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

The pang surprised him. It hit like the slip of a knife, only instead of nicking his hand it’d somehow caught his heart.


He tasted salt and air, when he breathed. He wanted Nerein’s gaze to rest on him with want, without picturing Jer instead. He knew that wasn’t the case, and his stomach did an unhappy flip about it. It hadn’t felt this way in years; the feeling had snuck up gradual and abrupt as a kitten’s slow-build practice pounce.


He wanted to find out how that midnight-ocean skin felt under his hand. He wanted to make those glittery eyes smile and laugh. He wanted to be there to see Nerein explore other kinds of bread, and fantastical operettas in Cade’s ridiculous amphitheater, and his own favorite cove at sunrise, where the light came in just right through a hole in the rock and spilled heart-shaped gold all over the pebbled shore.


Chapter 42