"Dax. Are you there?" the muffled voice of a girl called from the other side of the door.

Halen stretched out her stiff muscles. Her cheek pressed against something hard and the wind pricked her bare skin. Where was she? When she opened her eyes and finding the cracked curved walls, she groaned. She was still in Elosia. She had hoped to wake from this nightmare, but she feared it was only the beginning.

The door slid open and a girl with shaggy brown hair stared wide eyed. "Who the hell are you?"

"What are you doing here, Nelia?" Dax rushed in from behind and shoved the girl inside. He threw his hand over the copper dial.

"I could ask you the same." She widened her stance. A corset the color of patina pennies touched her hips; the collar lined her breastbone with a necklace of swirling fish and matching swimsuit bottoms below. "You're not supposed to be here. Do you have a death wish?"

"I came back for the map." Dax glanced around the broken sphere, his gaze landing with Halen. "What did you do?"

"Me? I didn't do this." Halen's head spun as she sat. She leaned against the wall, catching her breath.

"Are you okay?" Sidestepping the broken glass, Dax crouched next to her.

"I'm fine," she said, though her bones ached with a fevered chill. She wished for a vial of her mom's medicine.

"You need to learn to control your emotions." Dax picked up a long shard of mirror and angled it so the light from outside cast rainbow rays along the floor. "There's so much more you could do with your powers."

"You honestly think I did this?" Her throat bubbled with a nervous laugh as she eyed the fractured ceiling.

"I know you did," he said.

Halen swallowed hard. She hadn't meant to blow out the window. She never meant for things to get out of control. But she didn't know how to stop them. This thing, whatever it was burning inside her, didn't want to be tamed.

It wanted to be free.

"Do you know what's wrong with me?" Halen asked.

"Everything." Nelia unwound the hammock. Then, taking the blanket from inside, she used it to sweep the shards of the mirror into a pile. "I can't believe you brought her here." She stepped back and leaned into the curve of the wall, eyeing Halen.

"Nothing's wrong with you," Dax said. "You have a gift—magick runs through your veins. You just need to learn how to wield it properly."

Halen stared blankly, her mouth agape. "You don't know what you're saying." She thought she had lost her mind, but clearly, Dax was the delusional one.

"There's no simple way to put this." Dax's gazed darted to Nelia and then back to Halen.

"You're a siren." Nelia blurted.

"A what?" Siren. The name played through her thoughts. "Like a mermaid?" She shuddered inside.

"You're nothing like those witches. You're human, and well, you are also one of us." He placed his hand over his heart.

"That's not possible." Halen's fingers trembled as she traced the fine dark marks running along her veins, veins black because mermaids had attacked her. She shuddered, the chills spreading with her fear.

"Do you mind if I show you something?" He reached for her arm and Halen recoiled from his touch. "I won't hurt you." He held out his hand again. "Really, this may help you believe me."

Halen thought nothing he could say would convince her otherwise, that he wasn't a raving lunatic, but she held out her arm anyway.

Sparks lit along her arm as Dax ran his finger across her birthmark. "Did you know each symbol represents your life path—your destiny?"

Halen shook her head.

He traced the spirals on the back of her shoulder. "This dot is the month of January, and these little dots, the day and the year."

He had guessed the month correctly. She turned to find a piece of mirror still affixed to the wall. Halen craned her neck, rolling her shoulder toward the mirror where a starburst filled her back. She brushed her fingers across the needle-pointed lines. She gasped. "This is new."

"New symbols appear with each birthday, sometimes up to a month before or even after."

Halen wondered what else her birthmark said about her. Was there a dot or swirl showing she would go insane? Maybe that mark would appear today.

"All Elosians have a birthmark similar to yours." He stopped at the black smudges, their circles overlapping like a Venn diagram. He bit back his lip.

"What? What do the circles mean?"

"You're a blue-moon siren." Nelia let out a heavy sigh. "Unbelievable."

"I don't understand. Is this worse?"

"All sirens are bad news." Nelia aimed her words at Dax.

"What does she mean?" Halen slid her arm from him.

"Relationships with humans are forbidden." He stood, brushing past Nelia.

