“You lied to my face while I was crying!” Dana’s voice was rising to a shriek now. Her beautiful face was contorted into a crumpled mask, and with her rising scream serpents of seawater pulled themselves from the waves and writhed in the gusting air. Luce had never seen another mermaid control the sea with her voice before, and she stared mesmerized. “And we almost died because of you! You filthy, worthless, lying . . .” A twisted length of seawater ripped forward with insane speed, slashing Luce in the face so hard that she could feel her skin break. The blow threw her sideways, and she wobbled for a moment below the surface. Everything was green-black, warped, and shaken, and she could still hear Dana shrieking, her voice tearing at the sea as if it were made of thin fabric. Strange fissures of air like living wounds opened in the water around Luce, and she tasted her own blood.

Luce came up screaming a note as harsh as stone, pain throbbing in her face. A rolling wave picked Dana up and twirled her over and over at full length, her long body a blur of caramel and ruby, until Luce gasped and Dana crashed back down. Her coppery tail kicked up white arcs of foam. For an instant they were silent, glaring at each other while Violet and Dorian looked on in shock, hands clenched over their ears. Stop this, Lucette! “Dana, this is wrong . . .” Luce tried. The welt burned from her forehead all the way to her chin.

“You’re the one who’s wrong!” Dana was still screaming, but the magic had fallen out of her voice. The ocean crashed indifferently again, following its own cold rhythms.

“But what was I supposed to do? Dana, please, think about it . . .” Luce gasped the words out desperately. Maybe it was too much to hope that Dana would ever forgive her, but at least she might be able to understand.

“What were you supposed to do?” Dana was half sobbing now, her arms stretched out on the pitching waves as if she was searching for support. “God, Luce, how can you ask me that?”

But I couldn’t do what you wanted, Luce thought. I couldn’t kill him! She was just starting to say this when Dana interrupted, her voice like a sustained moan. “Luce, you were supposed to trust me! You should have trusted me enough to tell me the truth!”

Somehow this was the last thing Luce had expected Dana to say.