Mariana dove and vanished. A few moments later, several yards away, she erupted out of the water like a dolphin. She looked just like the mermaids I had pictured. She splashed back down and soon was up again, farther away. Dani dove, too, but unlike Mariana didn't resurface. I hesitated, wondering if I was supposed to swim after them. Thankfully, he popped back up a second later, grinning.

"Just kidding." He struck me as the practical joker of the group, and I was glad that he was joking around with me; it made me feel like one of them. But once I was the target of the jokes, I could see why Thomas never seemed amused by them. Dani turned his back to me. "Hop on."

"What?"

He wiggled his shoulders. "Like a piggy-back ride. Unless you'd like to swim by yourself." I could actually hear the smirk.

I hesitantly swam forward, put my arms around his shoulders, and held onto his hips with my legs. "Like this?"

"That's fine."

All at once, I realized that we were moving. He wasn't swimming, but we were very obviously gliding through the water.

"How exactly..." I began.

"I'm a water elemental," he said simply. I noticed that he was swimming, or gliding, or whatever he did a bit faster. "I'm going to speed up."

Then, he ducked his head under and started going a lot faster. The wind whipping my face reminded me of skiing, and I leaned forward over his shoulders. I wasn't sure if being more aerodynamic helped in this situation, until he rolled a bit and stuck his head up.

"Good girl," he said as he rolled back over.

We sped along for just a few minutes. He stopped, and I realized that he was standing. I slid off of his back and went totally under. I yelped in surprise and kicked off the bottom and back up to the surface, spitting out water.

"You okay, shorty?" Dani was smirking, but he grabbed my arm and held me up steady, until I stopped spluttering. He backed up into shallower water, until I could touch the bottom. Even then, my toes were just touching, and his head and shoulders were well above the surface.

I waded until I was able to stand comfortably. Mariana came to stand next to me, and, judging from her posture, she had her legs back. Her hair still looked green in the dim light. I looked out in the direction we had come. I couldn't even see the lights from the yacht anymore. In the distance, I could just see the outline of another island. I had never seen the stars so bright. They stood out against the pitch-black sky and reflected off of the dark water.

Dani raised his arm and pointed at something in the sky. With his arm up, I was able to see something on his wrist. It looked like one of those two-colored nautical stars. But, it couldn't have been a tattoo. I had never noticed it before.

"Southern Cross," he said.

I immediately turned my attention from his wrist to the famous constellation. "Wow," I breathed. "I've never seen it before."

"Neither have I," Mariana said.

"I just pointed it out to you the other night," Dani said.

"I meant on this trip. This trip is the first time I've seen it."

Dani laughed. "Yeah, yeah. First time I've seen it, too."

"Really?" Mariana sounded shocked.

"Really. Why is that so surprising?"

"You've been everywhere!"

"I've never been this far south," Dani said.

"Oh. I guess I just feel like you've lived all over the place," Mariana said, looking embarrassed.

Dani shook his head. "This is the first time I've ever been to the southern hemisphere."

"Greece, Vietnam ..." Mariana continued.

Dani burst out laughing. "I never helped you with geography homework, did I? Cause, unless they moved them without telling me, I'm pretty sure Greece and 'Nam are north of the equator."

"I know where they are! I just meant you've lived in a lot of exotic places!"

"Yeah, Michigan has a rich, unique culture."

Mariana growled in frustration. "I cannot win with you!"

"I'm sure you will, someday." He started messing up Mariana's hair. "I've spent a long time perfecting how to be a jerk, little calf."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I've told you not to call me that!"

"I've spent a long time perfecting how to be a jerk, little calf." Dani used the exact same inflection he had before.

The word calf, which had never struck me as endearing, made more sense as a nickname now that I knew they weren't married. For the first time, their bickering sounded playful and didn't make me worry about how their honeymoon was going. Mariana ducked out from under his hand and stomped away. Dani whistled something at her, and she turned and whistled back, still looking annoyed. I noticed that the stars seemed to be getting brighter. No, everything else was getting darker.

"Oh no," I groaned. "My spell is wearing off!" Even though I was disappointed, I almost smiled at how insane the words I said sounded.

Dani gave me a friendly elbow jab in the side. "Practice makes perfect."

More confident this time, I aimed my wand at my eyes. "Mar!" Once again, everything got a bit easier to see. I couldn't hold back a triumphant grin.

"Come on," Dani said.

I followed him out of the water and up onto the beach. When we stopped, I looked around the island. Even with my night vision, I could tell that it was incredibly dark. The moon was just a tiny, thin sliver, and we were miles from any man-made source of light. I shivered; now that I was out of the water, I was cold. Then, I felt something odd and looked over at Dani. He had his hand just above my shoulder, and a small ball of water was gathering in his palm. I realized that he was drying me off.

