water, silver bubbles leaking through her lips . . .

Luce reminded herself of something else: Catarina had said that any human who heard the mermaids singing had to die. But Tessa hadn’t heard one note from Luce! That might be a big enough loophole in the timahk; it seemed possible now that Luce hadn’t done anything quite bad enough to deserve expulsion after all.

Luce still felt a little sick, but she decided to head back to the dining beach. She took a slightly out-of-the-way route and spotted the white yacht still sitting there. She didn’t see the motorboat anywhere, though, and her heart quickened with hope. Maybe Tessa and her mother had escaped in the night; maybe they were safe, talking and laughing in a diner somewhere over strawberry-topped waffles and coffee . . . Luce’s relief was suddenly mixed with an ugly stab of envy.

***

“There you are!” Catarina called. “Luce, I wish you wouldn’t go sneaking off like that. I get worried that something might happen to you.” They were all at the dining beach, as Luce had expected, nibbling their way through a lazy breakfast and soaking up the sun. It felt delicious after all the rain and darkness of the past several days. Well, almost all of them were there; Luce realized that Violet and Samantha were missing. Maybe they were still asleep?

“I’m fine,” Luce said. “I’m really careful when I go out alone, Cat. I stay right next to the cliffs.” It was a lie, but Catarina wasn’t paying much attention. She was too busy stretching her long body out on top of the water, rolling slowly over and over to sun herself on every side. Her bronze tail flashed, and the broad fins at the end rippled sensuously. Luce remembered her conversation with Dana: Catarina’s parents had actually sold her. But had Catarina changed as soon as that happened? Or had it taken something even worse?

Luce was distracted from her dark mood by a sudden splash of silver-blond curly hair, which was followed a second later by Violet’s sleek brown head. Samantha was twittering with excitement.

“Oh, Cat, you’re not going to believe this! Some doofus humans have just parked their yacht right near here!” Samantha laughed shrilly. “Even for humans it’s got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Luce felt embarrassed when she remembered that she’d thought something similar. She didn’t like having anything in common with Samantha, who just seemed to become more childish all the time. Catarina rolled over and let her body tip upright; she didn’t seem to be in any hurry, though.

“Oh,” Catarina said slowly. Luce was surprised to notice that she seemed bored by the news; she was even flicking her golden tail in irritation. “I noticed that, too. We’ll have to be careful to keep out of sight until they leave.” Samantha looked horribly disappointed.

“Aren’t we going to sink them, Cat? I mean the retards are just sitting there!”

“Oh, Samantha, use your head for once,” Catarina snapped. “How many people can there be on a yacht like that? Maybe fifteen? Twenty, at the very most. Pathetic. And if we take them down we’ll have to wait for weeks before we do the next one, probably let all kinds of bigger ships go by . . .” Luce had the feeling that if Catarina had noticed any handsome young men on that yacht she wouldn’t be taking such a dismissive tone. Catarina shook her head, sending ripples through her fiery hair. “It’s a waste of our time, especially with all these new singers. No, we’ll wait for something better.”

Luce looked away so that no one would notice the relief on her face. She didn’t need to worry anymore that Tessa might still be on the yacht.

“But there’s a girl on the boat,” Samantha pleaded, and Luce jumped. “Cat, she looked like a metaskaza.”

Luce was confused; she’d only heard the word used for new mermaids. What did it mean to call a human being that? She was appalled to see Catarina brightening suddenly at this, as if it changed everything.

“Really? Are you sure? Violet, did she look like a metaskaza to you?” Violet was obviously just as bewildered as Luce was by this; she was glancing around in alarm, hoping somebody would explain before she made a fool of herself. Luce decided she didn’t care if she sounded stupid. If Samantha was talking about Tessa, Luce had to know what she meant.

“What does that even mean, Cat? I mean, calling a human metaskaza?” Luce tried to assume the same lazy, disdainful tone Catarina had used, to suggest that Samantha was just being silly. Samantha pouted.

