I found a pile of rocks that stuck off of the lakeshore and clamoured out to the end. Natasha stood behind me safely on the shore. Nick stuck his feet in the shallows and plopped down on a stone.

I cleared my throat loudly. “Go-o-o-d day nixes and nixies! Sorry about yesterday and the yelling and all, though there was trespassing and that annoying noise . . . but that’s not important! So, uh, about that whole drowning thing. Don’t suppose I could talk to someone about, like, alternatives?”

Nothing happened. I stood there awkwardly, feeling like an idiot. Just when I was thinking there was no point in waiting any longer and I should head back and go with the basement-and-earplugs idea, a head popped up from the lake.

Their skin was tinted green and the ears tapered to long, slender points. Black eyes looked at me coldly. “So you’re the one who grabbed my brother. You don’t look like much.”

“I kinda doubted I would,” I replied. “And I really am sorry – I’m new to the whole ‘paranormal’ thing and I didn’t know there was any actual reason behind everything, just that there was a really irritating noise. I’m apologizing for grabbing your brother and I’d do it to his face but I don’t exactly blame him for not . . . surfacing? Whatever. I think you get what I mean. I hope.”

The nixie just curled her lip. “You like to talk, don’t you? I really will encourage my daughter to choose you as her victim.”

I swallowed nervously. “Avalon . . .” Natasha hissed at me. I was suddenly very inclined to join her in running for it.

Instead I tried for a smile. “Really? I mean, if you nokkens are semi-immortal like I think, then you might not be up to speed on how things have changed. If they find me or anyone else drowned, especially fully dressed, there’ll be a huge inquiry. Police will be swarming this place for forever.”

“Then we can just drown them too.”

That had not been the response I was hoping for. I really wanted to bolt for it then.

And that was when Natasha once again showed herself as a genius. “That’s a terrible idea,” she said. “If you start killing off to many people or doing it to frequently, then there’ll be a ton of police and reporters, way too many for even your whole family to drown. Then everyone will start getting suspicious of the lake and the area and no one will be allowed near it. Then your ceremony will never done by anyone in the years to come.”

The nixie blinked slowly. Her eyes were like chips of obsidian. “Your words are not pleasing, but I see no reason to find truth in them. We must have a victim for the ceremony.”

“Uh-huh, well . . .” I glanced over to where Nick sat, only he wasn’t there. There was a really large blue fish in the shallows. Great. I focused back the nixie and held up the notebook. “See, this has a bunch of info on you nokkens. And while there’s mention of your ceremony, there’s nothing that says it needs to be a human. Just a life taken, and then the blood and bones of that. You could just use an animal instead. No one would get concerned if they found the remains of a drowned animal. Then your ceremony is done and no one dies and alerts the police and ruins everything for you.”

The dark eyes blinked slowly again. “Feasible, yes, but that would break with tradition.”

“If your tradition started in medieval times, then it might need to change since the whole planet has changed in the, like, several hundred years between then and now,” I told her. “I’m not suggesting you change your ceremony, just one small, tiny detail that works better for this era.”

“It would also save your life,” she noted.

“Well . . . yeah, probably. But I’m going to die eventually and while I’d prefer to stay alive I’m not . . . oh, forget it. I came here to apologize for the whole grabbing your brother thing and to ask you to not drown a person. My personal philosophy should not be discussed.”

“Hm. Well, I would have to discuss this break from tradition. We shall see what is decided.” The nixie vanished with hardly a ripple.

Feeling a jangle of nerves inside me twist, I picked my way along the stones to reach the shore again. As I hopped down on to the dirt, I looked over to where that giant blue fish was hanging out in the shadows and it suddenly changed.

The colours blurred and the form stretched, spreading and bubbling until it was once more human and the colours sharpened, revealing the same damp, dark haired boy with sad blue eyes.

“I can’t decide if that was cool or disturbing,” Natasha said.

Nick frowned. “Why? What did it look like?” I exchanged a look with my best friend, completely at a loss as to how to describe the shapeshifting. “Anyways. I didn’t particularly want my mum to see me with you guys, and I can at least hold a fish form for a descent amount of time.”

“I don’t even know how to respond,” I muttered.

He seemed unconcerned. “Well, they’ll probably be talking about things for a few hours. Though maybe you should avoid deep water until then.”

That was only common sense. “I think we’ll just stay far back on the beach and hang out before heading home. Uh, thanks for the info and advice and all. I wouldn’t have been able to bluff my way through otherwise.”

“No problem. I don’t exactly agree with my family, and you guys seem pretty cool.”

“Still, thanks,” Natasha said. “Now we should probably get going.” She gave me a wide eyed look, and I stifled a laugh.

“Yeah, I get it. I’ve scared you enough for today, let’s go.”

We walked back to the beach, where people were going about their lives normally. They completely ignored us; like we were two ordinary girls out for an ordinary walk. Instead we’d dealt with angry water spirits. Yeah, I really used to like my cousin.

We flopped down on our towels on the sand. Natasha pulled out a sketchbook and began to play around with her various pencils. I put the notebook away and took out a tattered paperback novel, Dragon Keeper. This had been a weird morning, so why not delve in to a nice fantasy world?