Dorian sat quiet for a minute, thinking about what Zoe had said. He loved Luce, and he knew she was incredibly courageous: brave enough to confront a whole tribe of enemies out for her blood, brave enough to race out through orca-infested waters to save Nausicaa. But in a way her exploits seemed like the adventures of a child’s fantasy life, dreamy, removed from the problems of the real world. She’d run away, where Zoe had stayed . . .

Zoe, he thought, was even braver than Luce. Zoe was the one taking the chances that really counted. And she would face growing up, awful as that could be.

She slid closer to him, grinning widely. “Hey, Dorian?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, aren’t there . . .” Her soft, funny, completely un-magical face was only inches from his now. “Aren’t there some really heavy drawbacks? To having a mermaid girlfriend? Don’t you get frustrated?”

Dorian looked into Zoe’s hazel eyes; he liked her, a lot, but still she was being unkind by asking that. And answering her out loud would be a huge betrayal of Luce. He couldn’t do it. “Zoe . . .”

She was already straddling him, pressing him back onto the bed. Her hands were on his face, pulling up his shirt, warm and sweet and earthy, and her breath curled on his ear. “Maybe you should try a real girl.”

23

Breaking Voices

The water purled around her, glittering with sunlight, as Luce lay in wait on the pebbles of the seafloor. She was a few feet away from the beach where her father sometimes came for fish, concealed by a patch of loose seaweed and by the brilliant glinting of the sun. It was her third day spent lurking under the surface waiting for him to appear. It was hard not to feel a bit depressed, to keep circling back to the same anxious thoughts. The plan she’d made might not work at all. The hours went by, the sun dashed blades of brilliant green light through the water, and Luce slipped up for air as rarely and stealthily as possible. And still he didn’t come. She hadn’t heard so much as a trace of muttering winds for days. What was he doing? Had he given up on this beach entirely? She knew she had to stay still, but it took constant concentration to keep her tail from lashing with impatience.

Then through the soft distortion of the water, Luce heard it. A girl’s voice, high and tender: “. . . none of Peter’s business!” the voice sighed. “Mom loved you!”