“Oh,” Catarina said, smiling over at Luce. “Oh, I still forget sometimes . . . Luce, when a human girl is almost ready to change, she starts to have that . . .” Catarina shook herself and waved her hand at something just over their heads. “That indication, just the way we do. You can see it. Humans can’t but we can.” Luce realized she was talking about the dark shimmering that clung around the mermaids, but it made her feel only more confused. She definitely hadn’t seen anything like that around Tessa! Or had she?

“Well, I mean, I saw that girl, too,” Luce said as casually as she could. It felt dangerous to admit so much, but she plunged ahead. “I noticed her on my way over here, and I didn’t see any of that kind of sparkling around her.”

“She totally had it!” Samantha yelled. “I saw it! Cat, don’t listen to her! Luce just has some kind of messed-up problem with being a mermaid. I sometimes think she likes humans . . .” Samantha turned quiet right away when she saw the scowl on Catarina’s face, the angry swishing of her tail.

“Have you ever heard Luce sing, Samantha?” Catarina asked; her tone was heavy, almost menacing. “Oh, that’s right, you have. You heard her sing so well that twenty men hurled themselves straight down into the ocean.” Luce listened to this with a tumult of emotions; it hurt to be reminded of what she’d done to those men, but at the same time she was grateful to hear Catarina defending her. “Maybe you should think of that before you make these . . . these senseless accusations.”

“But maybe Luce just didn’t notice it?” Violet put in shyly. “Because I think I saw some kind of—indication?—that, like, weird kind of sparkling in the air around her, too. Not that—I mean, I’m sure Luce is telling the truth.” Violet had been nervous around Luce ever since the time when Luce had crawled on shore to save her life.

“Well . . .” ’Catarina said. “The girl could be wavering. Sometimes the indication—it goes in and out, like a light blinking. But if there’s a metaskaza on the boat we can’t just leave her there! Trapped with those . . .”Catarina shook her head like she could barely stand to say the word. Luce’s heart was pounding now; she hoped no one could hear it. “We simply have to help her change. Save her from those humans.”

“But if . . .” Luce tried to think it through, fast. “But if that girl is wavering like you say . . .” Catarina and the others were staring at her too hard, and she struggled to clear her thoughts. Tessa’s life was at stake. “Does that mean if we get her . . . at the wrong moment, when the indication isn’t there . . . she’ll just drown?” A distinct look of relief flashed on Catarina’s lovely face.

“Oh, Luce! Now I understand why you’re looking so worried!” She smiled brilliantly and stretched out on the waves again. “No, if that girl is on the edge of changing into one of us I can help her. It’s difficult. Very difficult. But I’ve done it before. And when you think that our only alternative is to leave that poor metaskaza with humans who are doing who knows what disgusting things to her, Luce, you can see we have to try.”

Luce understood Catarina’s point of view. But she still had trouble believing that Tessa was unhappy enough to become a mermaid, and even if she did she’d be heartbroken at her mother’s death. And then Luce stopped thinking about that, overcome by fascination with what Catarina had just said: help someone change?

“How do you do it?” Luce asked. She still didn’t want all the people on that yacht to die, but she couldn’t help feeling tempted, just a bit, by the prospect of Tessa joining the tribe.

“I told you, Luce. It isn’t easy. You need to leave this to me.” Luce felt more impatient than she ever had with Catarina’s habit of avoiding questions.

“Of course I’ll leave it to you! I just want to know how. What do you have to do?” Catarina gave her a strange, almost angry look.

“What do you imagine, Luce? That someday I won’t be around anymore”—Luce’s stomach tightened as she thought of what those words might imply—“and you’ll have to do it without me?” Catarina’s tail was thrashing up foam now, and Samantha grinned maliciously. Luce ignored her, and spoke as calmly as she could.

“No, Cat. But think about it. What if someday there was a ship with two metaskazas? It’s possible, right? Wouldn’t it be good if I was able to help?” Catarina considered this, and her tail’s swirling slowed.

“Two? I suppose it could happen. I hadn’t thought of that.” She gave Luce another strained, sad stare. “You’re certainly the only other singer here who might be able to pull it off. Dana’s not bad at all, and Miriam, even if she doesn’t have much confidence . . . But I wouldn’t want to see them try that. They’d hurt themselves for nothing, and the girl would just drown.”

