“You’re calling me crazy?” As soon as Dorian said it, he realized it was the wrong approach. He should try to reassure Ellison, not provoke him. “It’s nice of you to worry about me, but I’m a lot better now. I’ve pretty much stopped having nightmares and everything.” It was true. Every time Luce sang to him he felt a little stronger, not as broken inside. The sea had stopped following him around like some huge watery ghost, a heaving shadow. It mostly stayed where it belonged.

“Three others drowned within two years of escaping from their shipwrecks, Dorian. It appears that for many people in your position, survival is only a temporary reprieve.”

Dorian stared. “I’m not planning on drowning myself. Like I told you, I’m feeling way better—”

“I’m not worried about suicide. At least, that’s not my primary concern. I believe that you do indeed . . . have something to live for.” Ellison’s tone didn’t make any sense, Dorian thought. Was he actually envious?

Just for a second Dorian considered running. But what good would that do when Ellison could find him anytime he wanted? “Then what’s the problem? If you know I’m not going to kill myself—”

“Something else might kill you. You may have placed your trust in something . . . extremely capricious, and lacking any conscience as we understand it. You may be naively putting yourself in harm’s way, day after day, with no idea of the risk.”

Dorian’s knees suddenly buckled, and he barely stopped himself from falling. The cold wind whistled between the houses, and his hair snapped hard around his face. Was Ellison talking about Luce? But how could he know anything about her?

If the FBI was after Luce, Dorian knew, he had to find out. But it was hard to see how he could ask the right questions without giving too much away.

“Are you talking about my girlfriend?” Dorian struggled to keep his voice as flat and noncommittal as possible. He waited anxiously for Ellison to react with surprise: the older man should smile at him and say something like, “Oh, you have a girlfriend now, Dorian? I didn’t know.”

“Of course I’m talking about your girlfriend.” Ellison growled. Somehow hearing him say this out loud made it worse. “I suppose the term applies.”

Could Ellison really know that Luce was a mermaid? Dorian had trouble believing it. But either way . . .“Well, it’s not fair for you to say shit like that about her, then. You don’t know her.”

“That’s true. I don’t. But I doubt I’d make it through an introduction intact.”