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

He’d believed in merfolk from a young age. His father and grandfather had sworn by them: fisherman’s tales, sea stories, a glimpse or a song. Never any proof, but murmured in ship’s rigging, in sails, in firelit recounting.


He did not quite know how to deal with the legend become real. Here on the rocky shores of Gull Skerrie. Here at the edge of the world. Here on his tiny northern island where lives were measured out in briny catches of the day and rib-warming chowder and an utter lack of secrets.


But there hadbeen secrets. He sat in place for a moment, a man under cool blue sky above pale grey stone. He’d been helping to build the amphibious theater, a loose semicircle that’d encompass sea and land. Other people were working too, busy and bustling.


This theater was something new. This life was something new. The world had come to Gull Skerrie. Fantasy had come to Gull Skerrie.


Above his head the namesake birds called and wheeled, lonely, perplexed.


Chapter 33