Page 57 of Selkie AU: Beyond the Storm

“Rowan, stop, we have to go back.” Milo tried to grab the wheel.

I refused to let him. “Enough, Milo.” I yanked it back in the direction I wanted to take us.

Milo stomped his foot and yanked it toward himself again.

This time, it was a rough sheet of ice in front of us, and it was completely unavoidable. The bump as we mounted it was large, and sudden. I grabbed Milo to keep him with me as my boat made a horrible, loud scraping noise as sharp ice carved up the stern.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. That wasn’t good.

Then the nose dipped, and we slid back into the water, the motor still running at full power.

We couldn’t take another hit like that.

“Fuck!” I cursed as I went to power it down. I’d need to figure out another way through this fog first.

I pulled the throttle lever to reduce our speed, and my heart sank as it felt completely slack in my hand, offering absolutely no resistance. I jerked it back and forward a few times, but it did nothing. Whatever damage that ice sheet had done to the boat meant I no longer had any control over the motor’s power.

Milo turned the wheel back toward the iceberg.

“No!” I shouted. “Milo, we can’t slow down!”

Too late. I was too slow, and we were moving too fast. The next time the boat mounted ice, it wasn’t flat, and we didn’t dip back into the water. We were airborne.

I did all I could do, which was to grab Milo and pull him into me, using my body to shield him from whatever was about to happen and praying it would be enough.

The boat crashed into something solid, and my body absorbed the impact as we were thrown forward. Milo was tucked safely in my arms, while selkies cursed and shouted as they were slammed about.

Then we were still, and there was silence save for the creaking of warped metal.

I was scared to open my eyes, afraid of what I’d find when I did. But Milo’s movement in my arms settled the worst of my fears.

As I opened them, I found his silver eyes staring back at me in complete shock. He was okay. He had to be. Despite the pain that echoed through my back from what was probably going to be a nasty bruise, I seemed to be okay too.

“Are you hurt?” I asked, to be sure.

He blinked a few times before shaking his head. “I… I don’t think so.”

Relief flooded through me. At the sound of a groan nearby, I dared to examine our surroundings. There were selkies scattered over the wreckage, but everyone was moving, and no oneseemedto be badly injured.

By some miracle, everyone was okay. For now, anyway. We no longer had a method of escape, and there was no telling just what was ahead of us. I pulled myself up, wincing slightly at the dull throb in my back before helping Milo get to his feet again as well.

While our bodies had been spared any serious damage, the same couldn’t be said for my boat. Or, apparently, the iceberg we’d crashed into. Excepticebergwasn’t quite right.

The surface we’d collided with was surrounded by ice, concealed by it, or ithadbeen. But what we’d crashed into and successfully broken through was undoubtedly some form of entrance to the poacher’s hidden base. The pale metal door looked thick and sturdy, but apparently not quite sturdy enough to stop a flying boat. It was warped inward, the tip of the boat having created an opening just wide enough for us to squeeze through and get inside.

“I knew the goddess would guide us,” Milo said as he smiled widely. “It’s here!” he called out loudly to the others, jumping inexcitement and cupping his hands around his mouth to project his voice further. “We found a way in here!”

29

Milo

We were in. Despite what Rowan might think, I knew it couldn’t be an accident, the way we’d happened to crash directly into the entrance of this place. The goddess was guiding us. She was guiding Rowan too. I could feel it.

We were going to win.

Metal creaked as I climbed over the wreckage to get inside. Fog billowed through the opening we’d left with our boat, seeping in with the cold. The air here was warm, but it was nothing like the warmth that Rowan’s home held, comfortable and scented with firewood and his cooking. Instead, it wasstale. Wrong. And it smelled of something unnatural and unwelcoming.

Lights flickered, and in the distance some loud and terrible noise sounded at regular intervals like mechanical barking.