The first time I saw a mermaid, she was caught in a research net, and I was holding a fishing rod instead of the scalpel my employer had laid out for me. I was Dr. Mara Venn, the youngest lead researcher ever hired by the Pelagic Institute, and I'd spent years chasing the discovery that would make my career. Then I took up fishing, and the quiet hours on the water changed what I wanted from the sea. When the Institute ordered me to study the stranger in its tank, I refused to treat her like a specimen. I thought I could protect her by keeping my distance. But the Institute had its own reasons for bringing her ashore, and the more I learned, the harder it became to tell whether I was protecting her or simply choosing what I wanted for her. If I risked everything to help her go home, would she want me beside her?