I laughed. “Robert, be careful, I’ll think you’re flirting with me.”

I twisted around, but he was gone, and I could barely see the intersection I’d just left. I paused and took a few steps back, and then a few more. The path didn’t lead to any kind of crossroads.

“That’s not possible.” I shook my head. I counted the steps I took and covered easily twice the distance to where the crossroads should be.

A game, I had to remind myself this was a game, one that Corb thought I was going to fail. Himself would have bet against me too. Once more, my back straightened—if with a bit more difficulty, and a little groan when the muscles protested.

I had to keep going, that was all there was to it. The air cooled further as I walked, the path dipping closer toward the ocean, away from the graveyard, which was fine by me. The hard dirt and occasional cobblestone gradually shifted into sand that pulled at my shoes, filling them. I kicked them off, carrying them in one hand.

The sound of the surf tugged me farther south, and I let it carry me along, thinking a swim in the water would be refreshing, maybe just what I needed. Another sound wrapped around me, a lovely sort of singing. Yes, a night swim—I could go in, no one would know. I reached for my shirt to pull it off, and my fingers brushed against the pendant hanging off the chain around my neck that had been Gran's. She’d sent it to me in the mail right before she passed. My hand grew cold and my feet stilled. Night swimming? I hadn’t done that since my twenties. What the heck was wrong with me? I smacked the side of my head as if I could knock the sound of the singing out of it. Singing? Why was there singing in an interview?

Confusion rippled through me, not unlike the waves that washed up over the beach, smoothing away the lines in the sand. Convincing me it would be fine, I should just . . . Get. In. The. Water.

“Yeah, no,” I spat the words and shook my head again. Was this even part of the interview?

I frowned and looked down at my feet. Without realizing it, I’d strayed off the path that went through the old graveyard. I slipped my shoes back on, turned, and climbed up to the main path. From the top, I could barely hear the water, never mind any singing.

“Gran, what have I gotten into?”

The water didn’t call to me anymore, and there was no singing, but I did see something in the waves, just a quick flash of silver, like the scales of a fish, but the shape was wrong. It almost looked like a person diving below the waves.

A person with scales.