Page 51 of Selkie AU: Beyond the Storm

Dad? Shriekers?

The frantic thrashing beneath me stopped. “Explain,” the Aarlinuk demanded.

“The Shriekers are taking their people and coats. He said they’re going to take them down.”

Now that I wasn’t so focused on holding on for dear life, my mind started to process the situation, just as another familiar Aarlinuk approached. The Aarlinuk child I’d encountered before, Kova, was speaking. But what confused and startled me more than that, was the fact that I’d been mentally projecting in my panic, a form of speech I knew was unique to seal folk. Aarlinuk had never been able to hear us before. Buthehad, hadn’t he? What the fuck was going on?

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Milo

“You can hear me?” I projected in disbelief.

Kova nodded, staring at me with that same blank expression I found entirely unreadable.

“They know where the Shriekers are?” the chief asked.

“Do you?” Kova repeated, directing his question at me.

I mentally slapped myself back to the situation at hand. However he was hearing me was less important than the fact that hecould. I had a way of communicating with them, which meant I had a way of trying to talk my way out of this and saving my people.

I nodded. “Yes, we’re going there now.”

“They know. They’re going there now,” Kova relayed to his father, who apparently couldn’t hear me like he could.

“How?” the elder demanded.

Kova looked to me.

“Our goddess… she’s guiding us,” I explained.

“Their goddess.”

The chief’s upper lip pulled up in a snarl. “Pesky goddess.”

I kept the defensive retort at that to myself. “Please. Let us pass through your territory so we can take back what belongs to us.Then we’ll be out of your way.”

Kova’s head tilted slightly. I waited for him to relay the information on to his father, but what came out of his mouth instead was, “He wants us to help him take the Shriekers down.”

“Helpthem?” the chief roared, once again thrashing unexpectedly. My hands slipped, and a muscled elbow to my ribs finally managed to break my hold on him.Shit! He spun around, huge hands clasping my shoulders. “I should tear your throat out, you insolent brat, and put an end to your entire colony right here and now.”

“No no no no!We can do it alone. Just let us go! Please, we don’t—”

“Silence.” Kova’s voice, this time spoken directly into my mind. “We can stop them, Dad,” he said out loud, his voice carrying through the water. “We can take back our territory. We can take vengeance for those lost.”

I swallowed. The black eyes of the Aarlinuk chief were filled with rage and malice, unlike the blank eyes of his son. His teeth, so white they almost seemed to glow in the darkness, bared as his lip pulled up. So pointed and sharp.

“Just for today, Dad,” Kova continued. “If we hunt with them just today, we can finally be rid of the Shriekers.”

“Just for today.” Another Aarlinuk voice joined the plea. “I can fight alongside our prey. We are hungry, Chief. Starving. Theseal folk will feed us today, but what of tomorrow? Of the next day? With the Shriekers gone we can hunt again.”

“I agree,” said another. “The seal folk can lead us to a larger prize.”

I had so many questions, but I would ask them when I wasn’t about to be lunch.

“Just for today,” I mouthed.

His lip pulled up further in disgust before large hands suddenly released me. “Just for today, seal brat. Once we reclaim our territory, you and your people are back on the menu.”