"Whoa," I breathed. He chuckled, and in a moment, I was completely dry and a bit warmer.

"Better?"

"Yeah, thanks!"

Mariana walked over to us. Her hair looked blonde again, and she looked rather cold, too. Dani dried her off, and we stood on the beach for a moment. It was completely silent, except for the sound of the waves gently lapping on the sand. It was almost magical. I tightened my grip on my wand and giggled.

"What's so funny?" Mariana whispered.

I blushed. "I was... I was just thinking how the island seems magical, but then I realized..."

She and Dani laughed. Dani gently tousled my hair.

"Enjoying your newfound worldview, then?" he asked.

"Yeah."

Dani smiled. "There is, in fact, a magical reason we're here."

"What?" I asked.

"Listen."

We fell silent again. At first, I couldn't hear anything but the water. After a moment, I realized there was another sound, but I couldn't quite identify it. We listened for another minute, and I realized that it sounded like singing.

"What is that?" I whispered.

"Let's find out," Dani said. I could tell from his smirk that he knew exactly what it was, but followed him up the beach nonetheless.

We found a small path and followed it between low bushes and small trees.

"Ow," Dani said suddenly. He bent and examined his leg. "Watch it, these bushes have thorns."

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's just a scratch." Dani raked his fingers though his wet hair and gathered a small ball of water. He knelt down and held it against his leg where the thorn had scratched him. After a few seconds, he tossed the water away and stood. "All better."

"All better?" I echoed. "Like, it stopped hurting or it's gone?"

"Gone." Dani started walking again. Incredulous, I followed.

Even though I was dry, I was still getting a bit cold. I glanced behind me at Mariana as we walked. She was human now, right?

"Aren't you cold?" I asked her.

"It's a bit chilly," she said. "But I'm fine."

"You're human though, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but I'm from New York," she giggled. "This is like a nice spring evening. Are you cold?"

"A bit." Even as I spoke, I remembered that Thomas had said a fire wand could make heat. "Hang on!" I felt pretty good after having successfully cast two spells on myself. I wasn't sure where to point it, so I just aimed my wand at my chest and concentrated on feeling warm. I started to picture sitting in front of a fire, but decided that I might end up making fire that way, so instead, I just imagined being by a heater. When I was fairly sure that I wouldn't end up setting myself on fire, I cast what I hoped would be my very first heat spell. "Mar!" A faint warmth started to spread from my chest to the rest of my body. It was a weak spell, but just strong enough to take the edge off of the chilly night air.

"You catch on quick," Dani said. He ruffled my hair yet again, and I didn't understand why it seemed to bother Mariana. I didn't mind it at all.

We resumed our hike across the island. When everything started to get dark again, I didn't get discouraged. Instead, I paused, aimed my wand at my eyes again, and cast another night vision spell. I couldn't keep a smile off my face, as it worked once again. It was probably wishful thinking, but it almost looked like things were just a bit brighter this time.

The island wasn't very big at all, and by the time my spells started to wear off again, we had reached the other side. I cast them both again. I didn't notice a difference in heat, but I was positive that my night vision spell was brighter. The beach on this side of the island was rocky, and there were large boulders in the water. Some of them had animals on top of them. I could see the same animals swimming in the water. They looked sort of like the sea lions we kept seeing. The faint sound we had heard had gotten louder and louder; now it was loud and clear. It sounded like whales, but it was a happy, playful sound.

I started to edge closer to the beach, but Dani flung out his arm and stopped me. "Wait. They'll run from humans, even a witch."

"What are they?"

"Water sprites."

I watched the water sprites curiously as they dove off of the rocks and splashed around. The music clearly was coming from them. "Are they singing?"

"Yes," Mariana said. "Happy, isn't it?"

"Yeah." I felt content just listening to it. "Are there words?"

"Who knows," Dani chuckled. "It's not Panth, if that's what you mean. These guys are magical creatures, but they're just animals."

We watched them for what seemed like ages. They dove, came back up, and did flips above the water, like dolphins. Some sat happily on rocks, others just floated around. One swam right up to where the low waves crashed and let the tide roll him around the beach. All the while, their joyful music filled the air.

When I recast my spells for a second time, Dani nudged me. "We should get you back to your yacht. You're going to be really tired from all this spell casting."

"Okay."

We turned and slowly hiked away from the beach and back across the island. We waded down into the water. Mariana dove right in. When she surfaced, her hair was already green. It seemed like she didn't have to wait before turning into a mermaid, it happened the moment she entered the water. While I tried to get used to the water temperature, she swam out ahead, dove down, and did a flip like the sprites. I looked past her to the wide open, empty stretch of water. I turned to Dani.

"How are we going to find the yacht?"