Lewis paced the sandy cave floor in the moon pool cavern, nervously checking his watch as he walked.

"You two should probably scram." He said to Bella and Cleo, who were peering up at him from the water's edge. "She'll be here in fifteen minutes."

"Are you sure about this?" Cleo asked, trying to stay calm.

The girls had downloaded the web history from the computer Sophie had been working on. She'd searched all kinds of things about mermaids. Their history, their abilities, and (terrifyingly) she'd visited several sites advertising agents and how to market a client. She'd even typed a search asking how much a real mermaid would be worth to the media. The scariest part was an email she had send to two news agencies. She had written that she had access to a genuine merperson, and that she was willing to expose the identity of the Mer for the right price. She had to know about them, there was no other explanation, and they were terrified.

"I'm positive." Lewis crouched down next to Cleo. "The best way to handle Sophie is to confront her. We can't let her catch us by surprise, we have to show her that we won't be bossed around." He held her hand tightly in his. "Trust me."

"Ok." Cleo nodded. "We'll be nearby, call if you need us."

"Will do." Lewis said confidently. "Now hurry up and get out of here."

Bella and Cleo swam out into the open ocean, finding a place around the edge of the cave to hide. They were ready in case Lewis needed back up.

Sophie's boat sputtered to a stop on the sandy bank of Mako Island. She climbed out and quickly started on the now familiar path towards the weird cavern she had explored. She'd gotten an odd message from Lewis McArtney telling her to meet him there and to come alone. She had planned on ignoring his cryptic text, but curiosity ended up getting the best of her.

"Hello?" She stepped inside the cave slowly.

"Sophie." Lewis said calmly. "I'm glad you came."

Sophie shrugged. "What did you want to meet me here for?"

"I know that you know." Lewis didn't waste a second.

Sophie narrowed her eyes, trying to read Lewis's expression. "That I know what?" She said slowly.

"Oh come on, Sophie." Lewis was not going to let her manipulate him. "We saw the extensive search you did on the library computer. We know you were researching mermaids."

Sophie took a moment to compose her thoughts, trying not to show anything on her face. Did Lewis know about Will? Was he trying to blackmail her? A thought struck her. "Wait... we?"

"Yes, we." Lewis didn't explain any further.

"Ok." Sophie paced thoughtfully. "So what if I was researching mermaids? What is it to you?"

"You can't market them, Sophie. It won't happen." Lewis spoke firmly. "Do you understand me?"

Sophie nodded silently, trying not to let the shock she was feeling appear on her face. Them? Was there more than one mermaid out there? Or was Lewis just using the word them to refer to mermaids in general?

"I mean it." Lewis felt confident as he walked to stand directly in front of Sophie. He looked her dead in the eye. "Leave them alone."

Sophie swallowed hard. This time there was no misunderstanding. Will wasn't the only mer in town. Now the only question was who Lewis was referring to?

"Do we understand each other?" Lewis tried to sound tough.

"Of course." Sophie said breathlessly. "But Lewis..." She thought about each word before she said it. "Can't I see... them? Just once? I've, uh, only caught a glimpse. I'll be glad to keep the secret, just let me see them once." She tried her best to sound contrite and meek.

Lewis thought carefully about her request. It seemed like a fair enough trade, and she seemed genuine in her promise to keep the secret. "Toss me your phone and then you can see them. I don't want you tempted to take any pictures."

Wordlessly, Sophie handed him her phone. It was hard to keep her face neutral. "Where are they? Are they close by?"

Lewis eyed Sophie, trying to decide if this was a good idea. She knew already, she couldn't un-know it. "After this you never mention it again, got it?"

Sophie nodded. Her heart was beating fast in her chest.

Lewis leaned out over the water towards the exit and whistled. A moment later, two figures appeared in the water. They surfaced timidly.

Sophie's eyes were glued to the long golden tails that extended out into the water. Eventually she managed to tear her eyes away from the tails and look at the faces in front of her. It took a herculean effort not to let the shock she felt show on her face.

Bella and Cleo looked at Lewis, waiting for him to explain his whistle.

"She won't say a word." Lewis said calmly but seriously. He looked down at his two friends. "She just wanted to see you guys once up close in exchange for her silence."

"Right." Sophie managed to choke out. Bella and Cleo are mermaids? Did Will do this for Bella? No, he couldn't have. He hadn't told Bella what he'd become. Surely he would have told her if he had done this to be closer to her. A million thoughts raced through Sophie's head in the space of only a few seconds.

