Dallying at the window meant she had to jog rather than walk. She caught Madeleine at the end of the block, in front of the Cliffside Store. She caught her literally, in fact, grabbing her elbow before she could cross the street in front of an oncoming car. The car honked and drove past.

“One car on the whole street and you try to get hit by it?” Hæra snapped. Her heart raced unpleasantly in her chest. That had been too close.

“I looked the wrong way. It’s still a habit.” Madeleine kept her eyes turned from Hæra. “Thanks for catching me.”

Hæra kept Madeleine’s elbow in her grip. That might not be wise, but she couldn’t do anything else. It had been a while now since Madeleine had attempted to run from her. She’d forgotten how it had felt: like being marooned.

“What’s the matter?” she asked. “Don’t say, ‘Nothing.’”

Madeleine laughed roughly. “I know better. Let’s just walk for a second, okay? I’ll gather my thoughts.”

What an odd way to put it, as if thoughts could fall out of your pocket to be retrieved. The first time Hæra picked up something with human hands had been the night she’d offered Jonathan a gold coin. It had been solid and wet in her palm. How much had changed since then.

How little had changed, too. She couldn’t tell what had upset the human at her side.

“Where are we going?” she asked as they began to walk.

To her astonishment, Madeleine said, “Back to the beach.”

Hæra stopped in her tracks. “Beach? You mean our beach?”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

They hadn’t returned to that beach since the night Hæra had met Madeleine in horse form. It seemed like a bad idea, as it always had. But Hæra had grown bolder about being near the water lately. It was daytime, when most Each-uisge were forbidden to come to the surface. She’d broken the rules herself, but nobody else had, that she’d ever heard of.

The same conditions applied. Only Asgall, Beathag, or Calder would recognize her like this. The odds were minuscule that any of them would come above the surface, today, in front of that particular stretch of beach. And Madeleine wanted to go.

Hæra only had one question. “Why?”

Madeleine wrapped her arms around herself, keeping her eyes focused straight ahead as she marched in the direction of the beach. “I don’t know. I just need to be there. Where we were, where…” She trailed off.

When she didn’t finish, Hæra said, “Where we met?”

Madeleine nodded. “Will you be safe there?”

Hæra took in a deep breath. “Yes. I think so.”