The ritual requires her blood shed willingly, but that won't stop him from trying to force her cooperation. Torture. Threats against people she cares about. Whatever leverage he thinks willbreak her. This time when he comes, it won't be about capturing her safely. It will be about making her bleed by any means necessary.
CHAPTER 14
ISLA
Dawn breaks cold and grey over the ocean when Grayson wakes me. Exhaustion claimed me the moment my head touched his pillow last night, and now sunlight filters weak through the tower windows. Every muscle in my body aches like I ran a marathon underwater.
"Moira's waiting." Grayson sets a mug of coffee on the nightstand. "The sacred caves are ready."
The sacred caves. Where generations of shifters have gone to commune with forces older than memory. Where I'm supposed to learn to control what happened yesterday, to call my seal intentionally instead of waiting for panic to trigger the change.
Sitting up slowly, I wrap the blanket around myself. "What if I can't do it? What if yesterday was just... adrenaline or survival instinct, and I can't make it happen again?"
"Then we keep trying until you can." He sits on the edge of the bed and hands me the coffee mug, his weight making the mattress dip. "Your seal is part of you now. She came forward to save you. Trust that she'll come forward again when you call her."
The certainty in his voice steadies me. The coffee helps too, warmth chasing away some of the chill. Grayson brought clothesfrom my destroyed cottage—jeans and a simple shirt, nothing that will be ruined if I end up in the water again.
The walk to the sacred caves takes us along the northern cliffs. The rocks here are oldest, weathered smooth by centuries of wind and salt spray. The ocean beats against stone with relentless rhythm, a constant heartbeat that never stops. Moira waits at the entrance, leaning against the wall in the grey morning. She's laid out supplies on a flat stone—candles, herbs I don't recognize, a bowl of water that catches the dim light.
"How do you feel?" Moira's attention moves over me, assessing.
"Sore. Tired. Nervous." My attention moves past her into the cave's dark mouth. "Ready."
"Good." She gestures for us to follow her inside. "Because we're starting with the hardest part."
The cave opens into a chamber large enough for all three of us, with a natural pool at the center fed by underground springs. Bioluminescence clings to the walls, providing soft blue-green light that makes everything feel otherworldly. The air tastes of salt and ancient magic, and this place resonates in my bones like recognition.
"This is where your ancestors would have come." Moira moves to stand beside the pool. "Selkies are born of the ocean, but they need places like this to bridge the gap between water and land. Sacred spaces where the veil is thin and magic flows freely."
"My grandmother never told me about places like this." But even as the words leave my mouth, I remember her stories. Tales of hidden coves and secret caves where seal-folk would shed their skins and dance under the moon.
"She probably couldn't." Moira kneels beside the pool, trailing her fingers through the water. "Most selkies lose their memories when they choose to stay on land permanently. Theocean takes back what it gave, leaves them human in all the ways that matter. Your grandmother likely remembered the stories but not the truth behind them."
My chest aches. Gran spent her whole life telling me tales that were more real than she knew, passing down heritage she could barely remember. And now here I am, standing in exactly the kind of place my grandmother left, about to become what she once was.
"How do I start?"
"By understanding what you are." Moira stands, brushing water from her hands. "Selkies aren't like other shifters. Most shifters are born with two natures—human and animal, existing in balance. But selkies are ocean given form. Your selkie isn't a separate entity you call forward. She's part and parcel of who you are. Your human form is simply the disguise you show to the world."
The words resonate in ways I don't fully understand. "So when I shifted yesterday..."
"You stopped pretending." Moira's smile is gentle. "You let yourself be what you've always been underneath."
Grayson moves to stand behind me, close enough that his warmth reaches across the space between us. "Start with the water. Wade in. Let it touch you. Remember how it felt yesterday when you dove in and everything made sense."
Clothes, shoes and socks come off, left near the cave entrance. The stone is cold under my bare feet as I walk to the pool's edge. When my toes dip in, the water is shockingly warm compared to the ocean yesterday. Fed by underground springs heated by volcanic activity deep below, it feels alive in ways that make my pulse quicken.
Wading in deeper until the water reaches my waist, it feels right in ways that standing on dry land never quite does. Likepieces of me that were scattered are suddenly pulling back together.
"Now close your eyes." Moira's voice carries across the cave. "Remember yesterday. Remember being a seal. Not the fear or the panic, just the feeling of being completely yourself for the first time."
My eyes fall shut, and the memory rises. Diving into the churning ocean. The pendant blazing hot against my chest. Mist erupting around me as thunder rolled and light flared. And then the glorious sensation of being exactly what I was meant to be. Sleek and powerful, built for the water, belonging to it completely.
My skin tingles. The pendant warms against my sternum. Pressure builds, like storm clouds gathering before they break.
"Don't force it." Grayson's voice is low, soothing. "Just let it happen."
The feeling surfaces—that perfect rightness. Calling it forward intentionally instead of waiting for survival instinct to trigger the change.Come on,I think at my seal.Show yourself. Let me see you again.