Of course, Luce thought. Catarina was so touchy about it that she should have guessed. The method for changing human girls into mermaids involved singing.

“Oh, it’s just a singing thing!” Samantha squealed. “Wow, I thought you meant something a lot harder than that!” Luce bit her lip at the irony of Samantha, of all people, calling singing easy, and Catarina glowered.

“Do you remember how you felt when you changed, Samantha?” Catarina hissed, and Luce watched Samantha’s giddy face collapse into dismay. “Go on. Try to really remember. Feel it again, just the way you did when you were lying beside that road with all your bones broken, watching your mother drive away and leave you to die. Like you were no better than garbage.” Luce was shocked at how cruel Catarina was being. Samantha’s behavior was obnoxious, but did she really deserve this? “Now tell me how easy it would be to go back into that feeling, as deeply as you could, and sing it! Knowing that if you couldn’t bear the pain and stopped, even for an instant, the metaskaza would drown . . .”

Samantha looked as stunned as Luce felt. Her green eyes were goggling and her mouth hung open. Luce shivered as she thought about attempting the kind of singing Catarina had just described: reliving that horrible night on the cliff and somehow making her song contain all that suffering. She was relieved now that Catarina didn’t want her to try it.

“Oh, Catarina,” Luce whispered. “You’ve done that before? It must be”—words failed her, and she gazed into Catarina’s moon gray eyes. Catarina stared back at her, and Luce saw a dark, violent grief in Catarina’s face. Luce imagined that she must have looked that way at the moment when she’d first felt her body melting into brilliant liquid, threatening to flow away. “That’s an incredibly courageous thing to do, Cat,” Luce said softly. “I don’t know if I could be brave enough.” Catarina visibly shook herself, and then Luce seemed to wake from a trance: she could see the warm golden sunlight streaming down all around them again, flecks of sun flashing on the waves.

“It’s the only way,” Catarina said. Her voice was calm and hard now. “You have to sing the metaskaza into that feeling and hold her there until she changes. And the only way to do that is to feel it yourself. It’s terrible, yes, but it’s only temporary, and then when you think that if you don’t do it you could be leaving the poor metaskaza with men like your uncle, Luce, or even worse . . .” Catarina was starting to get that faraway look again, the way she did when she was remembering her past. “When you think of it that way you really have no choice.”

They were quiet for a minute. Catarina was gazing off across the sea and Samantha looked like she was about to be sick. Luce watched both of them, and couldn’t stop herself from remembering that night on the cliffs. Even in the brilliant sunlight she could still feel the sharp grass cutting her face, the icy wind rushing over her back. Then Catarina slid a hand through her gleaming hair and smiled at them, though her cheerfulness looked a bit forced.

“We can’t go after the yacht while it’s anchored, though. Samantha, do you want to keep a lookout? Come back and tell me as soon as the yacht starts to move, and we’ll take it down. We’ll get that metaskaza out of there.”

Luce wondered if Catarina could be right. Was it possible that Tessa needed them to rescue her? If somebody was doing horrible things to Tessa, Luce was sure it couldn’t be her mother. The love between them had been so apparent, so immediate and vital.

But even if Tessa was fine where she was, Luce had already done everything she could to warn her. There was nothing to do now except wait.

The air was warm and sweet; the sea glowed green with sunshine. Even the last lingering blobs of sea ice were completely melted. But Luce couldn’t keep from shivering.

***

Samantha was back an hour later.

“Cat, they’re just starting to move now! Really slow! Oh, and I saw the girl again”—and here she shot Luce a nasty look—“and she was definitely sparkling like crazy. Maybe Luce is still so new she’s just clueless about this stuff.”

Luce knew she couldn’t bear to sing that yacht into the rocks, but she couldn’t say that. On the other hand, she had much stronger control of her voice now, and she knew she could listen to the other mermaids without just breaking into song herself.

