Sapphire Water by Adam J. Ridley

Author:Adam J. Ridley [Ridley, Adam J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781956727418
Google: sYemzwEACAAJ
Amazon: 1956727418
Goodreads: 123679687
Publisher: Blake Allwood Publishing
Published: 2023-03-17T06:00:00+00:00

twenty-three

David

When I woke, it was to an empty bed. I knew Muir would leave and I knew he wouldn’t wake me when he did. The pain was in his expression last night. I recognized it because it was the same pain I felt inside. But this war wasn’t mine to fight. I was neither Selkie nor Dorcha.

I still wasn’t convinced I was the witch he searched for. Sure, I was endowed with knowledge because of the people in Chemeketa, and I apparently came from a long line of witches on my birth father’s side, but I was still just a man. I had little to no use for magic. I was a scientist, for goodness’ sake—a simple man determined to live a simple life.

I regretted not being able to help Muir’s people, but I was a peaceful man who believed in non-violence. If they were able to win this war, maybe I could return and shore up the boundaries as their Dion Adair had done before. That’s what I’d come to do. That was all I could commit to doing.

I felt resolved, so why did it feel so wrong? I wasn’t connected with the Selkie, and my ancestors hadn’t been for at least a century or longer. And that was only if the stories Muir told me were to be believed. It’s possible I’m not descended from… I stopped that line of thinking. Deep down, I knew what Muir had told me was the truth.

I had always been drawn to open water. From the first time I saw the ocean and smelled its salty sea air, I recognized its magic. Felt it. I possessed an uncanny ability to recognize sea life as well, even creatures I’d never learned about in school. We communed, as one of my marine biology mentors once told me. That’s one reason I entered the field, and why I recognized Muir for what he was upon finding him injured in the sea cave. I had just never fully accepted my gifts and all they represented.

When Muir presented the Dion Adair’s pelt to me, I sensed the pelt would accept me. I could feel my heart yearning for it. It called to me, spoke to me in a language I had never heard but fully understood. But instead of accepting it, and claiming my birthright, I used humor to deflect and cast it away.

The expression on Muir’s face would be one I remembered for the rest of my life. Sadness permeated him, yet he was willing to let me go. He needed me, and not just as a lover, but as the savior of his people. But he hadn’t manipulated me or spelled out the disaster that awaited his people without my help. Instead, he simply gave me my freedom.

It wasn’t lost on me that I’d given him the same when we met. I had cured his pelt and rather than hide it, as I could’ve done to keep him with me, I had left it, ensuring him his freedom.

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