Page 53 of Cruel Tides

When I looked back up, Leander’s throat bobbed in a slow swallow. “Yes.” He rubbed over the black streak spanning his arm.

“Oh, damn. That’s new, isn’t it?” I mumbled as I got back to my feet. His fingers pressed into the spot where the trident sharpened to a point as he nodded. “Hopefully, that’s a good thing.” I shrugged. “Maybe that means this plan will work after all?”

Kai scratched at his head. “Do we have a plan?”

I blinked at him before shooting Leander and Barren a curious look. “We did tell you about the plan, didn’t we?”

Kai’s cheeks flushed, and he shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I-I thought we were just going for a ride until Barren told us to get changed like we were going for a swim.”

“Sorry, Kai.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. It was Leander and Barren’s plan, sure, but I’d assumed they’d discussed it in front of Kai, too. “The plan is to take the portal to the Indian Ocean.”

“Whoa, nice!” I could see Kai’s excitement start to bubble as he scanned over every corner of the boat. “What’s a portal? Oh! Are we all getting weapons this time?”

Wait—he didn’t know about the portals?

Barren’s expression turned grim. “No weapons.”

At the mention of no weapons, Kai froze in place. “Going with no weapons? That’s our plan?”

“Having no plan is still a plan,” Leander cut in, radiating an air of confidence I wasn’t sure any of us believed.

Kai scratched at his scalp. “No, that’s… not how planning works.”

There was something menacing in the way Leander’s shoulders tensed at Kai’s skepticism, so I stepped between them. “Well, I don’t have weapons,” I said, untying the string of the bag I’d taken from my backpack, “but I brought these.” Sticking my hand inside, I pulled out a handful of jewelry.

Barren gave the haul an appraising look before saying, “Pearls.”

“Exactly.” I couldn’t help but smile, feeling proud of my foresight. Then absolutely terrible, remembering that the pearls I was holding all belonged to Gram. I hated that I hadn’t had enough time to ask her. Instead, I wrote a note promising that when I came back, I would buy her pearls of all sizes and hues, a set for every occasion.

“Sorry, Gram,” I mumbled, pulling a heavy bracelet made of multiple lines of pearls from the bunch to fasten around Kai’s wrist. Gram would surely think I’d gotten mixed up with a gang of delinquents when she found out her granddaughter was now a thief.

“Whoa, thanks.” Kai shook his wrist and watched as the pearls clanked against one another.

I moved to Barren next, pulling out a double tiered necklace for him. But when I stretched up to his neck, I stalled over the long expanse of his collarbone.

Barren’s neck was so wide, there was no way these were going to fit.

Something brushed against my arm, and I looked down to see his hand outstretched. A frown tugged at my lips as I reluctantly placed the pearls into his palm. “Here. Hopefully, we won’t need them.” I’d chosen the necklace for Barren because I wanted to make it easier for him to light them. Maybe if I tied some fishing line to the clasp…

“Feels familiar.” The gravelly rumble of Barren’s voice caught me off guard. His chin tilted thoughtfully as he turned down to the pearls resting in his palm. Then, dark curls cascading over his brow, he lifted his eyes to look at me. “Doesn’t it?”

My breath caught.Familiar?Like when he’d had me hold the pearls last time? But there was something there in his eyes—deep and expectant—while he waited for my response that had me doubting if I truly knew what he meant.

“Uh, guys?” Kai’s voice came from behind us. “Leander jumped.”

I was still trying to figure out what Barren’s dark eyes were telling me when Kai’s words hit. “Leanderwhat?”

“He jumped,”Laverne echoed in my head. When I turned, she was hanging halfway over the rail, looking down at the ocean below.“Should I go after him?”

“Why would he do that?” I pulled away from Barren and brushed past Kai to get to the spot Laverne was surveying. Fear flooded me when the only thing I could see was the water’s churning surface. “Did—” My voice cracked. What the heck was Leander thinking? “Did he turn into a fish?”

Laverne must have lied about her fear of heights, because she slipped down the side of the boat nose first, plunging into the water.

“I—I need to get down there.” My voice was a shrill, almost inaudible sound. “Kai? Barren?”

They were already moving, and as the two mermen closed around me, I looked back, right at Dad in a panic. “Sorry, Da—” I couldn’t even get the words out before arms closed around me, and down we went, right over the guardrail.

We hit the cold water in unison, the chill of it seeping into my skin for merely a second before my transformation took over.

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