Page 151 of Cruel Tides

So much for secretly leaving under the cover of darkness.

I dragged my boots through the sand, watching purple and orange seep into the clouds above the ocean’s horizon. It was morning already. Fantastic.

“Maybe I should have waited,” I mumbled, shielding my eyes from a glint reflecting off the water’s surface. Chosen a time when it would actuallystaydark. But now that I’d disappeared on them once already at the casino, there was no telling when or if the guys would ever leave me alone again.

No—this was my best chance, and I had to take it.

“You’ve got this, Claira,” I whispered to the wind and took in a long breath, letting the island air fill me. The ocean here was nothing like it was back home. Even the air smelled different, with a sweetness akin to vanilla hanging in the breeze.

Well, with any luck, I wouldn’t be gone long. And if I was, at least I’d left a note—a strange note, sure, but enough to let the guys know I’d be back with them soon.

And magic worked quickly, didn’t it? Like lighting a pearl, it could change things in an instant. Perhaps it wouldn’t take long for the cecaelia to discover why the betta fish curse hadn’t affected me and why my touch seemed to break it. Then, maybe, once they figured out how to use that knowledge to help the merfolk, the narrow mindset of Barren’s kingdom might begin to shift.

Even a slight improvement—just a hint of gratitude toward the cecaelia—would be better than how things were now, wouldn’t it?

My heart seemed to drag me down with every step across the beach as I thought of Barren’s peacefully sleeping face back at the bungalow. I hated leaving him like this. Especially after I’d lulled him to sleep with my promise to stay awake. I guess I hadn’t lied, had I? But now that I knew the idiotic reason behind all the injustices he’d endured, how could I sit around knowing my strange gift might be able to help him?

I’d been checking over my shoulder constantly since I’d left, making sure no one had noticed me leaving. Laverne was my leading concern. I cast the ocean a weary glance, half-expecting her to pop up with a jaw full of spit and insults, ready to stop me.

But so far—thank Poseidon—the beach had been empty.

“Just me and the sand crabs,” I said with a sigh, watching a generously sized crab dig out a burrow. It seemed just as upset about the sun coming up as I was, and its willowy legs worked furiously, fighting to make a place to retreat for the day.

“Ghost crab,”a tiny, jittery voice squeaked into my head. The suddenness of it nearly knocked me off my boots.

“Ghost crab, right, sorry.” In its defense, it was paler than the ghost crabs back home. Perhaps I should have known. I gave it an appraising glance and tipped my chin. “Very spooky.”

While the crab’s legs kept working, its beady black eye stalks swiveled, following me as I passed. Okay—maybe it was more unnerving than spooky. “Uh, please excuse me,” I muttered, kicking up into a jog as I scurried off down the beach.

That was just one more witness for Laverne and the guys to question if they did go looking for me. Hopefully, it would be long tucked away in its burrow by then.

Switching my focus, I eyed the palm trees further up the shore. They’d been my target for the past ten minutes or so, and now I was getting close.

I rubbed my thumb over the abalone’s pearly finish as I jogged, wondering where the cecaelia had expected me to use it. Under the cover of palm fronds seemed as good a place as any. It wasn’t like I knew of a more secretive location—oranyother location on the island.

Shadows cast over me as I slipped between two leaning trees. Centering the abalone in my hand, I steadied myself with a breath. “Here goes nothing.”

The abalone was almost too pretty to break. Almost.

My fist clenched, and the shell snapped, splintering in my hand with the structural integrity of an off-brand potato chip. Black smoke streamed out from between my fingers, and when I opened them, I discovered that the shell had dissolved away. The black wisps of magic thinned, curling up around my arm, and my heart raced with anticipation.

I knew this magic. Dark and cold, like the sea wizard it belonged to.

“Using the shell already,” a smoky voice called from behind me.

As usual, he had excellent timing.

I whirled around, expecting him to have materialized at my back. But there he was, at the edge of the ocean, all dark limbs and pale skin. The perfect depiction of a treacherous sea demon emerging from the waves.

A resoundingtsksurfaced from his lips as he rose from the water, his tentacles hauling him up to where the waves rippled against the shoreline. I must have caught him while he was underwater—maybe even asleep, by the state of his face. Disheveled black hair obscured it, and when he slicked it back to its usual style, his irritation at being summoned was clear.

“Oh. I—I was hoping you wouldn’t be in the water,” I called out to him, huddling with the palm fronds.

“No?” Wet sand squelched with every movement of his tentacles. His pale skin glistened with salt water as he dragged closer, no markings visible on his bare arms or chest. I surveyed his sprawling limbs, and sure enough, a front tentacle secured his trident—a fact that distracted me from noticing just how high one of his dark eyebrows had lifted.

“You wished for me to appear before you in the nude?”

Uh, what?

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