Chapter 7They spilled out onto a familiar pebbled beach in a cacophony of sea-spray, waves and voices, bodies finding legs, scales flickering and flowing. Merfolk laughed and stretched and gathered limbs with undisguised interest, staring at sturdy houses and stone steps and the market and rain overhead, falling restlessly from smoky rolling skies. Fishing-boats were turning in the distance, having seen the ocean boil and erupt, moving to put back into the harbor; Jeremiah’s enchanted cloak got wrapped around Cade’s left leg.
They tripped over each other, righted themselves, did not let go; Jeremiah breathed, marveling, “What did you do?”
“We,” Cade whispered back. “What did we do? I think—”
Motion, his name, a gasp on the wind: they turned as one and belatedly registered the knot of hu