Halen wondered what Dax had been doing in the ocean. Had he been to the shore? Had he broken an Elosian law? He met her gaze and her sparks electrified. She clasped her arm where the two circles intersected. "Tell me what else my birthmark says. What do these circles mean?"

He peered out the window, the wind blowing his blond hair back.

"It means you're dangerous," Nelia said.

She wanted to tell her this wasn't true, but the evidence in the broken sphere was stacked against her. "Then why did you bring me here—to Elosia?"

"Yes, why?" Nelia shook her head. "I would like to know what possessed you to do something so stupid."

"The mermaids came for her." His gaze slid to the bracelet.

"No." Nelia gasped. "You need to leave." Nelia grabbed his arm. "Get as far away as you can."

"I need the map."

Nelia cleared her throat. "The map's not here."

"Where is it?" his tone cut with anger.

"After you left, I took it back to the records chamber. The Council searched your room. I didn't want to give them more fuel." She dragged her toe across the floor. "Your mom isn't doing well."

He bowed his head. "Please don't tell her I was here."

"I wouldn't," Nelia said.

"Are you in trouble?" Halen asked. "Is this why you're hiding?"

"You haven't told her?" Nelia threw up her hands.

"She just found out she's a siren. I think it can wait."

"Can you stop talking in riddles? My head is spinning." Halen's pulse raced, her thoughts flooding with blue moons, sirens, mermaids, and magick. If all this was true, and she was a part of this world... A sinking feeling washed over her.

Her mom knew.

All these years, she knew exactly what was wrong with her. Halen rubbed her throbbing head. She couldn't be a siren. Wouldn't she have some inkling the realms even existed? But she had felt something—the sparks. She'd fought the fiery bursts beneath her skin her entire life. And the drawings—three months of sketching the boy and now her impossible dream stood a few feet away. "I don't feel so good." She clutched her stomach.

"Can you get to Catch?" Dax asked Nelia. "He has elixir."

"Of course. Wait here." She headed to the door.

Dax took Nelia's hand, drawing her to him. "Please be careful who you talk to."

She touched his chest. "I'll meet you back here."

"No, we're going to the records chamber." He dropped her hand.

"It's too dangerous. You'll have to cross the courtyard." Her voice cut with fear.

"I need the map." He met her gaze.

"I'll get it for you."

"There isn't time for both. Halen can't swim like this. She has a fever from using magick and venom in her veins. Please, just find Catch."

"Fine. I'll meet you there." She cast her angered gaze to Halen.

He kissed her cheek. "Thank you."

Her face flushed. "You owe me—big time."

"Don't I always repay my debts?"

"Never." She punched his arm. "Don't get yourself killed."

Nelia's words unnerved Halen on so many levels. If something happened to Dax, how would she find her way out of Elosia? "Maybe we should stay here?"

"We'll be okay. Besides, there's something I want to show you in the records chamber. It will help you understand."

Dax was inches from her. Still, he didn't seem real. She resisted the urge to touch him, swipe her finger over the scar between his eyes that deepened with his frustration. His energy fluctuated rapidly, like dozens of flicking lights. Was this part of the magick? She fanned her tingling fingers by her side. "I don't even know who I am anymore. None of this is possible."

"My mother has this saying; every day is filled with impossibility until you choose to see the possible. Once you make the shift to see, life is a less frightening journey." He stared out the window once more. "Magick is all around you if you choose to believe."

"She sounds wise." She thought of her mother; how she wished she had confided in her about Elosia. Maybe then she would have been able to control the sparks. Maybe then she wouldn't be so scared of her every move.

"My dad is Elosian?" she asked, but she already knew the answer. She had never seen her father's birthmark; he had always worn long sleeves, and in the ocean, a neoprene suit. He traveled a lot, but had this been the place he came to? "They lied." Tears threatened to rise, but she bit them back.

"Hey." He touched her arm. "They kept secrets for a good reason. Having a siren child is punishable by death."

Halen swallowed hard. "My father's dead already."

"This must be very difficult for you." His gaze fixed behind her.

He had no idea. The stories her mother recalled of her father, each memory of who he had been, the years of sickness fevered from the sparks, and believing something was wrong with her mind—every single part of her life had been a lie. And she wanted to know why.