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Her eyes widened with amazement for one second and then darkened with horror.

“No! I did not ask this of you!”

“You did not,” I affirmed.

“T-take it back!” she said, holding her hand aloft as if it did not belong to her.

“I will not,” I said.

“I do not want to owe you for this.Take it back!”

“Did I ask for anything in exchange?”

“It does not matter that you didn’t,” she said. “Magic always requires a trade.”

“Then let me worry about what it will want,” I said and bent to pick up the sealskin. I stepped around her just as the selkie’s head rolled out from the surrounding flora, pushed by a tearful winged fairy.

“Do not cry for such a creature,” I said. “He touched what is mine.”

I snatched the head from the ground by his golden hair.

When I turned to my creature again, she was staring at the selkie’s head.

“What are you going to do with that?”

“I will plant it outside my window and watch what grows,” I said.

She said nothing, and she did not ask me what I intended to do with the sealskin either, but if she had, I likely would have told her about my collection of skins, which ranged from animal to human. One never knew when they might need a different skin.

“Come, we must go,” I said. “Dusk is approaching fast.”

She raised a brow. “Are you afraid of the dark?”

“No,” I said. “But you should be, even when I am near.”

I spoke only once on our return and that was to instruct my creature to walk a step ahead of me so that I may watch her from all sides. When we came to the palace, I threw the selkie’s head into the center of the courtyard and then looked at her.

“The mountains have your blood now,” I said. “They will call to you, and when they do, you must resist.”

“How will I know if they call?”

“It is likely you won’t.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You aremostunhelpful.”

I smiled, half-hearted, only amused by her frustration. “Do not leave your room tonight, no matter what calls.”

Her throat constricted as she swallowed, and my eyes dropped to the mark I’d left on her skin. I reached across our distance and touched her there. I wanted to kiss her, to lick her, to suck her skin again, but she winced, so I let my hand fall away.

“Good night, creature,” I said, and she fled.

I returned to my chamber and dodged a shoe as I entered.

“What the fuck was that for?” I asked, glaring at Naeve, who stood on the bench beneath the window, hopping on one leg as she tried to take off the other shoe.

“Because you are an idiot! A royal one!” she yelled.

“What did I do this time?” I demanded.