“Hey, Cat?” Luce said. “I’ve been thinking. Since it’s such a small boat? Maybe the two of us should kind of hang back and just watch, so Rachel and Dana can get some practice. And then you can concentrate on the metaskaza.”

Luce suddenly had a new worry. If Tessa changed, would she tell everyone that she’d already met Luce?

Catarina gazed tensely at Luce; maybe Luce had said the

“That might be a good idea,” Catarina said at last. “If we’re there, we can jump in if Rachel and Dana get into trouble. Doing a boat that small is pretty boring, anyway. Okay.” By now a circle of excited mermaids pressed in around them, waiting for orders. “We’re going to let the new girls practice this time. Dana, do you want to take the lead?” Dana looked anxious at the idea but also thrilled.

“Sure, Cat. As long as you and Luce are there if I need help?” Luce wasn’t happy with what they were doing, but she couldn’t help admiring Dana’s nerve; it was brave to try leading her first time out. Soon Catarina and Dana had moved off to the side, discussing the route Dana should take. Catarina thought it was still too soon to go back to the rock where the Coast Guard boat went down, and they were debating alternatives. They eventually decided on some particularly high, steep cliffs several miles back in the direction of Pittley. It would mean a fairly long chase and a lot of singing, but Catarina insisted they had to use a new location as a precaution against the humans noticing a pattern.

They spread out, racing along underwater in a V like flying geese, and in just a few minutes the yacht was surrounded. Dana darted out of sight and pulled ahead of the rest of them while Rachel took up the position Luce had been in with the last boat, right in the center of the wake.

Luce swam off to the side, sad and worried. She had to stay underwater most of the time to avoid being seen by anyone on the yacht—a round, silver-haired man with a squashed red face was wandering around, glaring critically at the deck—but as often as she dared she peeked above the water line, scanning for Tessa. She didn’t see her anywhere. She pushed farther ahead and spotted, sprawled on deck chairs, three practically identical middle-aged women with stiff, frosted blond hair and what looked like expensive sunglasses. One was painting her toenails.

“Of course I didn’t want to come someplace so cold and depressing,” the toenail painter whined to the other two; Luce wondered if this was the person she’d heard being addressed as “kitten.” “But Harris—you know he has these delusions that he’s some sort of amateur marine biologist, and he said he wouldn’t replace my Jaguar if I didn’t come along. I don’t think he knows the difference between a seal and a whale!” Then Luce heard the first curling line of song and watched the bottle of polish slip from the woman’s hand and clatter onto the deck.

It was immediately obvious to Luce that Dana was nowhere near as gifted a singer as Catarina—but then, who was? The notes jumped in much too fast, without the coaxing subtlety of Catarina’s song. The people on board weren’t instantly enchanted in the way the Coast Guard sailors had been. They had time to be nonplussed, to gape at one another with disoriented expressions. Luce was a little surprised that Catarina could restrain herself from just taking over. After a minute, though, Dana seemed to become more confident, and the song smoothed out and warmed the air. One of the women Luce was watching suddenly stood up from her chair, then threw herself down on the deck again and embraced the complaining woman’s knees, showering them with adoring kisses. No one seemed to think this was unusual behavior. Their eyes were wide, glazed, unfocused from so much bliss.

Luce dove down and shot across to the other side of the yacht, in case Tessa and her mother were over there somewhere. The yacht was speeding up now as the pilot strove to reach the source of that wonderful sound.

A few more people came out on deck, their mouths lax and round with wonder. They all seemed to be grizzled old sailors, probably hired from the local towns; Luce wasn’t surprised that Catarina hadn’t been able to work up much enthusiasm.

The yacht was going so fast now that Luce gave up on swimming with her head above water and just ripped along below the surface. She heard the eerie, volatile thrum of Rachel’s song joining Dana’s velvet tones and then other voices she recognized: Kayley and Violet, followed by Samantha’s tinny soprano. She and Catarina were the only ones keeping quiet, Luce thought. It was overkill, far more enchantment than they needed to drive such a small boat to its doom, but she knew no one cared. They were all caught in the exaltation of their own voices, mad with the joy of power. She felt a rush of compassion for all the girls singing now: after all, they’d spent their human lives being so utterly helpless; how could they fail to be delighted by their ability to dominate anyone who heard them? When Luce shot above the water for another glimpse, the men she could see all looked drugged.

