The Unkindest Tide (October Daye #13) - Seanan McGuire Page 0,23

perfect, like a tiny sun. I eyed the plants warily, relaxing as I saw that certain herbs and simples had vanished since our last visit.

“I cleared out the plants that were inherently harmful to the fae,” said Janet, following my gaze and guessing the reasons for it. “It seemed unkind to ward my own daughter’s home against her.”

“Stepdaughter, if you please,” said a voice, and for a horrifying moment, I thought it was mine. Then I realized Janet was looking at Tybalt. Relief washed over me. For once, I’d managed to keep my mouth shut.

“I don’t think this is any of your concern,” said Janet stiffly.

“Actually, he’s right, Mom,” said Gillian. Both Janet and I turned to her. Janet looked crushed. I didn’t know what to feel. My heart was beating too hard and too fast, making my head spin. “You’re my mom, but she’s my mother. We can’t pretend she isn’t. We shouldn’t pretend she isn’t. Not with . . . everything.” Her gesture encompassed her entire body, starting with the sealskin tied around her shoulders.

Janet’s face fell. “Sweetie, you don’t have to let her in if you don’t want to.”

I cleared my throat. “Okay, great as it is to go over this again, because I’m not tired of being stabbed in the chest just yet, I did come here for a reason. Gillian, honey, we need to talk.”

“Why do parents always use food names when they’re talking to their kids? I’m legally an adult, and you still treat me like a dessert topping.” Gillian folded her arms. “Is this about whatever has Ms. Ryan so spooked? Because I’ve been waiting for someone to get around to telling me what’s going on.”

I should probably have felt guilty. All I felt in that moment was relief. Gilly knew this was coming; had been waiting, in fact, for someone to get it over with. I was actually doing her a favor for a change. “It is, yeah,” I said. I glanced to Janet and Tybalt before asking, “Has someone explained to you where Selkie skins come from?”

Gillian nodded. “Mass murder, very sad, and it’s why I’m not allowed to tell any of the other Selkies that their ‘Cousin Annie’ is secretly the actual sea witch from The Little Mermaid. I’m hanging out with Ursula on the regular, and I can’t even tell the other fairies about it.”

Something in the way she said “fairies” told me she was still spelling it wrong in the privacy of her own mind. She was adjusting to the idea that her world was different now, and she was probably going to be adjusting for a long time yet to come. If it had been up to me, I would have given her as much time as she needed. She was a Selkie now, fae and immortal, and she didn’t share my tendency to run headlong into danger at the slightest provocation. We had time.

Except for the part where we didn’t, because she wasn’t going to be a Selkie for long. The time of Selkies was ending. “All right,” I said carefully. “Well, the reason Selkie skins work the way they do—you can’t flense fae at random and expect to become a skinshifter; skinshifters are rare, and the other kinds don’t require anyone to die—”

“There are other kinds?” interrupted Gillian.

I nodded quickly. “Raven-maids and Swanmays. Well, and Raven-men. Swanmays are descended from a woman named Aoife, and they’re hatched with their skins wrapped around them like cauls. Raven-maids and -men are descended from Aiofe’s sister, Aine. They’re not a part of this. Their ancestors didn’t wipe out someone else’s descendant line to give them access to the skies. You know . . . the Luidaeg told you, right?”

“I’m wearing her daughter’s skin around my shoulders,” said Gillian. She reached up to touch it, seemingly unaware of the gesture. “Yeah. I know she was their mother.”

“She was also their grandmother, and in some cases, their great-grandmother.” There had to be something about the presence of a descendant line’s Firstborn that increased fertility, at least for the first few generations. The numbers didn’t make sense otherwise. And that, like the topic of the other skinshifters, was currently beside the point. “The Luidaeg enchanted the skins of her slain descendants so that they would continue to hold the Roane bloodline until such time as she could make things right again.”

I could see the moment when Janet understood what was going on. Her eyes widened, ever so fractionally, and the skin