Page 40

“Float away. Float away.” I can hear my mother’s song ringing in my ears. “Go up into the sky, Cordelia, and watch the world spin beneath you.”

I go up, up, up to the ceiling and see myself smiling placidly. All eyes are on Darcy.

Except for Zephyr’s. Theirs are on me.

“What kind of intimate details?” Ross snorts.

“Basic things about life under the sea, her explorations, her family,” Darcy responds, her lip curling as Ross probes for more illicit information. “No, no. It wasn’t like that. From what I read in my notes, she was a naive creature. She believed I was in love with her.”

“Can you imagine?” James says. “Bringing a mermaid into our family?”

I’m hovering so far away, I can’t hear the jokes they’re telling about that poor naive mermaid.

“Miss Dee.” A tug on my arm pulls me back into my body. A plate appears in my lap, and I see Bijou kneeling beside my chair. “The maids just delivered a tray of tea and baked goodies.” She lifts a pastry. “I’ve noticed that you enjoy these.”

It’s a pocket made of sweet, flaky bread iced with brown sugar and filled with a gooey cinnamon concoction. Sometimes I stuff them into the folds of my dress in case I don’t like what’s being served for the next meal. “I do. Thank you.”

“Let’s fetch a cup of tea to wash it down,” she says, and I’m thankful for the excuse to walk away from the vulgar discussion of mermaid tails.

Zephyr looks peaked again, drumming their fingers along their sword handle as I chat with the priestess. They alert us when the sunlight has faded from the sky, and the six of us head out into the night, lanterns swinging at our sides.

“Let’s split into groups of three,” Darcy says, the dock groaning as we step onto the floating planks. She gestures to the two dory boats tied to the pilings. “Bijou and Dee will come along with me.” She points three fingers at Zephyr, Ross, and James. “The rest of you will form the other team.”

“Are you sure three skilled hunters should go out together while you’re left to defend Bijou and Dee yourself?” Zephyr asks.

Darcy squats to secure a crate beneath the plank bench. “Do you consider yourself a skilled hunter, Professor?”

“I’m excellent with a sword, and I’ve encountered quite a few dangerous creatures during my explorations.”

“Then you’re coming with me to protect the priestess,” Darcy decides. “I’d trust James with my own life, so I know he’ll protect my bride.”

I turn my head side to side in a warning to stop Zephyr from arguing.

“Aye,” they say, but their knuckles go white as they grasp the strap of the bag slung across their chest.

James helps me into the boat, and I wobble onto the plank bench as Ross steps a foot in, skewing my balance.

“What should we do if we come across that siren?” he asks, and Darcy squints at the dark cloud cover.

There’s a wistfulness to her stance, like she’s trying to retrieve a memory of the mermaid she’s forgotten. Perhaps some part of her feels protective over the naive creature she wrote about in her journal entries.

“Shoot her with the harpoon gun on sight,” she says and boards her boat, sending water splashing along its hull. “We have bigger fish to fry.”

My stomach lurches as Ross takes a seat on the bench beside me, and my insides continue rolling as James rows us out over the waves. The ocean stretches out all around us, the inky water bleeding into the horizon, so it’s hard to tell where it ends and the sky begins.

“Do you remember where we were when I went under?” Oarlocks pop as Darcy’s bow passes ours. “I figured it wouldn’t be too far from the sandbar.”

“No.” I point north to the sea stacks. “West of the rock columns.”

James whistles low. “How did you manage to swim back from there? In the middle of the night, no less.”

“Sheer luck, I guess.” I strain to see the coastline, missing the definition in the shadows, the depth of the bluish hues that are usually present at nighttime.

“Sheer luck, indeed.” James’ throat bobs as his oars cut through the water. “You must have been terrified. ”

But I wasn’t thinking about my own fear that night. “Saving her was the only thought in my mind.”

And she would let her friend kill me without a second thought. My chest aches like she’s already speared a harpoon right through me.