“Beware the shore, mo ghràdh. If a man steals your skin, you cannot return to the sea without it.”Isla was warned – by her mother, her mother’s mother, and every mother before that. She was a maighdeann-mhara – a selkie. To shed her seal skin and walk on land as a maiden was her magic. […]
When my younger sister was still hiding in her room for the third day in a row, I couldn’t keep waiting for her to come to me. It took a bit of coaxing, but in the end she let me in and let it all out. I gathered up her tears and her heartbreak, swallowing […]
You line the coins up in your palm and, when you think no one is looking, slip one between your lips. It rests on your tongue and your bones soften—the tension melts from your shoulders and you tip your head back, close your eyes. Copper is calming.It’s become a bit of a habit, this mantra […]
1. The colour ochre, painted by the city mageguard around his front door as a warning: do not enter, premises unsafe.2. His parents’ address, which is where he tells the mageguard captain to find him while he waits for them to untangle the knot of curdled time living in his room. In four years of […]
Friday night. My older sister points a beam at my bedroom ceiling so the sky appears: charcoal edging to violet, clouds in layered bruises, starlight peeping through the gaps. Claretta then directs a second beam at the wall. An impression of our city blooms there, trembling and unfocused as she fusses with the controls.A silent […]
“I found my spirit animal!” My daughter, satisfied. “It’s a horse.”“How did you figure that?” She doesn’t strike me as horse-like, and unlike some girls, isn’t even interested in horses.“I looked it up.” Certain.Looked it up used to mean Encyclopedia Britannica. We had that distinguished, gilt-spredged set, and I would often select a volume at […]