Skin Deep by Marie Blanchet

Author:Marie Blanchet [Marie Blanchet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Marie Blanchet
Published: 2023-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

Watershed

The history of Selkies and witches was a complex one, full of alliances, treason and wars. It was a history that had stopped rather abruptly a few centuries ago, at least for Louison’s clan. Once they had crossed the ocean towards the New World, they had ceased all contact with witches of any kind. She herself had never met any, but she had heard of them through stories and myths passed down from generations. She didn’t know which parts were true and which were fiction, blown up tales created whole cloth by mother Selkies trying to scare their pups.

She wasn’t in any hurry to find out.

Common sense would have been to return to Selkie’s Cove and send an emissary to report her findings to her clan. She couldn’t face a witch alone. On the other hand, the clan had sent her to face a murderer alone, and might not take action until she brought them proof. Witches, after all, had never caused them any trouble in the New World, where the local coven rules were different.

No, she wouldn’t call the for help yet. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that it was a question of politics. If she brought back news that land was too dangerous for their kind, then it would only prompt the more isolationist factions of the clans to push for the Selkies to disappear in the deep forever. As an emissary, that was the opposite of what Louison had spent her life fighting for. Why did they even have human shapes if they weren’t meant to occasionally walk the land? How could they be part of this world, if they chose to hide themselves away from it?

But would it really be better if the Matriarch went the other way, and sent more people to St. Adalbert to help Louison with this? The last thing anyone needed was a greater risk of discovery by humans or a war. No, asking for help would be her last recourse, only if the situation got out of hand. And it wasn’t out of hand yet, was it? Her siblings were only in danger when they were on land, and the only Selkie on land presently was Louison herself. She could figure it out. She had to.

***

Now that she knew who – or rather, what – she was dealing with, Louison could start to plan. The first thing to do would be to figure out if Maude and her cousins were really involved with all of this, or if the barman had been wrong. Then, Louison would have to find a way to determine if Maude herself was the witch, or if it was one of her cousins. Hopefully, there would only be one witch and not a whole family of them.

(She grit her teeth at this thought and allowed the fear to pass through her. She wouldn’t be able to concentrate while keeping it at bay, but there was no reason for it to linger. Better be afraid now then let it distract her later.

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