Diamond Eel

The sedan crunched to a halt on the crushed-shell parking apron of Azure Cove. Before the engine had even ticked into silence, the rear door swung open. Annie Samuels didn’t slide out; she vaulted, her sneakers hitting the sun-bleached sand with the calculated precision of a predator marking its territory.

While her father, David, wrestled a cooler from the trunk and her mother, Elena, began the rhythmic, exhausting labor of unloading beach chairs and sunscreen, Annie was already scanning the horizon. Her eyes didn't linger on the postcard-perfect sunset or the swaying palms. Instead, they darted across the water, dissecting the surface. She was a surveyor mapping a battlefield.

“Annie, wait up,” Elena called out, her voice carrying that thin, strained cheerfulness reserved for the first hour of a family vacation. “We haven’t even checked into the rental. Let’s find the bungalow first.”

Annie didn’t turn back. She kept her gaze fixed on the emerald shoals stretching out from the shoreline. “The tide is coming in, Mom. If I’m going to scope the reef channels, I need to know where the current hits the shelf before the light dies."

“It’s a vacation, sweetie,” David added, wiping s...