Isla’s hands reanimate along with the rest of her body. She detaches her stare from the wall and stands, moving with jerky motions around the room, collecting her few items and dropping them in her bag.
All the while, I sit still.
She steps toward me and then around me, heading to the door.
“This changes things.”
Then, she’s gone.
9
ISLA
Finn saved me.
That fact plays on a loop in my mind as I sit at the outdated desk in my childhood bedroom.
“I’m making you tea.” My mother’s voice sounds through my doorway.
“Thank you, Mama.”
Since she grew up in England, tea is her reaction to most problems. Not a solution. Merely a response.
Not that she knows what the problem is. I simply walked into the house and announced I’d be in my room, reevaluating my life. Both of my parents opened their mouths, no doubt ready to interrogate me about what, exactly, I meant byreevaluate. However, I’d exited the kitchen and jogged upstairs before they could. I’d have rather not made the announcement, but living with my parents requires some basic communication.
I need my own house.
But that’s not the most important factor in my life to address at the moment.
Finn saved me.
With Owen’s assistance, but it was Finn who dived into the dark water and pulled me out. Finn who tried to stop my wound from bleeding. Finn who cut himself open for the spell to heal me.
By all rights, he is my fated mate.
After the decision I made this morning to stop pursuing Owen, one might say this is a positive discovery. Instead, my mind twists, as if caught up in a whirlpool, as I struggle to understand the sudden shift.
Why did he tell me now? Does he know what saving a selkie means in our lore?
Finn’s words come back to me.
“We never spoke about it again after that night.”
Owen would have had no reason to tell his friend about our mating myths if the two agreed to keep Finn’s involvement secret.
A small sting burns in my chest, and I realize I’m angry. Angry with Owen.
Since I was sixteen years old, the morning after that accident, Owen MacNamara has been in my future. The gods’ will was clear. A traditional selkie mating was inevitable. Every long-term plan I made, Owen’s shadow loomed as a required component.
But that’s all he was. A shadow I let follow me around. Not concrete. Not something I longed for.
Not like Finn.
Now, when I switch out the selkie for the human, every part of my brain lights up, wanting to make plans with Finn as a necessary part of the structure. Something I should have been doing from the start.
Finn saved me.
As I imagine what the man saw, what he went through, I am in awe. That boy found an injured creature—something I have to admit must have looked nightmarish to a human. But he stayed with me. Held on to my life with his firm, unwavering grip. Then, he offered the witch whatever she demanded.
