Page 32 of Saved By the Selkie

I drop my hand. “I don’t see him anywhere,” I announce. “I don’t think he’s here. I mean, we might have gone in the entirely wrong direction, especially after the wind blew us off course.” To be honest, I have almost no idea where I am now. I don’t think we’re anywhere near Newfoundland, that’s all I can say for sure.

Johan crosses his arms. “I ain’t leaving until you’ve gone through every one of these seals and made sure none of them are him.”

I splutter at him for a second or two before I can finally form words. “Has the devil possessed you? That will take days—weeks! And who’s to say we’re not just counting the same seals over and over? Who’s to say that—even if he is here—he doesn’t see us and just take off and we miss him?”

Johan scowls at me like he hates that I’m talking sense. He probably does; he knows, deep down, what he’s proposing is a ridiculous, fruitless enterprise.

I hold out my arms beseechingly. “Johan, you’re a man of reason,” I say, “so you have to realize that plan can only end in both our deaths. We’re exposed out here on the ice, and we’ve naught to eat or drink.”

“We can fix the eat and drink,” he says, turning and firing a shot, point-blank, into one of the seals. It yelps like a wounded dog, then goes limp and topples over, and the others around it scatter, barking in alarm. I stare in horror at the blood oozing onto the ice.

Johan gestures at it coolly when I lift my gaze to meet his. “There,” he says, “food.”

He steps by me to drag the carcass around. “And we can use the skin for warmth.”

I pivot to glare at him. “We haven’t got the tools to cure the skin, and we haven’t got anything to make a fire with. How are we going to cook the meat?”

It was a daft move—he’s wasted shot and the seals are watching us with wary eyes now. I won’t be surprised if we get attacked.

“No matter,” Johan says, unsheathing a knife and cutting into the body. I have to look away.

It’s not that I’ve never hunted before. The guts don’t bother me either; I clean fish all the time. No, it’s the senselessness of it, the waste. We’ll make ourselves sick eating it, so we’re no further ahead. That seal died for nothing.

Except perhaps it did die for a worthy cause—proving to me how mad Johan is now. I’m not sure I can reason with him.

I wince at the slick sounds of the knife cutting through flesh, and I turn my head toward the open water.

I can’t help the way I gasp. Then I clap my hand over mymouth, but it’s too late. Johan’s on his feet, brandishing the bloody knife. He gives a triumphant shout as his gaze lands on the enormous silver seal perched atop one of the snowbanks. The seal is, quite simply, taller, broader, and longer than the rest of them, and his silvery color reveals that we’re not looking at any ordinary seal—he’s a selkie. Simply has to be.

Lir.

Johan gives me a shove and grins viciously. “Well, go on!” he taunts. “Don’t you want to reunite with your love? C’mon, let’s have a tender reunion!”

He shoves me again, and I lose my footing against the ice, slipping forward. “Johan,” I protest, “Johan, stop. We don’t know it’s him. It could be—”

Johan laughs like the madman he is. “What? Some other selkie, this far from Mythos?” He grabs me by the collar and hauls me around, snarling at me. “You know it’s him, you liar. Now go over there and convince him to come back south with us, so he can make me a pretty penny.”

I shove at Johan. “He won’t go anywhere with you,” I growl. “You won’t make a cent off him.”

“Oh no?” Johan laughs. “Why? Is that your grand plan? You think you’re the only one smart enough to come up with it? Think you’re the only one who deserves it?”

“No!” I protest, but the voices crowd into my head, telling me I’m just as bad—worse than him. “Johan, please—”

He gives me another rough shove toward the hill and pulls the gun on me. I take another breath, slowly lifting my hands.

He cocks the gun. “I won’t ask again,” he says, voice placid.

I swallow tightly, then turn my attention back to the hill. I was hoping Lir would have taken the opportunity to disappear, but he’s still there with a seal by his side, watching.

I heave another breath, heavy with despair, knowing we’ve reached the end of the line. I take a step forward, my boots crunching over the ice as I slowly make my way toward the selkie on the hill.

nineteen

Lir

A

ramis is alive. Aramis isalive.