"Ok, you've had your look." Lewis was feeling uneasy about this whole thing. It shouldn't have been this easy. Nothing with Sophie was ever easy. Something just felt wrong.

"Yeah." Sophie couldn't keep a smile from creeping onto her face. "I'll talk to you later, Lewis." Without another word, she turn and bolted from the cave.

"Well that went well." Lewis sat cross-legged on the sand.

"Did it?" Bella looked after where Sophie had disappeared. "For some reason I don't feel any better."


One minute Rikki was walking down the sidewalk, the next she was zooming through the air.

"Hey!" She half shouted half gasped, clutching onto Will tightly as he flew. "You scared me!"

"Sorry." Will couldn't help but laugh. He loved flying. Truly loved it. He set Rikki down gently on top of their water tower.

Rikki took a deep breath, trying not to shake. She'd gotten used to the electric tingle that happened every time she touched Will's skin, but flying that high was almost too exhilarating.

"I need to talk to you about Zane." Will said after they'd both calmed.

"He already talked to me." Rikki sat down on the metal floor. She quickly told Will about her odd conversation with Zane earlier that morning. "I'll pop down to the cafe this afternoon. He'll have had time to cool down by then."

"Ok..." Will was still unsure of Zane's trustworthiness, but for the moment there wasn't much he could do about it. He shelved his worries into the back of his mind.

"Let's practice." Rikki said authoritatively.

Will obeyed without objection. He practiced controlling his flight, precisely rising into the air before lowering himself back down. The pair worked hard for a solid two hours before dropping down for a rest.

"Good work." Rikki said tiredly.

"I'm getting better." Will said happily. "And it's getting to be a lot easier to control everything. He turned to Rikki with pleading eyes. "Please can we swim for a bit?"

Rikki mulled the idea over in her head. "Let me call Bella and Cleo first." She decided. "We don't want to bump into them out in the ocean and spoil your big reveal." She glanced at Will from the corner of her eye. "So... when do you think you'll tell her?" She tried not to sound too interested in his response.

"I don't know, a couple of days maybe?" Will shrugged. "I really want to be good at all this first."

Rikki sighed as she dialed Cleo's number. She'd been hoping Will would say he would tell Bella tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. She didn't want to keep this secret any longer.

"Cleo, hey!" Rikki heard Cleo's voice on the other end of the line. "What are you and Bella up to right now? Or today?" She listened thoughtfully. "Ok, then. I'll see you tonight!" Rikki clicked her phone shut, a frown on her face. "Well that was weird."

"What was? What did she say?" Will's eyes narrowed.

"Nothing really, Cleo just sounded... off." Rikki tilted her head to one side. "I wonder if she and Lewis are fighting about something. She really sounded like something was bothering her."

"But they aren't swimming, so it's ok if we go, right? Will couldn't help but ask.

"Cleo said she and Bella are working on some project with Lewis. They're all at the cafe." Rikki pushed her worries about Cleo into the back of her mind. "Yes, we can go swimming."

"Yes!" Will felt like a child celebrating a new bike. He swept Rikki up into his arms and flew them out to sea.


"What did Rikki want?" Bella asked as Cleo set her phone down on the table.

"She wanted to know what you and I were up to." Cleo answered. "I don't know, maybe she wanted to meet us for lunch or something. I told her we were busy working on a project with Lewis."

"And that's true enough." Lewis set a tray of juices at their table. "Keeping Sophie from exposing you girls is a pretty important project."

"Amen." Bella took a long sip of her banana-mango juice.

"So did you two see who's back?" Lewis nodded towards the cash register.

"Zane's back in town?" Bella shrugged. "I'm surprised he's not out looking for Rikki. You know he's still crazy about her."

"Well he isn't, he's here." Lewis took his seat. "And he's all kinds of pissed off about something."

"Maybe he already found Rikki." Bella smirked. "She's always had a knack for pushing his buttons."

"Guys, look." Cleo said quietly. "He is staring daggers at us."

She was right. Zane was glaring straight at their table.

"What's his problem?" Lewis muttered. "We haven't even seen him in months?"

"Band practice ought to be a load of fun today." Bella rolled her eyes sarcastically. "I hope Zane gets out of here before we start."

"Speak of the devil." Cleo whispered as Zane appeared at their table.

His eyes were practically on fire as he looked to each of them. Zane didn't say a word, but he didn't have to. Wordlessly, he stabbed his finger in Bella's direction and gestured for her to follow him.

"This should be fun." Bella muttered as she reluctantly followed Zane down the short hall to his office.

