She just needed to clear the sharp outcropping of spindly rocks called the Needles that jutted out of the water, protecting the bay. If she could land beyond them, they would temporarily conceal Claire from Needle Pointe’s harbor, and she didn’t think anyone would dare sail out to investigate until the storm passed.

But if she landed in front of the rocks, a nosy Spinner searching for a story might risk the wind anyway. And if she managed to make it to the rocks but not over them … Well, there was a reason why the town was called Needle Pointe.

The rocks came close …

Closer …

Closest!

Claire’s toes skimmed the outcrop, and she kicked down, giving her and the arrow one more slight lift to miss the rocks—before splashing down into the sea on the other side.

Silence engulfed her. The water smothered the roar of wind and thunder.

Without the sun, all she could see was midnight blue, except when a flicker of lightning illuminated the seascape below her: swaying shadows of seaweed, glimmers of fish and intricately shaped rocks, the color of apples, that twisted delicate branches upward like the fanciest of candelabras. It was an underwater forest that loomed larger as the Lode Arrow dragged Claire along with it.

It would not stop until it hit a target.

Claire unwrapped her fist, but still the Lode Arrow stuck to her palm. She couldn’t break away from her magical transportation, and now, she realized, it was delivering her to their final destination—the bottom of the sea.

She screamed.

Lacy bubbles streamed from her mouth and floated upward to sky and air, to where Claire could not follow.

Let go! a familiar voice shouted in her mind’s ear. For goodness’ sake, stop being a baby and let go already!

Claire had heard that phrase so many times before, in the exact same tone. When the family had gone ice-skating and she’d clung to Sophie’s gloved hand even as she spilled onto the ice, pulling her big sister down with her—

On the monkey bars, when a much littler Claire had hung there, tears dripping down her cheeks because she was too scared to swing herself across—

After she’d lost the fire-safety poster contest to Brittany, and she’d spent a week accusing her classmate of copying the winning poster from the year before.

Let it go, Claire!

Salt stung her eyes. Salt lashed her tongue.

Claire kicked, trying to propel herself and the arrow back up, but the strength of the stone tip pulled them down.

She was helpless.

Panic settled in her chest, burning her lungs—or maybe that was the lack of air. What had she been thinking? She closed her eyes. Gemmers shouldn’t play games with water! They knew how to nudge the potential of rock, but rocks sank.

Something hard scraped across her arms.