They were summoning her, seeming to beckon her at a cellular level. Her very being yearned to be in the water, but she needed to talk to Penn. She didn’t think she could do that if she were frolicking about in the bay.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Penn asked, leaning back against a large boulder behind her.

“For starters, how do you deal with that?” Gemma gestured to the ocean beside them and tugged at her earlobe. “It’s driving me nuts.”

“You mean the watersong?” Penn smirked at Gemma’s obvious distress.

“The watersong?”

“That music you’re hearing right now, the way the ocean sings to you? That’s the watersong. It’s calling us back home, and it’s why we can never be that far from the ocean.”

“So it doesn’t ever stop?” Gemma twisted a strand of hair around her finger and glared out at the waves.

“No, it doesn’t,” Penn admitted somewhat sadly. “But it does get easier to ignore when you’re not hungry.”

“I’m not hungry,” Gemma insisted. “I ate breakfast this morning.”

Penn shrugged a shoulder and looked out at the water. “There are different kinds of hunger.”

“Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something you said.”

“I assumed as much.” Penn watched Thea and Lexi splashing around a ways from shore, then turned back to Gemma. “Are you ready to join us?”

“That’s the thing.” Gemma shook her head. “I don’t want to join you.”

“So, you want to die, then?” Penn raised an eyebrow coolly.

“No, of course not. But there has to be a way out. There must be something else I can do.”

“Nope. There’s not,” Penn said simply. “Once you take the drink and transform, you’re locked in. You’re a siren, and the only way out is death.”

“But that’s not fair.” Gemma clenched her fists because she could do nothing else to ease her frustration. “How could you do this to me? How could you turn me into this without even asking what I wanted? You can’t just force me to be this … this thing.”

“Oh, I can, and I did.” Penn straightened up and took a step toward Gemma. “It’s too late. You’re a siren whether you like it or not.”

“Why would you even do that?” Gemma asked with angry tears stinging her eyes.

“Because I wanted you.” Penn’s voice was cold and hard. “And I do whatever the hell I want.”

“No.” Gemma shook her head. “You can’t do this. You can’t have me. I’m a person, and you can’t just force me to be something because you want me to!”

“Honey”—Penn smiled—“I already did.”