The Unkindest Tide (October Daye #13) - Seanan McGuire Page 0,105

human, Liz had been a part of Faerie for much, much longer than she’d belonged, even in a sideways manner, to the mortal world; she thought more like a pureblood than I did. And purebloods are notorious about refusing to give a straight answer where death is concerned.

“What if it were a Selkie who killed one of your human kin?” I asked.

Liz bared her teeth in what might charitably have been called a smile. I knew better. I’d been sharing my bed with a King of Cats for long enough to know a threat when I saw one.

“One nice thing about being partially outside the law: no one interferes when we choose to take it into our own hands,” she said. “I’d skin them myself if that was what it came to.”

“Good,” I said. “I need to talk to you about Isla Chase.”

FIFTEEN

ELIZABETH LISTENED IMPASSIVELY as I explained how I’d stumbled over Isla’s body: the way she’d been tangled in a net, fixed to a pylon, in a way that seemed more accident than intent. How her hair had floated in the current, giving the illusion of motion.

How she’d drowned, and what that meant in terms of both the Luidaeg’s permission to rob each other and the Law.

When I was done, Liz tilted her head and said, “It’s not that I don’t believe you—I’m not quite stupid enough for that—but why were you in the water?”

Quentin and I exchanged a glance. Telling Liz exactly what was going on with the Lordens seemed both unwise and unkind. Their problems weren’t hers, and she had plenty of things already on her plate. Still . . .

“Duchess Dianda Lorden of Saltmist is currently indisposed, due to a challenge posed by her brother,” I said, as diplomatically as possible. “Her husband, the ducal consort, was concerned about their younger son, who had been left home with his caretaker when they came to witness the Convocation. I agreed to go get him. As that meant traveling to an Undersea Duchy, it was necessary to allow the Luidaeg to make a few small changes. They’re temporary.”

I reached up and swept my hair aside with the back of my hand, showing her the slits of my closed gills. Liz blinked, slowly. Then, to my surprise, she started laughing.

“Of course you let Annie transform you into something you’re not supposed to be; why in the world would you tell her ‘no, that’s all right, I’d rather be myself and rent some SCUBA gear,’ when she could just,” she made a swirling motion with her hands, “whizz-bang and you’re a mermaid? Oh, October, I wish I’d known you better when Connor was in love with you, so I’d have a better idea of how far you’ve fallen.”

I bristled. I couldn’t help it. It was blazingly obvious that she was trying to push my buttons, but that didn’t make it any harder for her to do. “Fallen or not, we brought Peter back to the Duchy of Ships to be with his parents, and I’m missing their reunion because I thought you might want justice for Isla.”

“Justice? For Isla Chase? That woman was mean as a moray and half as principled. She’d have slit my throat without a second thought if she believed it would get her another skin for her clan. She tried to do essentially that. Why would I want justice for her?”

“Because she drowned. Because someone stole her skin and threw her into the element that had been hers for her entire life, and they thought they’d get away with it, because she was human when she died. Humans deserve kindness, too. She was ours. She belonged to Faerie. She deserves answers.”

Liz still looked like she didn’t get it. I silently reminded myself that throttling her, while not a violation of the Law, would probably be considered impolitic at best, and really rude at worst. No matter how nice it would be in the moment, it wasn’t worth the long-term ramifications.

“If someone’s decided that having permission to steal skins means permission to go around killing your human kin, they need to be stopped,” I said, as clearly and patiently as I could. “This is not the sort of person you want to step into immortality with, and Isla deserves better, no matter how awful she was. No one should die cold and frightened and alone. Now will you help me?”

“How?” asked Liz. “And why? You’re here to put an end to us, and a Selkie without a