“What would the FBI want with you?” Luce asked. But even as the question was leaving her mouth, she already understood. “They were asking you about”—she could barely make herself say it, but then avoiding the words wouldn’t cancel out the truth of what her tribe had done, what she had done—“about the ship you were on?”

Just as she’d feared, his eyes hardened. He let her go and shuffled the few feet back out of the water, then sat facing her with his chin on his knees. Luce hid her breasts with her arms again. It felt awkward, and for once she wished she had some human clothing.

“About the Dear Melissa, yeah. Are you ever going to explain why the hell you did that? And they showed me a map with all the ships you guys have been sinking, too. You’re all totally out of control. And I still didn’t tell them anything! Luce, why?”

Luce wasn’t sure what the “why” applied to. Was he asking her to tell him why he hadn’t talked or why the mermaids destroyed ships? Both questions seemed like more than she could answer.

“I’m never going to hurt another human, Dorian. I really promise. At least, not unless they attack one of us first.”

“Maybe you won’t! Maybe. But your friends will, Luce! Like, can you promise me that the other mermaids won’t go around killing people? Because if you can’t—”

“I’m not even in the tribe anymore!” Luce felt desperate. “Dorian, I mean—Anais will even kill other mermaids. I just learned today, she’s been doing horrible things, and there’s no way I can stop her. So how am I supposed to promise that she won’t kill humans?”

“You said that name before.” Dorian thought for a second. He was breathing too hard from agitation. “So why shouldn’t I tell the FBI about this Anais if she’s the problem? Why shouldn’t I do whatever I can to stop them—your old tribe? I just didn’t want anything bad to happen to you. That was the only reason I kept my mouth shut, Luce! And even that might be because”—he looked at her with an awful, searching ache in his eyes—“because you did something to my mind. I don’t even know.”

Luce stared. “What do you think I did?”