The Unkindest Tide (October Daye #13) - Seanan McGuire Page 0,133

apart.

“This is not smart, Torin,” I said. “I’m a hero of the realm. I’m sworn in service to Duke Sylvester Torquill. He’s not going to like you threatening my daughter.”

“You should have considered that before you dressed her in sealskin for the sake of the sea witch,” said Torin. He sounded far too pleased with himself. It made sense. He thought he’d won. I didn’t have to like it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tybalt walking toward the shadows at the side of the courtyard. He was making an effort not to draw attention to himself, and thus far, it seemed to be working.

They don’t have Cait Sidhe in the Undersea. Unlike Dianda, Torin didn’t seem to have spent any measurable amount of time on land. It was possible neither he nor his people knew how dangerous Tybalt was. Even seeing us vanish over the edge of the dock wouldn’t necessarily have shown our hand since, apparently, people around here jump into the water all the time.

“I’m not a particularly patient woman, you know,” I said. “Gillian doesn’t look like she’s hurt. That’s a point in your favor. Let her go, right now, and we can keep our dislike for each other at its current levels. Still not great for you, since you did stick a big-ass knife in my back, but better than it could be.”

For the first time, Torin’s expression of smug self-satisfaction flickered. “The knife hit you, then.”

“Yeah, it did.” I put my hands on my hips. “Where did you think all this blood came from? Blood Costco? It came out of me, when we had to pull your knife out of my body. You’ve already pissed me off today. Don’t make it worse.”

“You’re bluffing.” His lip curled. “Or lying.”

“Uh-huh. How did you get my daughter? She was supposed to be locked up with the other Ryan kids.”

“She wanted to talk to you, didn’t you, poppet?” Torin turned to smirk at Gillian, who glared at him. “Thought her hero of a mother could help to calm the other Selkies, make them stop fighting among themselves. Thought she’d be safe as long as she had your name on her lips.”

I sighed. I couldn’t help myself. “That sounds like Gillian. It doesn’t make her yours to use as a bargaining chip.”

“Doesn’t it?” Torin produced another of those wickedly jagged knives from his belt, holding it up until the light glistened off its edge. “How about I start slicing strips off her and see how quickly you change your song?”

Gillian struggled against the Cephali that held her, terror and bleak rage in her expression. My heart went out to her, even more than I’d expected it to. She was my daughter, yes, but she hadn’t been raised to this—hadn’t even been raised knowing this could happen. In my own way, I’d done the exact same thing to her that my mother had done to me. I’d let her grow up thinking the rules were one thing, when they had never been anything remotely close.

At least I’d done it accidentally. My mother had done it all on purpose.

Accidents . . . “You didn’t mean to kill Isla, did you?” I kept my voice as mild as I could, like I was making an observation about the weather.

Torin froze. Only for an instant, but long enough for me to know my guess had been correct and my barb had struck home.

Gilly, sweetie, please trust me, I thought. I’m doing this for you. “What happened? Were the two of you planning to run away together while everyone was distracted by the chaos in Saltmist? She’d already answered the Luidaeg’s call. She could have slipped out with the tide. So something must have changed. Did she tell you she was planning to pass her skin along after all? If you didn’t plan to keep Saltmist, someone must have paid for those troops—you were supposed to stop the resurrection of the Roane, weren’t you? Did she tell you it wasn’t going to work? Is that why you lost your temper? Or was betraying her always in the plan? You don’t seem too thrilled to have mixed-blood nephews. Maybe she wanted more than you were willing to give her, and you realized she was a liability. Or maybe you’re the one who wanted more. Did she realize you weren’t happy being her secret? Did she want to change things?”

His eyes narrowed. “Shut up.”

“Not denying it. Interesting. I mean, sure, killing a human