"Shifter?" Eren asked, examining her face—for signs of what, she wasn't sure.
"No," she said. "Human."
"And absolutely perfect the way she is," Dane said defensively, putting an arm around Mira.
Eren raised his hands. "Whoa, I didn't mean to imply she's not! I was just curious how much she knows."
"I didn't know about shifters at all until a week or so ago," Mira said. "At this point, I've escaped from an island full of them, rode on a whale, and I feel like I've had a crash course in Shifter 101."
Eren's teeth flashed in another bright grin. "Well, get ready for Shifter 201, because you're about to meet my family."
"They're a lot," Lucy confided. "But they're really nice."
"If the two of you are okay with coming back to Westerly Cove with us, that is?"
Dane glanced at Mira before answering. "Is there hot water?" she asked.
Lucy laughed, and Eren said, "Yep, as much as you want."
Mira smiled. "Then all I can say is, when do we leave?"
Despite her conviction that she couldn't wait to see the last of this particular island, Mira felt herself having a few twinges as theCodfatherpulled away.
"Regret?" Dane asked quietly, joining her at the railing.
"Hardly that. But ... in some strange way, I think I'm going to miss the place." She leaned against him. "We had a lot of firsts here."
The island receded behind them, and Lucy came out of the pilothouse, waving a large fisherman's coat at Dane.
"I know you love going around bare-chested in all weather, but you're going to freeze out here," she said, pushing it into his hands. "Do either of you two want a sandwich, or maybe I could heat up something in the galley? I bet you're ready for some decent food."
"Oh yes," Mira said. "Oh yes,please."
* * *
She was asleep in the bunk in theCodfather's cabin when the change of the movement of the waves under the boat's hull woke her. The darkness around her was lit only by a nightlight over the sink in the cabin's tiny galley, and for a disorienting instant, Mira thought she was back onMerrylegs. Then something warm and furry moved against her arm, and she nearly screamed.
She calmed down a moment later. Oh ... Lucy and Eren must have a cat. She wasn't sure where it had been hiding earlier, but she could tell that it had climbed into bed with her. She petted its head a little bit, puzzled by its oddly round ears and pointed nose. Maybe it was a small breed of dog? Anyway, it seemed friendly enough, so she lay in the dark petting it for a little while.
There were voices from up top. Mira sat up, dislodging the cat or dog, which made a distinctly weird sound, a sort of chirp, before crawling into the warm space she had vacated. She was still wearing her clothes, and had a vague recollection of being tired enough to collapse onto the bunk without doing more than taking off her shoes.
It seems like all I've done for the last week is run for my life, or fall asleep to recover from it.
She shook sand out of her shoes, shoved her feet into them, and went up the stairs to find out what the others were up to.
It was night. The pilothouse was lit by the reflected glow of the instrument panels, which made Mira think nostalgically of night watches onMerrylegs. Outside the boat, the sea was wide and dark, reflecting back their running lights. But it was not entirely dark. At first Mira took the lights ahead of them for stars, and then realized that these were the lights of a town, spangling a shore that was too dark to distinguish from the sky.
"Are we there?" Mira asked. Yawning, she leaned against Dane, who was standing up in the reflected light of the instrument panel.
"This is Westerly Cove," Eren said, and Mira realized that he wasn't piloting the boat: Lucy was. With her face set in concentration, Lucy maneuvered them from the open ocean into a large, horseshoe-shaped bay.
"Too bad you can't see it for the first time by daylight," she said, leaning forward with a hand on the boat's throttle. "It's a gorgeous view."
"It looks gorgeous enough to me now," Mira said.
She looked out at the dark expanse of the shoreline, dotted with friendly little lights of porches and houses. The main part of the town was a cluster of lights down by the bay, but there were scattered lights up the hill, including one bright one on the point of land overlooking the bay—hadn't someone said something about a lighthouse?—and a splash of lights far up on the hill as if there was a big house up there.
They motored up to the dock. Mira thought about offering to help tie up the boat, but it felt as if everything that had happened over the last few days was finally hitting her. Anyway, it was clear that Eren and Lucy were used to working together smoothly as a team.