Ten minutes passed, the yacht driving so hard its engine squealed and began to smoke. Up ahead the cliffs stuck out in a hard jag, and Luce knew it must be the spot Catarina had chosen. Luce could see smoke pouring out of another place near her, too, maybe from the kitchen. It looked like something had caught fire in the yacht’s center, but no one moved to go put it out. Luce braced herself for the crash.

There was a grinding, earsplitting crunch, a shudder, and the first body pitched into the water. Luce could tell from the limp way it flopped overboard that it was already dead from the blow, and when it hit the water she saw to her horror that it was wearing a white bandanna blotched crimson with blood . . .

How could we? Luce thought numbly. How could we? The yacht was still driving forward, its hull splitting wide like a skull hit with an ax, and human bodies tumbled from inside. All Luce wanted was to get away.

Then she thought of Tessa. Catarina must have her by now. Luce began to swim dizzily between hunks of debris, expecting to hear Catarina’s voice swell with the wrenching song that would change Tessa forever. A second later it came faintly from far ahead: unmistakably Catarina’s exquisite voice, but transfigured into a sound so cold and painful that Luce’s chest was crossed by lines of cutting ache. Luce recoiled, and bumped into a warm, flailing body.

It was Tessa, submerged with her eyes closed, her lips oddly pinched. Her brown braids pitched rhythmically with the movements of the water. And Catarina was nowhere near them.

There was only one thing Luce could do. She caught Tessa in her arms, and willed herself as hard as she could into that icy night on the cliffs, into the broken heart of a girl whose uncle had almost raped her, whose mother was long dead, whose father was lost at sea. She felt the pain and darkness beating within her, until the whole cold ocean seemed to be trapped in her heart. And when the ache grew so fierce that she didn’t know how she could stand it for another moment, she sang.

It was a terrible, beautiful song, different from anything Luce had ever heard before or would ever want to hear again. The whole sea seemed frantic with grief. Tessa opened her lids and gazed at Luce. Her hazel eyes shone like blood and shattered crystals. And then, to Luce’s infinite relief, a cloud of dark shimmering winked around Tessa’s head. Luce’s song reached into the girl in her arms, bringing back all Tessa’s secrets, and in the sparkling Luce saw the beginning of a story: a man screaming at her mother, slamming the door, the sound of a car starting . . . An ugly divorce . . .

It wasn’t all that bad, really. Not by mermaid standards. But it was all Luce had to work with. Her song gathered up the angry screams of Tessa’s parents and twisted them into bitter music. The screams became another strand of music, weaving through the dark melodic cries of the girl lost on a cliff above the sea.

Tessa squeezed her lips closer, and Luce watched a soft, watery trembling blur the lines of Tessa’s body. She was changing! Luce felt ice cold and weak from the pain of her own song, but she knew she had to keep on, just a little longer.

Tessa suddenly thrashed wildly in Luce’s arms, and a look of determination tightened her face. Another thrash and her body was solid again, kicking a pair of strong human legs. She glared at Luce, and then an awful realization almost made Luce choke.

Tessa was fighting the change. She was struggling against Luce’s enchantment with all the strength she had left. Luce looked around and realized they’d been sinking deeper and deeper into the sea as she sang. There was less sun down here, and spiny creatures propelled themselves through the deepening green on all sides.

“No,” Tessa said. Luce couldn’t hear her speak over the singing that still throbbed up from her chest, but the movement of Tessa’s lips was all too clear. A rush of bubbles escaped, and Luce moved to pull Tessa closer, to blow her own air into Tessa’s lungs the way she’d seen Catarina do with the young sailor. Tessa raised one hand and shoved Luce back. The dark shimmering around her was completely gone.

“No,” Tessa said again, more bubbles gushing out with every word. “I won’t let you.” Luce was still singing, but the song was much quieter, losing force, and she could hear what Tessa said with the last trace of air in her chest. “I want to die human.”