Leaving Torun was the hardest thing Lucy had ever had to do.

As she stood up on the deck of the yacht and shimmied into her old gear, rage at Blake burned in her chest.

How had she been so wrong about him? How had she been so stupid for so long? How had she ignored the signs and excused the lies?

Oh, yeah. Because she’d mistakenly thought she was in love with him. So they never spent any time together the last year of their marriage. So Blake had been unusually cruel whenever she did see him. She’d put his chaotic moods down to stress and sadness. Love was blind.

Torun’s love had opened her eyes.

Blake walked up on the deck. He was a complete stranger. That long-ago college grad with a dimpled smile and a cute butt had been eaten by a slick, smarmy investor. His gaze jerked and his movements disconnected.

He set down his spear gun to check his gear.

Could she cross the deck and steal it from him? Low chance. On her old trawler, maybe, but the mega-yacht deck was wide, the gun remained within his arm’s reach, and she didn’t like the consequences.

No, she needed to face him where she had more of a chance.

In the water.

Blake brought her a tank. “I thought you wouldn’t need this now you were half fish.”

“Do I look half fish?” She affixed the tank to the BCU and shouldered it. “There’s no such thing.”

“You can’t tell me lies.”

“Do you really believe in mermen?”

“They found one off the coast of Indonesia. Caught on camera by tourists. Everyone’s asking whether it’s a hoax.”

“Of course it’s a hoax.” Her heart beat faster. The only chance to get away from him was in the water — so long as he thought she was ordinary. She gave him her best scornful look. He always hated it when she knew more than he did. “What’s wrong with you?”

“If it’s not true, how come I could drop a mic in the water and make a couple announcements and they come pouring out?”

“They’re free divers with expanded lung capacity from a secretive island tribe,” she lied. Stupid Ailan. “I’ve been staying with them. Their boat’s on the other side of the atoll. This is a publicity stunt.”

His eyes narrowed.

“You know what else? You can rent a merman to come to your party. A guy in a swim tail sits in a tank. I’ll tell your size zero girlfriend to hire one for your birthday.”

“Whatever. This doesn’t matter. All that matters is a cave full of Sea Opals and you’re about to mule them out for me.” He lifted an oversized tank and motioned for her to grab on. “You’ll carry my backup tank.”

He zip-tied the tank to her.

What the heck?

“Who carries zip ties on a yacht?” she demanded. “Were you planning to kidnap someone?”

“Shut up and get in.”

This was bad. She’d planned to lead Blake to the cave, steal his cage key, and strand him while she rescued Torun.

“I’m going to tip upside down.”

“I’ll take off your dive weights.” He didn’t sound like he cared. “I don’t want to run out of air halfway through the cave.”

“Just me then.”

“Women don’t use up as much oxygen.”

“This is ridiculous.”

“Breathe shallow.” Blake cinched on two dive knives. He lifted the spear gun. “You get in the water first.”

She rolled in backward. Bubbles gurgled to the surface. The tank dragged her down. She reversed her descent with powerful strokes of her plastic fins, gripped the regulator in her teeth, and breathed in air normally. Through the water’s surface, Blake shimmered, standing at the top of the yacht.

She inflated her BCU, broke the surface, and spit her regulator. “Coming?”

He held her mask on his finger. “Forget something?”

Oops.

But he obviously didn’t believe she was a mermaid who could see and swim underwater because he tossed the mask to her. While she put it on, he turned around and reverse-stepped in. His tank was weighted properly; he descended.

She could whack him with the extra tank. He only had one spear and she could probably dodge. Probably. He’d have to wind the spear back, and meanwhile, she could rush him, yank off his regulator, and grapple him for the key to Torun’s airless prison.

And get stabbed by one of his many knives.

Blake looked up at her and tapped his clock.

She had neither timer nor altimeter nor plan. No. Something would come to her. Something would happen, and she would jump at the opportunity. She would get the key and not be stabbed.

Blake wrote on his tablet. “Don’t be stupid. Air = low.” He drew a box around the air so she would know he meant Torun and not his own.

