Luce’s cave was the same one where she’d taken Catarina to recover after the tribe had assaulted her. Luce could never slip through the entrance without remembering the time she’d come back bringing dinner for the two of them and found Catarina gone, the cave somehow colder from abandonment. It felt even worse tonight. Luce had thought she was used to being on her own, but now she squeezed tightly against one wall of her cave and gazed into shadows that seemed suddenly malignant. It wasn’t a particularly cold night, especially not for a mermaid, but Luce still felt horribly chilled. She curled there shivering, remembering the song from the cliffs, until the bronze-haired boy’s voice turned into hundreds of black sinuous eels. The eels emitted terrible music, shrill as electrical feedback, as they squirmed up the side of a soot-colored boat. Soon there were so many eels that the boat was just a black, glossy, wriggling mass, tugged gradually downward into water so black and slimy that it might not be water at all. And suddenly Luce knew that the boy was in the center of that mass. He was going under . . .

Luce’s tail convulsed. She felt the splash hit her face, heard her own small scream, and opened her eyes to the twilight glow that filled her cave even on the brightest days. It took her a moment to understand where she was and that it was already morning.

And she wasn’t alone. Dana was there, sitting with her back against the opposite side of the cave. Her tail was flicking, and Luce couldn’t help noticing the hard, strained look on that beautiful face. Dana had been angry with her before, of course, but this look was different: cold and skeptical and, Luce thought after a second, disappointed. Coming up from anxious dreams, Luce felt instantly worried.

“Dana? What happened? Is something wrong?”

Dana smirked. “Are you expecting something to be wrong?” It was a strange thing to say, Luce thought. “Actually, I just came to visit you. Violet wanted to come, too, but then—Dana broke off sharply. There were so many different emotions moving in her satiny brown face that Luce couldn’t keep track of them. “But I sent her home. I thought it would be better if I talked to you alone.”

Luce sat up facing Dana. Anxiety twisted inside her like the slippery eels from her dream. It was so out of character for Dana to take this cool, abrupt tone; her personality was usually warm and relaxed.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” It took all of Luce’s courage to ask the question. She wanted to stare down at her hands, at the wall, and she fought to keep her gaze steady on Dana’s eyes.