Essie had spent most of the day online or going through the papers listing the local real estate for sale and telling herself it was just out of curiosity. She wasn't really serious about staying, she hadn't been serious about staying anywhere since she was sixteen. Putting down roots meant it was easier for the less savory elements of her family to find her, leaving meant she'd be leaving what might be one of the few decent relatives she had left behind. And while she still didn't know Levi all that well, she knew he was a decent human being.

And then there was the other thing. Magic was thick here. She could almost feel it in the roots of her hair and the beds of her fingernails. She could learn here, explore the odd turn her gifts had take the last couple of years. Hell, she was sitting on a freaking beach, wasn't she? All the water she could want.

Sitting on a towel off to the side of the revelers, she twitched her fingers out to the waves, keeping her arm down low so people wouldn't notice. She began to whisper in Chinese, little things, asking, cajoling until she managed to make one of the incoming waves change direction, crashing into the one behind it with a crash that sent spray up several feet in the air. Three years ago, she never would have been able to do that. Three years ago, she wouldn't have even thought to try. It had been a long strange road to bring her to Siren Cove.

So yeah, she totally wasn't going to stay here. Looking over her shoulder, she was surprised to see someone walking by. "Nice night?"