Four months after the storm, Kiela is settled into life in Caltrey, running her jam-and-spell shop with Caz and Meep, while Larran tends the cottage garden. The Pine Cone Coven—Bryn, Eadie, Ulina, and Radane—meets twice a week to brew remedies and learn new spells, which Caz, Kiela, and Meep are compiling into a spellbook of Caltrey's magic. A green-feathered tabby cat has joined the household, and Larran is caring for six pregnant merhorses sheltering in Kiela's cove.

Meep raises the alarm: four of the merhorse mares are giving birth at once. Kiela rushes to prepare a birthing paste while the coven gathers on the dock to memorize and chant the birthing spell. Wading into the cove, Kiela applies the paste to each laboring mare while Larran soothes them and acts as midwife. The coven cycles through the spell repeatedly, and within an hour all four foals are safely born and nursing, watched over by gathered merfolk including the merbaby Kiela once saved.

Exhausted and drenched, Kiela collapses on the dock. The coven insists on cooking dinner together, dispersing to the kitchen while Kiela and Larran stay with the merhorses. Larran credits Kiela with bringing hope to the island and proposes marriage. After clarifying that neither will give up their home, Kiela accepts. They lie together as the sun sets over the cove, and Kiela reflects that she is happy to be home.