Dorian rolled over so that Luce’s head slipped off his stomach and then reached to pull her close. For a few moments he just stared at her, his gloved fingers softly exploring her face. “I really can’t tell. If Zoe’s pretty or not,” Dorian said at last. His voice was very low and his breath feathered against Luce’s cheek.

“You can’t tell?” Luce was suddenly intensely happy and so in love she almost felt like crying.

“I can’t tell. I mean,” Dorian added, “maybe some guys would think she was. Cute, anyway. But that would only be because they’ve never seen you.”

At another time Luce might have pointed out to him that the astounding beauty of her own face was just a part of her magic—that the beauty of the mermaids was, in some sense, not real. But she didn’t feel like saying that now.

There were advantages to staying a mermaid, after all; in some ways a human couldn’t hope to compete.

∗ ∗ ∗

As she towed Dorian home that night they could both feel the swelling aggression in the wind. The waves started to chop and jar below them, and white rafts of ice pitched perilously close to the boat. As he clambered out onto the dock they both looked back at the high slopes of water beyond the tiny harbor. The waves appeared to be getting taller by the minute, and Luce felt her stomach tighten a little at the thought of swimming back to her cave. She should try to collect a supply of food in case the storm lasted for days; she might be trapped inside for some time. Dorian looked worried, too. “Is it going to be safe for you? Getting home?”

“I’ll try to stay underwater,” Luce told him. “So I don’t get slammed by an ice floe.” She didn’t mention the possibility that she might be overpowered by the currents. Dorian’s hair whipped in the icy spray now blowing off the harbor. “Dorian, I might not be able to see you for a few days . . .”

Dorian answered Luce by throwing himself face-down on the dock and leaning out to take her face between his hands. He kissed her with such intensity her lips ached, and then he reached to squeeze her shoulders.

“I’ll wait for you.” He struggled to his feet and ran up the dock, his body doubled against the thrust of the storm.