“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Doe says, “stop swimming around the issue.” She grabs Brody by the shoulder and makes him face her. “Our kiss ignited a magical bond, and now we’re connected and you’re turning into a merman. Are you cool with that?”

“Am I—?” Brody laughs. “What?”

“Doe!” I can’t believe she just said that like that. No tact, no leading into the issue. Just blam, you’re a merman. As my brain processes the last bit of her declaration, I jump forward. “Whoa! Brody is not turning into a merman.”

“I’m not?” He sounds almost sad.

“I mean, you are,” I amend. “Technical y.”

“Then what—”

“But we’re not going to let it get that far,” I say to Doe.

“You’re getting a separation just as soon as we can get you two to Thalassinia.”

Doe’s smile is positively evil. My skin prickles with a mixture of fear and anticipation. Slowly she turns in her chair, wraps a hand around her curtain of caramel blond hair, and pul s it out of the way. Prithi takes the opportunity to pounce into Doe’s lap.

“I won’t be going home anytime soon,” she says, her voice laced with lava. “Remember?”

Her neck bared, I stare at the spot at the base where al merfolk are branded with the mark that makes them mer.

But where Doe’s two-part mer mark should be, only a hot pink kelpflower remains. The circle of waves around her mer mark is gone.

“Oh, honey,” I gasp, losing my anger for a moment. “I-I’m sorry, I forgot.”

That must have happened when Daddy revoked her powers. It’s part of her punishment. The outer ring represents a merperson’s aquarespire, our ability to live and breathe beneath the water.

I can’t imagine losing that part of myself. Even though I’ve chosen to live on land, I stil meet Peri off the Seaview pier a few times a week, and I stil plan to visit Daddy at the palace every few weeks. I stil feel the magical power of water in my nightly bath. I stil get energized by the rain. I stil feel mer in every way.

Being without that is unimaginable.

The line Doe crossed must have been real y, real y bad if Daddy felt the need to take the punishment this far.

Real y bad.

“What does that mean?” Aunt Rachel asks. “Dosinia cannot enter the sea?”

I nod. “That’s right.”

“Oh, dear,” Aunt Rachel says. “Are there any other options?”

The room fal s silent for a heartbeat.

Before anyone else has a chance to think, Doe says, “I know.” She lets her hair fal back into place. “You wil have to take Brody to the palace.”

“Me?” I stammer. “No, I can’t. I have SAT prep and my interview and homework and col ege applications and, and, and—”

I look helplessly around the room, at three sets of eyes watching me expectantly. Okay, two expectantly, one gloating.

“Is there any other way?” Aunt Rachel asks.

“There must be,” I insist.

I spend a few desperate moments racking my brain for any alternative. Maybe we could rent a submarine, or just a boat, and Daddy could swim up to the surface to perform the ritual. Or I could send a messenger gul to the palace and ask him to come to Seaview. That’s when I know I’m defeated. I can’t ask the king of Thalassinia to take a day out of his royal duties just because my schedule is kind of tight. Talk about unprincesslike behavior.

“There isn’t,” Doe says, her voice ful of smug finality. “And you know it.”

Slumping back against the counter, I know she’s right.

Doe can’t return to Thalassinia until Daddy lifts her punishment, I can’t ask Daddy to come here, and we need to get her and Brody separated as soon as possible.

Definitely before next weekend’s new moon. The last thing we need is the two of them feeling even more connected than they already do.

I mental y calculate my schedule for the next few days.

“It’s too late to go tonight,” I think out loud. Nightfal makes the ocean too dangerous to travel without an escort of palace guards. “If we leave right after school tomorrow, we might make it back here before midnight. Does that work for you, Brody?”

He shrugs. “I guess so.” Then he laughs. “I’l miss a swim practice, but I can tel Coach I’l be doing an open-water swim.”

“Brody…” I push away from the counter and approach him. “You know you can’t tel anyone, right? No one can know our secret, or we al —you included—wil be in serious danger.”

“I know, Lil,” he says, his tone uncharacteristical y serious.

His sober gaze flicks to Doe. “I wouldn’t betray you guys like that.”

“Good.”

Surely he can keep a secret until tomorrow, until Daddy performs the separation and thorough mindwashing.

Maybe this D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R isn’t as bad as I’d thought.

Maybe it’s just a Disaster. Or even a disaster. It can al be cleared up in one quick swim home.

I ignore the niggle of doubt that reminds me that that’s what I thought last time. That quick trip home turned into a two-week, life-changing ordeal.

But that won’t happen this time. Daddy has no reason to keep Doe and Brody bonded. Doe’s not a royal princess who wil lose her title if she’s not bonded by eighteen.

That’s just me.