But it was useless to me; even if my foot could reach the rock, there was no way I could lift it with my hands bound behind me. Unless I could somehow convince her to unshackle me.
My focus snapped back to Livia, who was dropping Magnus’s tongue into the cauldron. It sizzled, and tendrils of foul-smelling smoke swirled upwards, joining the cloudy sky. Next, she took the bloody dagger and started carving the symbol into her own flesh.
I used it as an opportunity to stretch out my foot, but the rock was just out of my reach. Slouching as low as I could against the trunk, I stretched my leg out again. The tips of my toes just grazed the rock. Gritting my teeth, I tried using my foot to drag it towards me, and, miraculously, it shifted a hair’s breadth closer. I could make it move again—I knew I could. I just had to keep her distracted.
“Are you at least going to tell me what all this is about before you kill me?” I called to her. “You’re brewing a potion for power, yes? You villains are so predictable.”
She used the dagger to slice off a lock of her own hair, then tossed it into the cauldron. She chuckled, turning her cold eyes on me. The light of the fire reflected on her dilated pupils, making her appear more maniacal than ever before.
“Let me tell you a little story,” she said, strolling over to me. Bloody dagger still in hand, she crouched down next to me and spoke.
“Once, there lived a selkie. She loved to spend her days playing in the waves with her brothers and sisters and roaming the ocean. But she was an inquisitive young thing who sought to explore the land and all its curious charms.
“Finally, she decided to visit the mortal lands. Before sheleft, her brothers and sisters warned her, ‘Beware the mortal heart. It is a fickle, jealous thing that can drive a person to acts of madness’. But the selkie did not listen. She shed her hide and left for Anerdor to immerse herself in all its fanciful delights.
“Everywhere she went, her beauty and allure intrigued mortal men and women who all wished to claim her for their own. But she did not belong to the mortals, she belonged to the ocean. Still, she was intoxicated by the fine wine and food, the gifts of clothing and jewelry and gold, the marriage proposals and declarations of love, the physical pleasures of flesh. No matter how much she amused herself with the excesses of the land, she never stopped craving her home. She always returned to the loving embrace of the ocean, leaving a stream of broken hearts in her wake.”
There was a faraway look in her eyes as she recounted her dark story. I listened in rapt disbelief, forgetting my task of retrieving the rock at my foot.
“Until, one day, she caught the attention of a powerful mortal noble. As soon as he laid eyes on her, he resolved to make her his wife. The selkie was used to this. She had enchanted many a mortal. He was handsome and charming and unfathomably wealthy, so she indulged him in his fantasies. But she underestimated this mortal. He knew what she was, he knew she would return to the ocean and break his heart.
“He would not let that happen.
“Desperate, the noble sought the help of a witch. ‘Find her hide and destroy it so she may never return to the ocean again,’ the witch told the noble.
“One night, the noble drugged the selkie with a powerful sleeping draught the witch had given him. As she lay in a deep, death-like slumber, the noble searched for her hide. Eventually, he found where she had hidden it, and, do you know what he did next?”
I shook my head, already dreading the answer.
A desperate sadness darkened her face. Her voice was thick with emotion as she said, “He threw it in the fire and watched it burn until it was nothing but ash and dust.”
Her eyes shone as she went on, but, this time, it was with unshed tears. “When the selkie woke, she was distraught. Immediately, she knew what the noble had done. She felt as though a piece of her soul had been ripped from her body and irreparably discarded.
“Desperate and crazed, she fled from the noble and sought to find her brothers and sisters, but they were nowhere to be found. She screamed and cried and begged the ocean, but the ocean would not listen to her call. She no longer belonged to it.
“Heart broken and soul shattered, she returned to the noble. He was pleased. He had captured his prize, and she would be his forevermore.
“So, the selkie pretended. She pretended to love the noble. She pretended that his cruelty was a grand, romantic gesture. And she pretended that she was not slowly dying a little more each day that she did not return to the ocean.”
At the pain in her eyes, I almost felt sorry for her. She wanted to return to her home and couldn’t. I wanted to leavemyhome but couldn’t. The parallels of our stories were not lost on me.
“The selkie and the noble were married and soon returned to his homeland. What the noble didn’t know was that, beneath the exterior of a loving, devoted wife, the selkie was waiting. She was waiting to exact vengeance, and she was waiting for a way to return to the ocean.
“For many years she waited until, one day, a mermaid wandered willingly into her kingdom.
“The selkie was ready with a plan. She knew of a potion. A potion that could transform a person into something else.Someoneelse.
“The potion was to be brewed under a full moon. But, in order for it to work, it demanded a terrible price.
“Skin of my kin.
“Bone of my enemy.
“Blood of an innocent.
“Tongue of a lover.
“Essence of my body.
