Once upon a time, on a rocky island with enchantment under the ocean ... Cadence Bell left the windswept Northern Isles and his parents’ inn for the theaters and royal masques and glitter of Londre, swearing he’d make his fortune as a playwright and poet, trading fish stew and rain for fame and adoration and a place at the Queen’s Court. Now his parents are gone and Cade’s inheritance brings him back home, where he’d never wanted to return. But magic lurks beneath the waves, a stray pearl might be a key to another world, and even the quiet local schoolteacher has secrets of his own. Jeremiah Carver never meant to hide secrets. But he promised to tell no one about the other world he’s seen, and he keeps his word. Even if that means concealing magic from Cadence Bell. Which is difficult, since Cade’s not only a dazzling literary success, but also the person Jeremiah’s loved from afar since their years-ago childhood. And he’s afraid he’s falling for Cade all over again now. When Cadence falls under the siren spell of the ocean’s magic, Jeremiah has to make a choice and return to a world he’s left behind once before to rescue his heart from the sea.

Cadence and the Pearl

“Um,” Cade said, getting lost in nerves and despair. “You’d think I’d be better at this—I’ve written literally hundredsof drafts of proposals for the stage but I—oh, fuck. It mattersthis time. It’s you.”


“Cadence,” Jeremiah said, eyes enormous, tone very much that of a person granted one wish and trying to believe it, “did you just—are you asking me to—marry you?”


“I think…yes? Or if not now, not yet, if you would, um, maybe someday, if you’d even think about—”


“Yes!” Jeremiah flung arms around him, making the bed creak with joyfulness. “Yes, of course yes—I said yes to you already, I said it earlier, downstairs—I love you, I was thinking, I love you. I only didn’t know if you—oh, fuck, Cade, yes. I’m yours. Completely yes.”


“Everything,” Jeremiah said. “Yes to everything. It’ll be complicated and I don’t know what I’m doing and we have four weeks to do it. And you made me a professor and made us into ambassadors of culture or something—”


Chapter 32