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River cleared his throat. “I thought she was yours, brother.”
“It’s a long story.” Rainn sighed. “I appreciate the escort, though I’d have preferred to avoid the fanfare.”
River waved away his brother’s words. “As if the youngest-born returning would require anything less than a full feast.”
Tor ignored both men, removing his dagger from the sheath on his belt and pressing it into my hands. One moment, Tor stood before me, and the next, a dark horse with glowing eyes of gold. His coat blended with the forest's shadows with the faintest shimmer of a rainbow oil slick. I always forgot how beautiful and intimidating Tor was in his kelpie form. Each of his legs was frilled with fins, and his hooves were webbed. He shifted from foot to foot before dipping to the floor and resting on his belly, looking up at me expectantly.
“You have neglected to tell me the names of your party, Rainn.” River crossed his arms over his chest. The bulk of his armor made the movement look stiff and a bit silly. “The only kelpie I know that would be in your company would be the Tormalugh Shadowhock.”
I stepped closer to Tor, reaching out to pet his dark coat. Kelpie magic made it almost impossible to resist touching him, but it also made his coat sticky to the touch by design. Kelpies used their coats to lure in unsuspecting victims before dragging them to the depths to drown.
“I wouldn’t touch him if I were you, lass.” River shot a smile my way.
It made me shiver, but I didn’t know why. I didn’t like the way he smiled. Several parts condescension and five parts mean.
“She knows what she’s doing,” Rainn said. His voice was sharp enough to cut through skin.
River shrugged, holding up his hands. “Your funeral.”
I ignored them both and climbed onto Tor’s back, getting comfortable. He used his magic to fasten my legs to his back as he unfolded his body, standing over the selkie soldiers with his much taller form. Rainn signed and dipped down, gathering the remains of our camp and stuffing the pack into the knot of the tree—what hadn’t been destroyed by the fight, anyway.
It didn’t take long before we were ready to begin our journey. River seemed intent on leading us through the trees as if he didn’t trust Rainn not to get lost. Rainn’s carefree attitude was gone, and every muscle in his body was tense. Rainn’s jaw often hardened when River made an offhand cutting remark. Tor and I kept to the back, watching the swaths of selkie soldiers skulk through the dark forest with the ease of silk and shadow.
I must have fallen asleep on Tor’s back because I woke with my arms around his neck and my face pressed into his mane. His magic was the only thing holding me to his back. I sat up, unhindered, realizing the sound of the shore had woken me. The loud shriek of the sea birds and the crash of the water against the jagged teeth of the Skala Isles from the other side.
Something didn’t sit right, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
Rainn’s weathered cottage stood at the edge of the beach. Tucked away and hidden in the trees. Built of driftwood. The cottage I’d been taken to when I’d washed up on the Skala Beach so long ago. My first meeting with Rainn, Tor, Cormac and even Shay the nymph. The four princelings.
I turned back to the Skala Isles.
How had I gotten through the jagged rocks so long ago? My memory was fuzzy, thanks to Tor’s magic, but I remembered the sand. I remembered the undine guards and the rocks in the distance—but the isles hadn’t been angry then.
I shook my head to clear it and turned back to the beach.
River and Rainn continued across the sand without looking back. We had come from the east, but their path curved in the center of the beach, turning away from the isles and going north to the sheer rock face surrounding the cove. As we got closer, I noticed stairs leading up the cliffs. I hoped there wouldn’t be much further. I was tired and hungry and ready to settle.
It felt like I had been traveling for so long. I couldn’t remember when I’d stayed in one place long enough to feel at home. Even the weeks I’d spent with the sirens had been spent on tenterhooks. I just hoped that the selkies would be welcoming.
A line of driftwood logs formed a semi-circle around the cliffs, about a hundred feet away. Rainn and River stepped through a gap in the makeshift fence and disappeared from view.
My breath froze in my chest, but Tor kept moving forward. The soldiers in front of us disappeared one by one until Tor, and I crossed through, and a wave of arrestingly cold magic washed over me.
The cliff face was gone, revealing a palace built into the side of the rock. A long staircase formed a bridge up from the sand, leading to one of several towers. A dozen selkies in their seal forms lounged on the flat rocks jutting from castle towers, no doubt guarding the castle.
Tor dipped down, allowing me to slide off his back. A moment later, he stood beside me on two legs instead of four.
I didn’t know much about Selkie magic, only that they could change form with their coats and they guarded those coats with their lives.
But I should have known. The fae that could create sentient islands to surround their home and protect themselves from my uncle were not to be underestimated.
I’d stood in the shadow of the Selkie Queen’s castle and never even knew.
River led us through the castle, too fast to take in much more than the beautiful tapestries on every surface and the gleaming floor made of starlight.
Though the selkie castle was on land, water sprung from every surface, running in small carved rivers on the floor or fountains set in the stone walls. I recognized several flowers blooming through cracks in the stone, flowers that I’d only ever seen grown underwater.
Though their silver armor blended with the stone, I spotted several Selkie guards. Manning doors and patrolling. Each one armed to the teeth.
