Elena stood, brushed sand from her knees, and smiled. “Teach me, then,” she said to Mira. “Show me what you know.”
Knows the tides. Elena repeated the phrase in her skull. Three months ago, those had been her words. Her joke. Her private language with Luca. Now Mira wore Elena’s old smile, leaned into Luca’s shoulder with Elena’s familiar ease.
Luca shrugged. “She knows the tides.”
The fin vanished. But something else circled below—jealousy, cold and patient.