She rolled her eyes and swam for the cave. With the tank, it was awkward. Even so, Blake struggled behind her. Was he out of shape? Funny; he didn’t look it.

The cave’s location thrummed in her chest cavity, and its familiar song grew louder as she approached. The ocean wove a musical tapestry. Threads of fish and reef animals sang and gleamed in the brilliant light ocean, and she easily followed the lines back to the origin.

There, the cave mouth glowed from within. The Sea Opals from the Life Tree called to her. She couldn’t not hear it; their song pulsed in her veins.

Mr. Huggles rose from the depths.

Her heart beat faster.

The mammoth octopus’s warbling seagull song changed with recognition. She stroked Lucy’s cheek with her sucker, as she had done last time. Lucy struggled not to greet the cave guardian back. Chest thrumming would sound strange to Blake and might tip him off.

The octopus’s song darkened in warning. She curled between Lucy and Blake. Her arms waved in threat.

Blake shifted the spear gun to the octopus.

Oh, no.

The octopus bunched up, darkening further. Her skin changed to rippled red ridges and tentacles knotted into fists.

No.

He couldn’t spear the gigantic octopus. Was he nuts? She shook her head at him. Spearing Mr. Huggles was dumb, unnecessary, and cruel.

Blake took something from his pocket and held it out.

Her Sea Opal!

The octopus bunched up like the Sea Opal was poison. Blake waved it. Mr. Huggles backed away, feinted at him, and backed away again. She knew something was wrong but did not attack.

Blake paddled to the cave mouth.

As he passed, the octopus took one last swipe at him. The huge tentacle slammed into the outer wall.

He startled and dropped his spear gun. Mr. Huggles disappeared into the depths, her song a melancholy, minor key of a trash compactor. The spear gun fell on rocks inside the cave.

Blake swept his flashlight over the uneven surface, missing the spear gun. The light played over the wrong rocks. The spear gun remained in shadow.

He’d lost the spear gun.

Now! Her chance!

Lucy kicked for it.

Something jerked her back. Her heart pounded in her throat. Hands closed around her mask. She rolled.

Blake clawed at her face. Water poured into her mask.

She elbowed Blake’s regulator. It popped from his mouth. Bubbles cascaded for the cave roof. He let go.

The tank dragged her down. She kicked with it. There was the spear gun—

Blake grabbed her arm.

She struggled.

He tore her regulator from her mouth and sucked in her air. His arm went around her throat. No. She clawed at his forearm. Her muscles trembled and went weak. He squeezed.

No!

They floated in the water. Was he strangling her? Oh, wait. With his other hand, he captured his free-floating regulator, spit hers out, and put his own back in his mouth. He released her throat and shoved her regulator at her again.

Her arms stopped trembling. He wasn’t trying to kill her. Okay.

Blake still didn’t know about her abilities. He thought she needed the air.

Lucy took her regulator again and breathed the unnecessary air. Somehow, she had to use her secret against him.

He clipped his flashlight to his BCU and played it over the wrong rocks again.

She wasn’t going to point out the right place. He checked his clock and his air. Releasing her, Blake unstrapped his thigh knife and twitched it at her. Show him the way.

If she had mastered transforming her fins, instead of napping on Torun all the time, she would be faster and better than Blake.

Lucy led him deeper into the cave. The way was actually very straight. How funny that her memories put it at winding and confusing. They arrived in the dry area of the cave and climbed out. The extra tank made her groan as she hauled it out. Blake moved his flashlight over the cave formations.

He saw her old dive gear and looked at her sharply.

“I had a backup,” she said.

He checked his oxygen gauge and altimeter. “Take me to the Sea Opals.”

She dragged the extra tank. It shrieked. “Take this off first.”

He sliced the plastic zip tie. His knife nicked her wrist.

“Ow.” She rubbed her strained wrists and sucked on the cut. It tasted metallic.

He shoved her forward. “Show me.” His hands shook.

“Are you okay?”

He waved the blade at her. “Now.”

Her heart sank. Why hadn’t she already escaped? She led him straight to the Sea Opals.

