“You’re damned right I did. I kicked him in the face—I think I got his eye—and I punched him in the nose. I remember thinking, ‘You’re meant to do that to sharks.’ He let go, and I kicked up to the surface. Thought I was done for, but there was a fishing boat, and I waved and screamed and they spotted me. Started heading my way. I reckon that scared him off.”

Scared off by the presence of a boat! Hæra’s lip curled. If Asgall had stayed underwater and dragged Jonathan back down, the humans wouldn’t have seen him. All that effort, and he’d given up right at the cusp of victory. Hæra had never exchanged a real word with Sister Madeleine, and she still couldn’t imagine what could separate them after they’d gotten that close.

Nevertheless…Asgall had had the chance to speak to his human at some length. Could Hæra manage something similar when Sister Madeleine returned?

“I sound like a fool for talking to him in the first place, but…life is lonely, right?” Jonathan hung his head. “It’s a bugger. We come in alone, and we go out the same.”

Sister Madeleine wouldn’t. Once Hæra ate her, her spirit would be part of Hæra forever. And when the Last Current took Hæra, she wouldn’t go by herself. No more loneliness for either of them. Hæra thought often of how Sister Madeleine had looked on the sandy beach that afternoon: strong, but solitary. That woman knew what loneliness was.

“After all, it’s just you and him,” Jonathan said. “And you don’t like him much. Course you’d know what it is to look for what you can’t find, to…” He glanced at the window, toward the darkness outside. When Hæra first started visiting him, the windows had been so clouded with salt and dirt you could barely see through them. Now he’d washed them.

“To what?” she snapped. “I’m only looking for Sister Madeleine. I’ll find her. That is, she’ll come back.”

She had to, because the depths knew Hæra couldn’t get to her. Once she’d gained his trust, Jonathan had obliged her by going to the hotel where Sister Madeleine’s group had stayed. He’d reported back that they’d come from somewhere called “Philadelphia,” a city that didn’t border the ocean and was full of a million humans besides. Hæra couldn’t help thinking of them all sweeping in and out of the place like krill into the baleen of a whale.

“You must think about her a lot.” Jonathan had that look in his eyes, the one he wore when he was about to seek information from Hæra. “Even though you only knew her for a day.”