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 sea-prince, surprised, recalled that night, that storm. Not a kidnapping; a simple accident, a boat gone down, the Queen and her son lost in the tempest. But the baby had survived; some kindly porpoises had seen it to shore, and seen it found by fishermen, on a tiny island.


But, sang the sailor to his lover. But I was a baby, on an island. My mother and father told me I was a gift; they could not have children, and they were given me, one night, in the rain.


They gazed at each other, under the fluttering blue and green draperies Cade had flung across rocks, around the leaping fountains of water provided by elemental magic.


There was proof. A medallion. In the wreck. They dived, found it, looked the future in the face. If the sailor went home to be a King—


But the land cried out for a leader. Civil war threatened; the people needed care; the inheritance would help others.


Chapter 57