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“We didn’t want you and Gideon to break up. You’re much happier with him around. Everyone thinks you’re so much nicer now, and you come into town more. You don’t ignore us like you used to. We worried that if you sent him away, you would go back to how it was before,” Shelby said. “So, we took it out of the mailbox.”

“It doesn’t matter now, he’s gone back home where he belongs,” Aerin said, unwilling to hear or talk about Gideon.

“Sandy!” Calipsa snapped her fingers.

“What the hell is that?” Aerin frowned as Sandy removed a heavy metal cylinder from her backpack.

“The starter for the engine of their yacht,” Sandy confessed, hiding behind her sister.

“You removed the starter to strand them here?” Aerin gawped at the heavy piece of machinery. “How the hell did they manage to steal it?”

“I found it under her bed,” Calipsa huffed. “I knew you had to be involved somehow, but they wouldn’t sing unless I promised not to keep you from them,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.

“We waited until the crew fell asleep during the day, and when Gideon and the other vamp went for dinner, we slipped on board. It really wasn’t that hard to break into a ship full of vampires during the day,” Shelby said, only to be silenced by their mother’s glare as she boasted about the theft. If this was what the girls were like at sixteen, she didn’t dare think how long it would be before she was bailing them out of jail, but at least their hearts were in the right place.

“We didn’t want him to leave, and when he came to Crescent Coffee all grumpy and sullen, we knew you two were fighting,” Sandy told her.

“And we may have overheard their conversation. Gideon said he loves you, but you’re stubborn and that he’d better just leave… Anyway, it doesn’t matter what we heard, because he hasn’t left yet, so there is time for you to go after him,” Shelby confessed in a ramble.

“Why would I go after him?” Aerin muttered, despite her heart nagging, telling her to shut up and go find him right this minute. It was as if her own song had turned against her, favoring Gideon.

The girls exchanged a look, then looked her over. “You’re kind of a mess without him. We heard you crying at the private beach last night…” Their mother clipped them on the back of their heads, silencing them. Aerin flushed with embarrassment, not wanting anyone to see her heartbroken and wailing in the night.

“Aerin is a grown woman and has a right to her own privacy. Neither of you had the right to get involved. I’m sorry about their scheming, though I believe their hearts were in the right place,” Calipsa said, and her being so nice made Aerin think she had swallowed too much seawater and altered her brain chemistry.

“The girls are oddly attached to you for some strange reason, and I have to admit you did a good job with the haunted house, which benefits all the sirens in the community. I thought I should bring them to you and let you handle their punishment.”

“Three weeks of coastal cleaning. Not a trace of rubbish or litter anywhere along the coast,” Aerin said.

The girls whined only for their mother to bare her fangs and silence them.

“I think that’s rather lenient,” Calipsa said. “Three weeks of coastal cleaning, and you have to help fix up this death trap.” She grimaced at the house like it would come alive and bite her.

“Thank you,” Aerin mouthed, and Calipsa winked at her. Maybe we could be friends after all? At the very least, civil.

The girls nodded, though having them spend more time with her was more a reward than a punishment.

“Let’s go and let Aerin get back to her evening,” Calipsa said, marching ahead of them. Shelby followed quickly, but Sandy lingered behind.

“Gideon is leaving tonight because they managed to replace the starter this afternoon. I know we should butt out, but you were so happy, and he was so sad in the coffee shop. Put the poor vampire out of his misery and save yourself from becoming some old recluse who gave up on her chance at happiness.” Sandy wrapped her arms tightly around her before running off after her family.

He hasn’t left yet. I still have a chance to stop him. After what I said, there’s no way he’s going to want to talk to me, let alone stay. Aerin closed the door and hesitated at the bottom of the stairs. You’ve spent the last three days crying over him and avoiding coming home because you can’t stand this place without him. Now isn’t the time to be stubborn. This is your last chance; if you don’t go now, that’s it. Her conscience lectured her.

Another knock at the door quieted the argument in her head. What if it was Gideon? What if he took the boat as a sign not to go? She rushed to the door, only for her stomach to drop when she saw a man in overalls on the porch.

“Aerin Clifton? I’m here to fix your roof. Sorry I’m late—or early, I should say,” the vampire said, reading from a clipboard.

“I didn’t order anything.”

“Let me see.” He flipped the page and removed the order form. “The order was placed last week by a Gideon Blackwater, paid in full. If you don’t want the job done, I could probably give you a refund.” He handed her the form, and she saw his signature. Tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill over as her heart tore open with regret, just as he said it would.

“Can you come back?” Aerin asked hurriedly, handing him the form. “There’s somewhere I have to be.”

“No problem, I call—” He started, and she would have to apologize for slamming the door in his face when he came back.

“He couldn’t have… he would’ve told me.” Aerin ran to the basement and searched the lining at the bottom of his coffin, where he kept his coins, but all the gold coins were gone. He had spent the last of his money fixing her roof. Overwhelming regret rushed over her, and she didn’t need to think twice before taking the shortcut through the tunnels to the beach. I have to get to the yacht before they get out on open water, she thought, diving into the water. Despite pushing her muscles to the limit, after being in the ocean for the last three days, she didn’t have the energy to catch them in open water.

In the harbor, she searched the boats and found they were no longer anchored and were about to leave the cove. Aerin smacked the water. They were too far for her song to work on them. She thought about swimming after them, but it would be a waste of time. She spotted the Kraken Tour being refueled for the midnight run and had the worst idea. There was only one way to block their path, and she only hoped he wouldn’t hate her for it, but she had to try.