"We'll find the yacht," Dani said confidently. "Let's go." He moved so that I could climb onto his back again. "Hold on tight, I'm going to swim a lot faster this time."

"Okay."

Dani dropped his head under the water and took off. I almost let go in surprise; we were practically flying. I bent down closer to the surface and tightened my grip on his shoulders. The water almost stung as it broke against my shoulders, and the wind was as cold as ice on my face. I turned my head a bit to keep the wind out of my eyes and saw that we actually were leaving a wake behind us. I felt him slow down, and his head popped up.

"I want to close the distance a bit faster," he said. "Hold your breath and just tap my shoulder when you need air, okay?"

"Okay," I said nervously.

"Ready?"

I took a deep breath and held it. "Mm hmm."

I squeezed my eyes shut just as we went totally underwater. I thought we were going fast before, but it seemed like we shot through the water like a bullet. My eyes felt like they were being forced open from the pressure of the water, and I had to press my face against his back. I held on to his shoulders for dear life. My legs couldn't even keep their grip on his waist and just trailed out uselessly behind me. I held my breath for as long as I could and then tapped his shoulder. Dani slowed immediately and rose back above the water. I glanced behind us and saw the outline of a tiny island in the distance.

"There's your yacht," he said, nodding his head ahead of us. I could just see faint lights in the distance. "I think, anyway. It's the only one around."

We had already caught up to it? I looked at the far away island again. "How fast can you swim?" I gasped.

"I can hit around one-twenty if I'm trying."

"Miles per hour?" No way!

"Knots." I had no idea how fast a knot was, but I assumed it meant he could really move if he wanted to. "One more deep breath. Ready?"

Once again, we went flying through the water, just under the surface. This time, he surfaced before I tapped him. We were right alongside the yacht!

"How fast is a knot?" I demanded. This was impossible.

"One nautical mile per hour," he said with a smirk. I decided not to give him the satisfaction of asking how far a nautical mile was.

"How do I get back on?" I asked, instead. Dani stopped swimming, and the yacht slowly moved away from us.

"The same way I get back on the ship, since I never answered you about that." He started swimming again, a bit faster than the yacht, and then kept pace right along the bow. "This will be a bit trickier than the ship, since I've got less space to work with. I don't want any crewmembers up there to see us. Anyway, when I let go, start treading water. You might want to brace yourself, too."

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He let go and dove underwater, before I could say anything. I started treading water as the yacht slowly slid past me. Suddenly, something hit me. Hard. It nearly knocked the wind out of me. I had just enough time to realize that I was completely out of the water and flying through the air, when I was jolted to a stop. I took a moment to catch my breath and get my bearings. Dani had an arm around my waist and one hand on the railing of the yacht. He balanced on a small ledge that jutted out from the second deck. The door to my cabin was right there in front of us. I grabbed for the railing, and Dani helped me climb over.

"How did you do that?"

Dani grinned. "I dove down, jumped out of the water, and grabbed you on the way up."

I couldn't believe he could get that high out of the water. No, he could get up to the fourth deck of our ship. "You can jump high enough to get back on the ship?" I gasped.

"You get propelled out of the water going over a hundred knots, and you're going to get a lot of air. Question answered?"

"Yeah," I said in awe.

"Sorry if that hurt, by the way. I'm told that if you're expecting to be grabbed it hurts more."

"It's fine. I was just startled."

Dani smiled. "Well, I hope you had fun. Enjoy the rest of your trip."

"I did have fun. Thank you."

"Sure thing, kiddo," he said. "See you back on the ship. Sweet dreams." He ruffled my hair. When he took his hand away, I saw that he had dried me off again. He flipped backward off of the yacht and vanished under the water.

I stayed out on the deck until my spells wore off again, smiling the entire time. I had never imagined a night like this, even after finding out about magic. I wondered if experiences like this were common for magical people. The fact that Dani and Mariana had gone out of their way to get me had touched me. I was glad they seemed to consider me a friend. I was starting to really like Mariana, even though she acted sort of shy. Since I knew they weren't married, it seemed like Dani treated Mariana like a younger sister, and he'd started doing the same to me. Somewhere along the way, I had started thinking of Dani like a big brother, even though he wasn't much older than I was.

At last, the effect of casting all of those spells caught up to me. I yawned and quietly crept back into my room. Whitney was sound asleep, and I carefully climbed into bed. As I drifted off to sleep, I could swear that the sound of the water sprites’ happy song still hung in the air.

Before I knew it, the four days in Ecuador were over. I was standing in the port, waiting to get on the ship, when I remembered the vampire. My time in the Galapagos had been so action-packed and went by so fast that I hadn't had a spare second to think about the threat lurking on the ship. A chill went through me, as I stood in line by the gangway. I wondered if getting on the ship by myself was a bad idea. There were still a couple more hours before we had to be on board, so I slipped out of the line and moved back so I could scan the people in it. The line was full of familiar faces, but not any of the five I was looking for. At last, I spotted someone with vivid red hair, too bright to be natural. Unless, of course, that person wasn't human. I hurried over, and Charlie stepped out of the line and met me partway.

"How was the Galapagos?"

"It was amazing! One night, Dani and Mariana took me to an island, and there were water sprites!"

"Oh, how neat."

"It was. I had to get a ride from Dani, which was sort of awkward, at first." I laughed. "But it was so much fun. I can't believe how fast he swims. Or glides, whatever he does."

"That would be fun." Charlie looked oddly wistful. "I'd love to do that."

"You haven't?"

"I'm a fire elemental," he reminded me. "There's no way I'd be able to go swimming. I could do hot water, but it would have to be almost too hot for Danio for me to be in it for any length of time. And if it's too hot for him to swim comfortably, what's the point?" Charlie shrugged. "Plus, where are you going to find water hot enough for me with enough room to really swim, anyway?"

"I'm sorry," I said. I felt bad that I could go swimming with Dani, but Charlie couldn't. I wished I hadn't brought it up.

"No big deal. I'm the idiot who fell for a water elemental." He looked over my shoulder. "Look who we have here."

I turned and saw Thomas and TS heading our way.