Zane waited for the door to click shut before turning to look at her. Well, before turning to glare at her. Bella was taken about by the severeness of Zane's expression. What in the world could he be so upset about? And what did it have to do with her?

"How long has this been going on?" Zane said abruptly, as if it had burst out of him.

Bella found herself caught completely off guard. "I'm sorry?" She stammered.

"You know what I mean." Zane sneered. "The thing between Will and Rikki. When did it start?" Zane punched his desk lightly. "When did he change?"

Bella's mouth was suddenly completely dry, and she found herself utterly unable to compose words.

"Come on, Bella." Zane dropped wearily into his desk chair. "I know everything. Rikki told me all about it this morning. I... I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen him last night. I mean," Zane screwed up his face. "Will. Really?"

"Will is... Will is with Rikki?" Bella managed to force herself to speak.

"Right now? I expect so." Zane lifted his eyebrows as he shifted his weight. He nodded. "I'll bet she went running straight to his place after she confessed everything to me this morning." His eyes finally focused up at Bella. "When did he tell you?"

Bella's mind was a tangled mess of anger, hurt, and confusion. Sure, Will and Rikki had been acting... off these past few days, but Will cheating on her with Rikki? It was an out of character action for the both of them. But here was Zane, saying that Rikki had confessed? That he'd seen it?"

"So... Rikki told you?" She whispered. "Everything?"

"Yeah." Zane said plainly. "I mean, what I saw last night pretty much clued me in that something was seriously messed up. Then, this morning, Rikki confessed everything." He looked up at Bella, and for the first time she could see genuine pain in his eyes. "You're the only person I could think of to talk to who might tell me what I wanted to know. I didn't want to talk to Lewis or Cleo." His eyes narrowed. "Will did tell you, right?"

Bella battled internally with herself, debating how to answer the question. She couldn't bare Zane having the satisfaction of telling her that Will was being unfaithful.

"Uh..." She cleared her throat. "Will told me last week."

"So it happened last week?" Zane grumbled. "Well, he sucks at it, just FYI. Tell him he'd better get all of this taken care of soon. It's too dangerous, he needs to get this mess under control now. "

Bella was too lost in her own troubled thoughts to try to decipher what Zane was yammering about. "Ill... I'll talk to you later, k?" She managed an incredibly fake smile before pushing her way out of Zane's office. Everything felt like it was falling apart. She had thought that Will was so happy with her. How could this be happening?

Bella fell into her seat next to Cleo in their booth. She couldn't bring herself to meet her friends' eyes. "I don't feel well." She said, standing abruptly. "I'll have to catch up with you two later."

Bella marched outside without waiting for a response from Cleo or Lewis. She was full of fire and on a mission to do one thing. She needed to speak to Will.


Waves crashed onto the shore, creating a relaxing soundtrack for Will and Rikki. They'd swam in the ocean for hours before settling onto this secluded piece of sand on a distant beach. They'd been there now for an hour, careful to stay far from the reach of the waves as they lay on the sand.

"Any ideas?" Rikki asked hopefully as she stretched out on the sand beside Will.

"No." Will's answer was short and slightly angry.

The pair had been brainstorming, trying to decide how to handle the situations with Zane and Sophie. Rikki wasn't too terribly worried about Zane. She planned to call him the minute she got back to the mainland, and she was sure he would end up listening to what she had to say. It was Sophie they were both really worried about. She'd been texting Will practically nonstop, begging him to tell her how he'd done it. How he had become a merman. Will couldn't quite place it, but something in her voice sounded like she knew something he didn't.

"We really should be heading back soon." Rikki said with slight reluctance. She wasn't looking forward to her talk with Zane, or to lying to Bella about where she'd been.

Will didn't answer, he just looked out over the water.

"Will?" Rikki nudged him gently. "Seriously, let's get going. It'll be dark soon and I don't really like flying at night."

Will stood, brushing the sand off his pants before turning to face Rikki. His jaw was set, a determined look on his face. "I'm going to tell Bella." He said, a small smile creeping across his face. "Tonight."

"Tonight?" Rikki squealed with happiness, pulling Will in for a tight hug. "That's wonderful! ARe you sure you're ready?"

Will took a deep breath as he nodded. "I have control over this fight thing, I'm sure of it now. As long as I can stay calm I should be able to keep from having any accidental take-offs. And, as far as the merman thing goes, I love it. I don't regret it a bit. I feel like I have to tell Bella now, before any more time passes.

"Good for you." Rikki said proudly, more than a little relieved to finally be done. "Now let's go."

Will obediently took Rikki's hand in his and soared them up into the air, pointed back towards the town.