Her Selkie Secret by Flora Dare

the sack to Danae and said, “Keep this with you. It’s blessed salt.”
    Danae tucked the small bag into her pocket.
    Maude said shuffled the deck of cards, gestured at Danae and said, “Gin?”
    Danae said, “I don't suppose I could get an actual G&T while we play?”
    Maude threw her head back and laughed. “Trust me, no booze today.”
    “I'm already trusting you more than I really want to.”
    They played a few hands and Danae finally started to relax a little. The Maude she remembered from before the accident was slipping through the cracks and Danae remembered how she once enjoyed the woman's company. She caught Maude's eye and they smiled at each other, a moment that was disturbed by a sudden darkening of the sky, a crack of lightening outside and bone-clattering thunder rumbling through the building.
    Maude stood and said, “It's now.”
    The door flew open and the lights went out as the silhouette in the door screamed at them. It was Lori, drenched to the skin and hysterical. She stepped in and screamed, “Please, it's Simon, he fell. Please, please help him. Don't let me lose him.”
    Danae didn't trust the other woman, but she had to react to the pain and fear in the woman's voice. She remembered those horrible moments with David and no matter what Lori had done, she didn’t deserve that loss.
    Danae and Maude followed her into the storm and they ran to the path down the cliff, to the rocky beach below.
    Precious moments passed as they struggled down the slick path in the lashing storm. Danae helped Maude over a rock and turned to Lori, yelling to be heard over the wind, “Where is he? I can't see.” The woman directed them around the point. They passed by a dark hole in the rocky cliff and Lori stopped in front of them and spun suddenly, pointing and shouting. Danae was suddenly engulfed in impenetrable darkness when a something struck her from behind and she fell to the ground.
    Chapter Seven
    Danae finally came to and groaned at the flare of pain in her head. She opened her eyes and saw Maude tied up across from her. She looked up and saw Lori standing over her. Danae's hands were bound behind her back, tied to her feet.
    “Danae, this is your fault, you did this to us. You separated us. So I'm separating you from your sickeningly sweet new love.”
    “What are you talking about, Lori.” Danae was trying to get her bearings. Sandy floor. Rock walls. A low stone altar. She remembered the beach, the storm, the panic in Lori's voice.
    “You know what I'm talking about. He and I were meant to be together. David was supposed to be mine. But you took him from me, you took him away from me. Why? You're beautiful, you're magical, you could have had other men. But you picked mine . So now, I'm picking yours. It was pure luck I caught him coming up from the beach.”
    “No, Lori--”
    “Shut up, you whore.” Lori sharpened the knife on the stone. “The power I harvest from such a strong witch and a magical creature should do it.”
    “Do what, Lori?”
    “I'm going to fix what you broke.  David belonged to me, and you took him from me. You took away my chance at a family. So now I'm going to get David back and let you have a little bit of what I've been feeling all these years.”
    “David's gone, he can't come back. You can't change that.”
    Lori tested the edge of the knife against her thumb. “Oh you stupid little white witch, of course he can come back. I tied him to me, before he died...”
    Danae spat out the words, she was finally able to put the blame for David’s death where it should have been all along. “You mean before you killed him.”
    “Don't say that.”
    “But you killed him, you killed them both.”
    Lori’s face twisted in rage. “It's your fault, you're the only one who should have died. Then I would have taken care of David and Alba. So now I'll kill your precious Liam and take David back.”
    Danae couldn’t see Liam in the cave, but she knew she needed to keep Lori