Read Children of the Sea 01 - Sea Witch for Free Online Page B
Authors: authors_sort
Tags: english eBooks
decades past.
She shrugged, feigning indifference. “A low birth rate is the price our people pay for immortality. The seas would be overrun with us else.”
“Instead of which, our numbers are dropping. Our population may have been in balance once, but now too many of us are dying.”
“And are reborn again in the sea,” Margred said. “As we always have been.”
40
As she had been herself, seven centuries ago.
“ Not always. Selkies who die without their sealskins are not reborn.
They cease to exist.”
Memory welled like fresh blood from an old scar. “My mate was killed by poachers. I do not need you to explain to me what happens to a selkie who dies without his pelt.”
Dylan watched her closely. “I have offended you.”
But she would not give him even that much. “It is what it is. Mayhap his fate is one he would have chosen. Endless existence has its own . . .
burdens.”
“You are dissatisfied?”
Dissatisfied , restless , empty , alone . . .
She lifted her chin. “I am bored.”
His gaze sharpened on her face. “I hear you’ve been amusing yourself ashore.”
“And this interests you because . . . ?”
“Perhaps you would be better served if you redirected your energy toward your own kind.”
She tilted her head. “Pimping for the prince, Dylan?”
“Merely delivering a friendly warning. There are dangers to becoming involved with humans.”
“You are half human, are you not?”
His mouth compressed. “It’s impossible to be half anything. You are selkie, or you are not. You live in the sea, or you die on land. I am selkie, like my mother.”
So she had touched a nerve. She poked at it again, the way children on shore thrust sticks at jellyfish to watch them twitch. “But your father was human.”
41
“I do not speak of my father.”
“Tell me about your mother, then.”
“She drowned. In a fisherman’s net.” The cry of the gulls carried upward on the wind. Dylan turned his head and held Margred’s gaze.
“Because she ventured too close to shore.”
“Another warning?” Margred asked softly. “Have a care, Dylan. I do not take cautions well. Or instruction either.”
“Something is happening,” Dylan argued. “Something affecting the balance of power. Conn fears it. We all feel it. There’s a disturbance in the demon realm.”
Margred shivered. She did not want to think there was more to her recent restlessness than frustrated lust. An actual attachment to a human would be bad. An upset in the balance that existed between elementals, between the children of the sea and the children of the fire, would be much worse.
“Demons are always disturbed,” she said. “What does that have to do with us? With me? The sea folk are neutral in Hell’s war on humankind. We always have been.”
“Hardly neutral,” Dylan said, “if you’re fucking one.”
The barb shot home. She flinched and then aimed her smile like a knife.
“The way your mother did?”
“My mother married my father.”
Margred blinked, diverted. “Really? Why?”
Dylan’s lips peeled back. “Why do you think? He took her pelt.”
Ah. Selkies could not return to the sea without their sealskins. A mortal man could keep a selkie wife . . . as long as he kept her sealskin hidden. Because the children of such unions were rare—and usually human—the marriages even worked out. Sometimes.
42
“After I hit the Change, I found her sealskin,” Dylan explained. “She took me back to sea with her.”
Margred tried and failed to imagine entering the land beneath the wave for the first time at— How old must he have been? Twelve?
Thirteen? Almost grown, floundering in an unfamiliar body and an utterly new world.
“That must have been . . . upsetting,” she ventured.
Dylan inclined his head. “Awkward, at least. Stick to your
She shrugged, feigning indifference. “A low birth rate is the price our people pay for immortality. The seas would be overrun with us else.”
“Instead of which, our numbers are dropping. Our population may have been in balance once, but now too many of us are dying.”
“And are reborn again in the sea,” Margred said. “As we always have been.”
40
As she had been herself, seven centuries ago.
“ Not always. Selkies who die without their sealskins are not reborn.
They cease to exist.”
Memory welled like fresh blood from an old scar. “My mate was killed by poachers. I do not need you to explain to me what happens to a selkie who dies without his pelt.”
Dylan watched her closely. “I have offended you.”
But she would not give him even that much. “It is what it is. Mayhap his fate is one he would have chosen. Endless existence has its own . . .
burdens.”
“You are dissatisfied?”
Dissatisfied , restless , empty , alone . . .
She lifted her chin. “I am bored.”
His gaze sharpened on her face. “I hear you’ve been amusing yourself ashore.”
“And this interests you because . . . ?”
“Perhaps you would be better served if you redirected your energy toward your own kind.”
She tilted her head. “Pimping for the prince, Dylan?”
“Merely delivering a friendly warning. There are dangers to becoming involved with humans.”
“You are half human, are you not?”
His mouth compressed. “It’s impossible to be half anything. You are selkie, or you are not. You live in the sea, or you die on land. I am selkie, like my mother.”
So she had touched a nerve. She poked at it again, the way children on shore thrust sticks at jellyfish to watch them twitch. “But your father was human.”
41
“I do not speak of my father.”
“Tell me about your mother, then.”
“She drowned. In a fisherman’s net.” The cry of the gulls carried upward on the wind. Dylan turned his head and held Margred’s gaze.
“Because she ventured too close to shore.”
“Another warning?” Margred asked softly. “Have a care, Dylan. I do not take cautions well. Or instruction either.”
“Something is happening,” Dylan argued. “Something affecting the balance of power. Conn fears it. We all feel it. There’s a disturbance in the demon realm.”
Margred shivered. She did not want to think there was more to her recent restlessness than frustrated lust. An actual attachment to a human would be bad. An upset in the balance that existed between elementals, between the children of the sea and the children of the fire, would be much worse.
“Demons are always disturbed,” she said. “What does that have to do with us? With me? The sea folk are neutral in Hell’s war on humankind. We always have been.”
“Hardly neutral,” Dylan said, “if you’re fucking one.”
The barb shot home. She flinched and then aimed her smile like a knife.
“The way your mother did?”
“My mother married my father.”
Margred blinked, diverted. “Really? Why?”
Dylan’s lips peeled back. “Why do you think? He took her pelt.”
Ah. Selkies could not return to the sea without their sealskins. A mortal man could keep a selkie wife . . . as long as he kept her sealskin hidden. Because the children of such unions were rare—and usually human—the marriages even worked out. Sometimes.
42
“After I hit the Change, I found her sealskin,” Dylan explained. “She took me back to sea with her.”
Margred tried and failed to imagine entering the land beneath the wave for the first time at— How old must he have been? Twelve?
Thirteen? Almost grown, floundering in an unfamiliar body and an utterly new world.
“That must have been . . . upsetting,” she ventured.
Dylan inclined his head. “Awkward, at least. Stick to your
Similar Books
The English Assassin
Daniel Silva
Tortured Beginning
V. M. Holk
The Sheikh's Purchased Bride
Holly Rayner
A Writer's Tale
Richard Laymon
Personal Geography
Tamsen Parker
Jericho Iteration
Allen Steele
A Question of Guilt
Janet Tanner
Sleeping with the Dictionary
Harryette Mullen
Knots (Club Imperial Book 4)
Katherine Rhodes