He stood where, only days before, she also had, and he played his light over the vast pool. His flashlight flattened the Sea Opals’ brilliance, a black light swallowed by a dark background. Is this how her flashlight had looked to Torun all those days ago?

Blake shoved a mesh bag at her. “Fill it.”

She glared at him.

“The clock on your boyfriend is ticking.”

She plunged her hand into the holy water and desecrated it.

The Sea Opals gleamed in her hands, responding to her resonance. Their energy glowed like the energy of the Life Tree. No wonder New Age practitioners noticed medicinal effects. Even before she had changed, the Sea Opal energy soothed a balm on her soul.

Unlike Torun, she had no cultural heritage tied to this church. The desecration would hurt him and his people. It caused her quiet agony.

But she needed to be strong and focus. To stop Blake, to get away, and to save herself and Torun.

Blake kept her under sharp eye. She filled her bag, and he disconnected her two BCUs and tied them to the bag. There were no gems left in the bowl. He inflated her BCUs, old and new, to counteract the weight.

“How will I swim back?” she asked.

Before she could move, he clamped her wrists together and zip-tied them. He forced her down and zip-tied her ankles too. “You won’t.”

He was abandoning her in the cave.

“You’re going to leave me?” She gaped at him. “For how long?”

He didn’t reply.

“No one knows I’m here. I could die in here.”

He still didn’t look up from securing his bloody prize.

No.

No way!

She fought the ties. “Are you nuts? This is attempted murder!”

“Maybe one of your ‘free divers’ will save you.” He made air quotes and snorted.

So, he actually believed in the mer. Oh well. She flexed her pinched wrists. “What about Torun?”

“The box isn’t that big. He might already be dead.”

No. Her heart told her he was still alive.

She remained focused. “You can’t hurt us. There are more. Thousands more Sea Opals. Torun knows where they are.”

Blake glanced at her. “Oh, yeah?”

“This is nothing. Torun can show you.”

“He won’t show me.”

“He will if we’re both alive.”

Blake shouldered his BCU and the untouched tank of oxygen she had carried for him. “With the equipment I can buy now, I’ll find the rest on my own.”

“You’ll never find them! They’ve been hidden for centuries. They’ll disappear and you will never find another opal.”

He considered it. “Thanks for the info. I’ll kidnap one of the yahoos that come for Torun’s body. Just in case.”

“Blake!”

He paused at the edge of the water. “Last confession? Want to apologize for being such a useless waste of my time?”

No. No, if these were her final words, then she sure did not.

She looked him up and down. “I’m disappointed in myself.”

He snorted. “Yeah. No surprise.”

“I fell in love and married a broke guy with big heart. Then, you changed. I’m disappointed I made all the excuses for you to my parents, and I lied about how great you still were to my friends, and I lied to myself about how much we meant. I should have left you the moment you started skipping our commercial dives to gamble. You’re the failure. Not me.”

His ugly face turned white. “You can’t even have kids.”

“Thank god. You would have been a terrible father.”

“You want to know what?” He leaned close to her. His breath tasted stale, like black seaweed moldering in the sun. “I never cared about kids. Your dad promised to sign over his charter business on the birth of his first grandchild.”

“You sick bastard,” she hissed.

Triumph lit his sneer. “Getting fat and weepy made the decision to close your loser investment easy.” He stood and looked down on her. “Goodbye, loser.”

She screamed at him as he disappeared into the water, dragging the BCUs with him.

Her cell phone was still attached to her old BCU. When it reached a shallower depth and connected to a signal, it would power on and transmit her videos to Facebook.

God, if only she’d gotten a video of him just now, threatening her. Gotten it, and sent it straight to the police.

Lucy thrashed and wriggled.

The rock beneath her butt shifted.

She slid into the water.

The ocean closed over her, swallowing her screams to blub-blubs. She sucked in sea water and choked. Panic shot through her. She was drowning!

She sank through the layers, writhing helplessly. Desecrating the sacred Sea Opals had stolen her powers. She was a human once more.

She was human and dying.