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in Miss Gale’s big bed, but Callum had insisted on coming to the meeting. He didn’t look as if he had managed to get a nap in the time in between, and dark circles lined his eyes. We were both running on empty.
    “Every finfolk carries the power to manipulate things through the song,” Callum said. “The song is the melody of the essence inside—the earth, the water, even living creatures. That explains why humans see things when they hear a finfolk song. It manipulates their minds into creating visions. But the song can also be used to manipulate places . The mists that protect Hether Blether were created by the combined song of the finfolk who live there. Whenever they sing, they renew the protective spell. But as the finfolk numbers have diminished on the vanishing isle, the song has lost some of its power. Domnall worries that the island will become visible to human eyes and will be at risk of invasion by them. It’s happened before, to an old island where finfolk used to live.”
    “So he comes here to invade us instead?” Mrs. Kinsey asked.
    “How do we fight them?” Mr. Waverly asked. Dylan stood next to his dad, his arms crossed and a deep scowl on his face. I was surprised he had come. He’d stood silently in a corner the whole time, glowering whenever anyone approached him.
    Everyone fell silent, waiting for my response. I took a deep breath, knowing that no one would like what I was about to say. “I don’t know.”
    Angry conversations started up again. I held up my hands to try to silence them. “There has to be a way to fight the finfolk, to make them leave Swans Landing,” I said. “We just have to figure out what it is.”
    “Maybe we shouldn’t fight them,” a man named Piers Rousay said. “Maybe we should let these finfolk have the humans. What have they done for us these last sixteen years anyway?”
    Claire’s face paled as she stared at the finfolk who agreed with Mr. Rousay. Mara patted Claire’s hand reassuringly.
    “We’re not letting anyone take our home,” Lake said, his voice roaring over everyone else’s. “This island belongs to both human and finfolk. We’ll have to fight together to save it.”
    “We need more people,” I said.
    Mr. Moody scratched at his wiry gray beard. “Good luck, son. Many of them ain’t likely to take orders from no finfolk.”
    “What about from you?” I asked.
    Mr. Moody shrugged. “Can’t make no promises. Some of them are stubborn. Harry Connors, in particular.”
    Mara’s gaze shot across the room, locking on Dylan’s, who stared back at her. Something in my gut twisted as unspoken words passed between them.
    “We have to try,” I said, pushing away thoughts of whatever was going on between Mara and Dylan. It wasn’t the biggest thing to worry about right now.
    “Do you have any idea when these finfolk will be coming?” Mr. Richter asked.
    Callum shook his head. “We swam as fast as we could to try to get ahead. We don’t know how far behind us they are.”
    Lake stood, pushing his long hair out of his eyes. “Then we have to be prepared, for whenever they show up.”
    “I’ll talk to as many people as I can,” Mr. Richter said. “I’ll try to get them to listen.”
    “The rest of us should do what we can to fight, whether or not we have help,” Lake said.
    Everyone stood and began breaking off into groups or leaving. It seemed that the meeting was over, though I didn’t know what we had really accomplished. We still had no idea how to fight Domnall.
    “How did things go?” Mara asked, reaching across the counter to touch my hand. “With your mom?”
    We hadn’t had a chance to talk again before the meeting, so I hadn’t been able to tell her anything.
    “Not as well as I’d hoped,” I said. “But pretty much what I expected. She kicked me out.”
    Mara’s eyebrows shot up. “ What? ”
    “I guess I’m homeless now.” The words didn’t bother me as much as I expected them to. I had known how mom