Page 97 of The Forbidden Fae King

I rush across the sand, my boots digging in deep, to hear their exchange as they bow before their king. I join the rag-tag band behind Aldrin, of high fae, low fae, and humans.

Drake raises his eyebrows at me. “You’re a nosy one, aren’t you?”

“You have no idea,” I murmur back.

Drake goes to open his mouth again, probably to say somethinghethinks is witty, but I shush him instead, straining to hear the selkies.

“Did you just shush me?” He somehow makes a whisper sound indignant, but the hints of a smile are on his lips.

“Someone should do it more often.” Klara cuts in. “You talk too much.”

I turn my attention back to the selkies, while Klara and Drake speak in hushed voices.

“My king, we did not expect you in these parts.” The female selkie leader says. “We heard you were exiled for trying to fix these lands.”

“It is true, but it will not stop me from fighting the plague of corruption that has fallen on us.” Aldrin spreads his arms wide.

The woman falls to her knees before Aldrin, tears running down her face, as she hugs his legs. His entire body turns rigid and he casts a glance back at Cyprien, who merely shrugs.

“Oh, my liege, we have suffered. Only you understand. The fae at Fort Saltcrest turned us out!”

Many of the selkies wail. It is a horrible chorus behind her words that breaks my heart.

Aldrin grabs her hand and lifts her to her feet. “What is your name?” He probes gently.

“Sasha, my king.” She stares and stares into his eyes.

“Tell me of this plague on your tribe?”

She wipes away a tear. “It is our children. They are born…they cannot remove their skin and take their second form. There is no indication that they have the higher intelligence of a selkie. In all ways, they are born justseals! Animals. We don’t understand why.” A loud sob escapes from her.

“And your magic?” Aldrin holds both her hands.

“It dwindles with each generation. We have only a drop left,” she says.

Aldrin nods. “You are losing your magic and that is why your children are not born selkie. Those high fae in their fortress above the coast should have set that right.” Anger rises in his tone and the selkie leader begins to sob again.

“What of my pregnancy?” another woman calls out from among those rocks.

“And mine?” says a second.

Aldrin’s eyes run over the amassed selkie. “Those I can save. My followers here can give each of you a top up of power, but the same problem will occur again if we do not return the magic to these lands. The children that have already been born.” Aldrin shakes his head. “We cannot give magic to creatures that don’t have any to begin with.”

The selkie features crumble as she glances over to a seal pup. Her child, trapped in seal form.

Tears burn at the corners of my eyes, and I force myself to look away and stop listening.

I turn back to Klara and Drake instead. “How do you give a selkie your magic?”

“It is much like healing.” Klara’s violet gaze focuses on me. “We do not give them our specific powers, but top up their own reservoirs. I have done the same to you. The low fae take their magic from the lands, whereas we high fae generate it within ourselves.”

“It is exhausting, physically and mentally, and takes time for a high fae to recover.” Drake runs a hand over his shaved head. “That's whysome fae don’t like doing it. The process is very inefficient when it is done from fae to fae.”

“People are inherently selfish,” Klara states. “And prefer to hoard their resources to advance themselves. Most people need to be forced to do the right thing.”

Caitlin is silent with a severe frown occupying her pale face as we place the last of Odiane’s last seed-stones within a cavern with multiple, deep pools of water that connect with the bay at high tide. The significance of the deed hardly registers within me on the back of the selkie’s pain. Silent tears roll down Caitlin’s face, as our side of the bargain is completed and wisps of blue light evaporate from the runes on our skin.

We have almost completed the mission of our pilgrimage. There is nothing holding us back from returning to Odiane, collecting our prizes and leaving this realm forever, except there is so much I still want to see and do.

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