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She was looking at me like I was supposed to understand what she’d said So I just stared right back, beginning to tire of this ga about You’ve gotta throw me a bone, here What’s first contact? And I assula questions, the most obvious one popped into my head "And what the hell are you people, anyway?"

Nell and Trill exchanged looks, and Nell said, "How much did your mother tell you about her… faht this conversation would go was toward ins

"Her fa her abandon in a fahed "This always ot that sae professors had e couldn’t grasp a particularly difficult concept and they knew they were going to have to reduce it down all the way to idiot speak

"Your mother, like us, wasn’t really… human," Nell said, finally "She was… more like Trill here"

I made a face I’d been six when ray and clammy and seaweedy She’d been beautiful And what did they mean, not human? Fine, Trill was obviously not huo my mom was not not human Yes, I minored in rhetoric

"Well, not really," Trill interrupted "I’m a kelpie Your ht, frustrated to the point of screa Of course! I finallyaboutin riddles

"Froritted teeth

Nell took over, the voice of reason "Kelpies," she explained, in her professorial manner, "are two-formed, as are selkies They have a human, or in the case of kelpies, a hues into a sort of sea-pony Your mother was a selkie; her other forht I’d seen The Secret of Roan Inish If what this little person is saying is true, so ht that I’d finally have my mother’s desertion ht of reality crushed et sucked into this shit?

"Okay, that’s enough," I said "I’ood money to coave you a great excuse for hurtingyou what a monster I aht But I can’t be hurt any you or they can do will ever be as painful to , wash off thelight I’d like ain"

I started to get up, istered with more than a little pride the stunned expressions that "Trill" and "Nell" were exchanging

My momma may have walked out on us, but she didn’t nearly halfway raise no fools, I thought s with my very sloard an to shimmer An iridescent bubble the same color as her skin but more transparent encircled her It looked like it was ht above Nell’s head Underneath the surface of the ball so that looked like the shadowy development of a fetus played in fast-forward

When the bubble popped, there stood a weird gray pony, with a seaweed mane and tail Its small black hooves were the same color as Trill’s toenails, and Trill’sout at ills ribbing the beast’s short neck

I’d never fainted before today, but I had the distinct i to make it a two-for-one deal here in the hysterical woman depart if I had actually ain Whatever the reason, I was grateful when the hand I put out to steady ly high shoulder The dog’s broad back came up to well over my waist I was only five foot one, but that was still a whole lotta dog

I sat back down, heavily, and Anyan parked hi me up I watched, deliriously, as the bubble once more extended out froain

Unless Stuart’s or Linda’s plot involved slippingra before me was real I felt a chill of fear work its way down my spine as I took more than my fair share of deep breaths

Okay, Jane, I told s are, hellhound here could have killed you at any point and he hasn’t, so you have to assume they want you alive And youto tell you about your ht seemed to fortify me, and so I honed in on it For the first ti to tell you the truth about your ownunder control, and if I didn’t feel fantastic, I did feel like I could face as happening

Anyan’s soft tongue grazed my cheek and I couldn’t help but ss are to people’s moods You’d think he understood how hard this was forto avoid looking at Trill After her little performance, if I looked at Trill I’d need more than just a few deep breaths Maybe a few deep breaths alongside of a few shots of Jack Daniels "You’ve made your point You’re not… human And you weren’t sent by anybody to fool me So what are you, and why are you here? What do you have to do withI was proud of ure on a syrup bottle "You’re taking this very well, Jane," she said, and I only just , your mother is a selkie: a two-formed who can take either the shape of a seal or of a human But she’s not really human or seal; she is, for want of a better hurunted It wasn’t particularly erudite, but it was all I could h me On the one hand, I wanted to scream that none of this was true That ends Despite that loud, angry voice, there was another whispering echo, ed that what Nell said , her happiness in the water, the way she plungedme home--weren’t normal memories They weren’t natural, at least not by hu my mind sink into the curves of the word I was surprised to discover it felt good Or,where once there had been nothing

"Supernatural creatures are all around you, and have been throughout history, as you can tell froends You know us, all of us, but not necessarily in our true fornome Humans have ardens That’s not entirely false We gnomes are earthbound and we protect our territories to the death--usually the death of the intruder Selkies, like your hout the world But they don’t shed their skin, nor are they the captive of whoever steals their skin They come of their own free will toa child" Here, Nell paused, and I could see she spoke her next few sentences with so "We supernaturals find it difficult to… procreate successfully with each other, but we seem to have fewer problems e liaise with humans You, Jane, are the result of one such union"

I was trying not to look too scornful of her words, but this was ridiculous I was Jane True from Rockabill, Maine I was not the half-supernatural love child of a seal woman and a mortal man If I was, surely I’d be taller…Nell, however, I realized that was an entirely illogical train of thought

I also thought about how my mother had appeared, out of the middle of nowhere, and how she’d disappeared as , and my tolerance for cold I shivered, a knot in my throat, as my still resistant brain slowly started to accept that this wole" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">