Okay…Did it matter that they were helping us because the king coerced them by threatening death? Maybe. But if Rage wasn’t going to protest the aid, I wouldn’t either.
Still, in their half-human form, the selkies indicated that we hold on to their backs. Reaching around, I clasped my hands around one of their necks and held on, unsure what to expect. The selkie’s face went from human to seal in seconds and then dipped under the water a few inches.
I looked at my mate,‘I didn’t know they could partial shift like that.’
Rage stared into the water at his selkie warrior.
Rage’s eyes widened.‘I think we still have a lot to learn about the selkies.’
‘Yeah,’I quipped.‘I guess so.’
The selkie with Rage shifted into his seal form. Then, without further warning, we sped off. I had to bite down a squeal of excitement. These were dire circumstances, and we were about to fight for the Midnight brothers … but damn, this wasfun.
They were fast!
We drew near the dock, and both Rage and I scanned the dark beach. If Kaja and her sisters were here, I couldn’t see them.
Less than a hundred feet out, I spotted the guards—at least twenty of them: one at the head of the trail leading up to the school, one on the docks, and then the others littered in between.
Damn. I guess Kaja never got my message.
‘Let me go on shore first,’ Rage said, letting go of the selkie.
Before I could answer, the guard on the dock spoke.
“Selkie attack! Harvest girls’ dorm!”
Wha…? I stared at the guard and then grinned. I mean I felt bad that Kaja had pinned an attack on the selkies, what with our new alliance, but it had worked. All twenty guards pulled their swords and started running toward the dorms.
Yes!
We crept closer to the shore, all of us crawling up the beach, flat and low.
For one hot second, I thought my plan had worked perfectly, but then two of the guards paused and stayed back. One of them scanned the water and then pointed into the darkness.
“There’s a boat out there.”
What? Looking over my shoulder, I saw the moonlight glistening off the metal speedboat. Crap!
“Halt!” The guard on the dock drew his sword, scanning the beach. “Who’s out th—?”
Several things happened at once.
Rage sprang from the water, running up the beach, and shouted, “Stand down!”
The selkie in front of me threw a small blade at the guard standing at the top of the trail leading to the dorms. The knife hit with a small thunk, lodging right in the guard’s neck. With a strangled, wet cry, the shifter toppled forward, rolling down the hill, landing in the water with a splash.
I glanced up as the second guard slumped to his knees and then fell to the side. There, on a rock behind where the guard had been, stood my bestie, holding a mallet in her hands.
Looking down at the guard, she grimaced. “Sorry, dude.”
Rage pulled to a stop in front of Kaja and the fallen guard and grinned. “Well done.”
“Kaja,” I whisper-shouted, emotion swelling in my chest.
She jerked her head up and smiled as I strode out of the water.
“Halle-frickin-leujah,” she said, dropping her arm to her side as she stomped past Rage and across the beach to meet me. “Pretty sure Nell and Rue thought I’d lost my mind.”
