Q: So, Calder.

A: Yep.

Q: Book three, PROMISE BOUND, is out January 7th, and I hear you’re back narrating it.

A: Half. Lily and I take turns because we aren’t exactly on the same wave length all the time.

Q: Wave length. Ha.

A: It’s not funny.

Q: Right. Okay. So last we left off, the future for you two is a bit unclear.

A: Not to me. I have a plan. I know exactly where I want my future to be. It’s Lily who’s the problem. She’s obsessed with the past.

Q: Like the stuff with Jack?

A: No. Like the past, past. As in the 1960s. She’s obsessed with what happened in Bayfield back then, and she’s convinced she’s being visited or possessed or something by Nadia.

Q: Your mother.

A: Who’s dead. Right. So it’s ridiculous. And the sooner I convince Lily that she’s imagining the whole thing, the quicker we can make a future for ourselves.

Q: How’s that going for you?

A: Not as well as I’d hoped.


The hurt in his eyes slashed at my heart. I wanted to kiss it away, but I couldn’t move. All of my muscles had clamped down. “I don’t need my past,” he said. “I want you. You are my future. It’s you who makes me happy.”
“But that’s just it,” I said. “Don’t you see? Your happiness should not be completely dependent on me. You’re not whole. Not yet.”
“Who fed you that line? Pavati?” He grabbed my wrists, hard, and I twisted them to get free. “Don’t trust them, Lily. She just thinks she’ll have better luck with you if I’m out of the picture. They’re queens of manipulation.”
“Maybe you’re right, but it doesn’t make it less true. You need to find your parents.”
“And what if I find them?” he demanded.
“What do you mean?”
“If I find them, then what? Do I say, ‘Hey, glad I found you, now goodbye’?”
“Well . . . .” Admittedly, I hadn’t thought about that. I assumed it would be hard for Calder to leave his family once he found them. I’d never considered that his parents would be the problem--that they would be the ones to not let him go again.
“That’s it, isn’t it!” Calder exclaimed. “You know I wouldn’t be able to do that. Is this just some elaborate plan for getting me out of the way forever?”
“Calder—” I knew he’d react badly, but he was starting to scare me.
“Well, excuse my confusion, Lily, but what the hell was this all about?” He gestured angrily at the blanket and the imprint of our bodies still lingering in its fibers.
“I don’t want you out of the way.” I didn’t. But I needed him to go. For him. For me. For Nadia. And for his birth mother, too. “You’re lying. I can see the lie all over you. Tell me the truth. You owe me at least that much.”

Calder and Lily never imagined falling in love would mean breaking apart. But ever since Lily started wearing a glass pendant that once belonged to Nadia, Calder's adoptive mother, she's been having vivid dreams of what life was like for the mermaid matriarch. In fact, she's been dreaming as if she were Nadia! And Nadia, it seems, made a promise before her death. A promise to reunite Calder's biological mother with her son. Lily knows merfolk are bound to keep their promises. Calder's not buying into it, though. He chalks up the dreams to stress. He wants Lily to focus on the future—their future, not the past. Which forces Lily to send Calder away. Calder goes, feeling rejected and more than a little tempted to revert to his hunting ways.

What both of them overlook is the present: Calder's sisters, Maris and Pavati, are fighting for control of the mermaid clan, and now that Lily and her dad have transformed into mer-creatures, both mermaids vie for daughter and father as allies. Which of the two mermaids can be trusted? Will Lily make costly mistakes, forcing her to descend to the depths of Lake Superior? And if Calder returns, will he be the same merman Lily grew to love? The stakes are high, with many lives at risk, but Calder and Lily must confront the past as well as their darkest impulses if they want a chance at being together.


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I am a Minnesota author, writing about mermaid assassins on Lake Superior. My debut YA series begins with LIES BENEATH, coming June 12, 2012 from Random House/Delacorte. The sequel (DEEP BETRAYAL) is anticipated for March 2013. Besides writing and reading YA literature, I love all things Irish, romantic movies, beef stroganoff, and Nutella. If I'm listening to music it's Violent Femmes, The Coronas (awesome band out of Dublin), and Great Big Sea (out of Newfoundland).