Page 133 of The Iron Flower

Every single warrior in the room, as well as the entire queen’s council, rises to their feet. Not a single one of them, save the queen, remains seated.

“Find their skins, Elloren Gardner,” Queen Alkaia tells me, “and we will free your Selkies.”

* * *

The day is still young when we reach the border, the snow-dotted forest abruptly thinning out to reveal the small field where the Vu Trin sorceresses and the Amaz attacked us.

Yvan, Rafe, Trystan, Jarod, Andras and Gareth are all there, just as they said they would be, and my heart leaps at the sight of them.

But they’re also strange to my eyes.

Men.

They’re like foreign beings, a whole other race, after being around so many Amaz. So many women.

And their maleness isn’t the only thing strange about them. Their expressions are oddly serious, and unease rises inside me as I scan each of their faces.

The Amaz stop just before the line of border-runes and eye our men coldly—except for Valasca, who simply studies them with an air of curiousity. Our escorts wordlessly help us dismount and gather our belongings.

I look to Yvan searchingly, his fire shimmering out toward me.

“What’s happened?” I ask Yvan as I pass through the border runes and approach him.

“Something good, Elloren.” Yvan looks over at Gareth, who is focused intently on Marina.

“Marina,” Gareth says to her gently, “yesterday, we decided to search the area around the groundskeeper’s cottage again. Now that there’s been a thaw.”

“What did you find?” Marina asks carefully, her mouth trembling at the edges.

Gareth reaches into the leather sack hitched over his shoulder and pulls out a shimmering, silver seal skin. Marina lets out a startled cry, her hands flying over her gills.

“It was buried near the back of the cottage,” Gareth tells her. “In a box made of Elfin steel. The thaw exposed its edge. I heard a bird’s wings flapping—a large white bird. It startled me, and when I looked back down, there the box was—poking out of the ground. I just knew. The moment I saw it, I just knew.”

Marina stares at the skin in his hands as if mesmerized. She gives Gareth a look filled with meaning, something private and charged passing between them. “I’ll be completely transformed,” she prepares him.

“You’ll still be you.”

Marina shakes her head as if he’s incredibly naive. “No. I’ll be much stronger than you. Power changeseverything.”

Gareth holds out the skin for her to take. “Iwantyou to be powerful. And I want you to be free.”

The Amaz look stunned. I realize that Gareth’s actions fly in the face of every myth, every legend, every assumption they have about men. Marina drops her travel sack and pulls off her boots, then all of her clothes, unfazed by the wintry cold.

Her eyes locked on Gareth’s, she reaches for her silvery skin.

The minute she makes contact with it, flashes of sapphire lightning crackle down her arm. The lightning sparks over all of her skin, and a glowing blue aura coalesces around her, Marina’s form beginning to blur as it merges with the blue light. Then both Marina and her skin fade until there’s nothing left but a haze of blinding illumination.

Then the blue light begins to dim, the details sharpening until Marina reappears.

In seal form.

A magnificent, predatory seal with Marina’s ocean eyes and dazzling silver fur.

Just as we’re all adjusting to the idea of seeing her in this form, Marina rolls over on to her back and closes her eyes. The sapphire lightning returns, streaking in a crackling line down her seal stomach. Again, her form blurs, then splits, and Marina emerges from the silver skin, human once more.

She kneels on the ground, breathing heavily, her eyes closed, as she supports herself with trembling arms. She’s still recognizable as Marina—her hair silver, her features the same—but she’s lost her drawn, willowy appearance. Reunited with her seal-skin, she’s now deep blue from head to toe. There was always a sheen of blue just beneath her skin, but now it’s on the surface. And she looks strong, her muscles lean and taut, much like Diana.

“Are you all right?” Gareth moves toward her as she struggles to catch her breath. Marina moves her head up and down, seemingly with great effort.

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