Page 29 of The Mirror and the Curse

“Prince Fidelio isn’t a self-confident person, and Kai is. I’m guessing the prince also sees how happy you are when you’re with Kai.”

“Beatrice . . . Kai is . . . I mean . . .” Heat rose up Eddi’s neck to burn her face. Why was it so hot inside this car?

“He may be short, but he’s very attractive.”

“Yeah. And . . . yeah. But . . .”

“But nothing. He’s your friend. If you enjoy his company, go with it, Eddi. You don’t owe anything to Fidelio.”

“I guess you’re right. If he can spend time with both me and Raquel, I can hang out with Kai if I want to.” A weight seemed to lift from her spirit.

“And you can enjoy your girlfriends. Less stress.”

“Bea. Seriously? You know my girlfriends.”

“Okay—stress on a scale of epic magnitude?”

Eddi chuckled. “Got that right. Um, thanks for listening to me. I’m still a mess, but . . . it helps.”

“Anytime, girl. You know I’m here. Just . . . Eddi, listen to yourself sometimes.”

After lunch that day, Eddi and a group of friends headed down to the docks. Maria wasn’t a swimmer, much less a water skier, but she enjoyed driving the ski boats. So Eddi, Ianthe, Fidelio, and his old friend Prince Chasse from Camargue took turns skiing and spotting while Maria drove.

“Isn’t that Raquel on the beach?” Ianthe blurted while Fidelio was skiing.

Sure enough, Eddi gazed across the deep-blue lake toward the shore and picked out Raquel amid the crowd of sun worshippers, svelte and gorgeous in a hot-pink bikini.

“Yeah, she’s there,” Chasse answered. “She wanted us to join her group, but I don’t see any point in sitting beside a lake when I could be playing in it, and Fidelio said he’d rather ski too.”

Chasse was tanned and lean with a mop of white-blond hair and blazing blue eyes—Eddi couldn’t blame her friends for being in a bit of a tizzy about having him along.

Ianthe tanned too, like a little sun goddess, but the rest of them weren’t so lucky. Maria protected her fair complexion with sunscreen, a wide-brimmed hat, and shades. Fidelio, like Eddi, tended to fry without sunblock, so they both wore full wetsuits and slathered their faces, hands, and feet with white slime.

Fidelio wasn’t much of a skier. Eddi knew he was trying hard to please her, so she tried hard to be pleased and encouraging. After he wiped out and lost his skis, she took her second turn, popped right up, and rode the waves with ease, even performing a nice flip off the wake.

But her heart and head weren’t in it. She kept thinking about that phone call. And about Kai.

While skimming easily over the waves, she noticed something beneath the surface, right next to her skis. A slim, scaly form with a shining tail, streaming dark hair, and—

“Kammy?” The name escaped her lips just before she missed a turn and plowed into the water, losing both skis. When she bobbed to the surface, coughing and wiping her face, something brushed against her leg. Something slimy. Her heart jerked along with her leg, and she spun around, trying to see underwater.

Something large rose up through the water, and a broad gray head broke the surface beside her. That was no mermaid! Just as she sucked in air to yell, she realized it was a catfish. A catfish nearly as long as she was tall, with tiny yellow eyes and a huge mouth framed by trailing whiskers. It was seriously ugly, but it wasn’t aggressive.

Treading water, Eddi relaxed. “Are you . . . are you Kammy’s catfish friend?”

Just then, something grabbed her toes. Startled but already grinning, Eddi looked down into the water and saw a face smile up at her, a beautiful face surrounded by a cloud of black hair.

It was Kamoana the siren in her mermaid form. She held up six fingers.

“Meet at six o’clock?” Eddi clarified and saw her friend nod. “At the boulders across from the island?”

Smiling, Kammy gave her two thumbs up. With a flip of her tail, she disappeared into the murky lake.

The ski boat’s engine rumbled as it approached, with Chasse leaning over the side to collect a ski.

“Eddi, are you all right?” Fidelio helped her up the ladder. “What in the world were you doing?”

“I saw a fish,” Eddi answered honestly, wrapping up in her damp towel. “A really big catfish.” She grinned. “Oh, and a siren.”

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