Something Shiny in the Distance

By Angela Fiddler

Finn doesn’t know if all mythical shape-shifting seals are drawn to bright, shiny things, but it’s definitely one of his weaknesses. Something has been drawing him home to Victoria all week, but when he spots a flash of light on one of the islands off the BC coast, he realizes that what’s been calling him isn’t home at all.

Ren has always known that he’s going to die young, and has lived his life accordingly with all the glamour and flair he can possibly cram in, both in and out of drag. He can feel the end coming near, but his grandmother once told him that when death was creeping up, to go to the beach and let his presence be known. The silver sequined gown that’s catching the light might not be his best dress, but it’s definitely his shiniest.

Larger powers are at play than a lone selkie and a fabulous marine biologist could ever know, and a passing encounter may just be what they both need, for a glimpse of hope and a second chance before time runs out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Angela
• Release date: Dec 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310173226

Angela Fiddler

Angela Fiddler is the occasional pen name of Barbara Geiger. Barbara didn’t learn that she had lived in three out of the four Northern Alberta towns that had a known or suspected Wendigo attack until well after she’d moved south to Lethbridge. She grew up loving ghost stories and pony books, and spent most of her summers on the British Columbia coast, where she fell in love with the ocean.As Angela Fiddler, she has written The Master of the Lines series as well as Cy and his sex demon problem books. As Barbara Geiger, she has written The Tempest trilogy, starting with Coral Were his Bones, which exists in the same universe as the Middlehill series, starting with Changeling, as well as various other novellas and short stories.When she’s not following the exploits of selkies, sex demons and vampires, she writes epic fantasy and makes the occasional foray into science fiction and short stories.

Book preview

SOMETHING SHINY IN THE DISTANCE

A Tempest Trilogy/Past and Present Tense series crossover

by Angela Fiddler

Copyright 2014 by Barbara Geiger writing as Angela Fiddler

Second Edition 2014

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This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes, is meant to be enjoyed by adults, and is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only, and may not be re-sold.

SOMETHING SHINY IN THE DISTANCE

A Tempest Trilogy/Past and Present Tense series crossover

A selkie and a drag queen walk into a wildlife preserve cabin… and a long forgotten debt brings two strangers together to save a life.

Finn doesn’t know if all mythical shape-shifting seals are drawn to bright, shiny things, but it’s definitely one of his weaknesses. Something has been drawing him home to Victoria all week, but when he spots a flash of light on one of the islands off the BC coast, he realizes that what’s been calling him isn’t home at all.

Ren has always known that he’s going to die young, and has lived his life accordingly with all the glamour and flair he can possibly cram in, both in and out of drag. He can feel the end coming near, but his grandmother once told him that when death was creeping up, to go to the beach and let his presence be known. The silver sequined gown that’s catching the light might not be his best dress, but it’s definitely his shiniest.

Larger powers are at play than a lone selkie and a fabulous marine biologist could ever know, and a passing encounter may just be what they both need, for a glimpse of hope and a second chance before time runs out.

Table of Contents

Something Shiny in the Distance

About Angela Fiddler

Angela’s other books

Read an excerpt from Red Lettering

Read an excerpt from Coral Were His Bones

Something Shiny in the Distance

August 2006

Finn loved to swim in his selkie form. He cut through the water as though flying. He wasn’t due back for three more days but he just wanted to go home. His master, Paul, had given him a week off as a reward for a job well done. He’d been planning to head south where the water was warmer and there were more varieties of fish, but in August there were always a kind of salmon about to spawn. Since he’d been forced into his master’s service three years ago, the only real pleasure in Finn’s life was food he hunted down himself. He could crack open sea urchins practically anywhere he wanted.

He’d spent the past five days hunting specifically for the rounded bellies of the females. He had stripped the fat belly flaps from the fish, cooking the strips of meat as a boy scout would hotdogs on a stick until the lines of thick white fat went crispy and tasty. He’d soaked the meat in salt water while he gobbled down the eggs and then scraped out the cheek meat off the skulls like marshmallows. Even with the large northern sea lion rook to the south, the salmon sharks out in the deeper water and all the bears lining the riverbanks all waiting for the spawning fish, there was enough for all in August. The fact that most of the fish weren’t going to make it to the spawning grounds was a design feature in the species, not a flaw. Finn had many things in his life he should legitimately feel bad for, but only eating the choice bits of the fish he caught and throwing the rest of the meat into the brush wasn’t one. He slept out in the rocks in his selkie form at night and the remains were always gone come morning.

He woke up on the fifth morning with the desire to go home pulling him. Paul had told him not to spend more than a night in the bay he’d grown up in, which meant he’d have to go back to the apartment earlier, but he could spin it into missing Paul and not being able to stay away. He’d been stuck at home for the past year; his childhood friend Devon had been in town, reconditioning a boat. Finn and Devon were lovers on Finn’s one free night a year, but Paul had forbidden Finn to see him otherwise, which meant Finn had been either with Paul or stuck at the condo. Luckily the building had an exercise room in the basement with treadmills or Finn would have gone completely insane.

He heard the barking sounds from the sea lions long before he could see them, and headed out to sea as far as he could to avoid them. Lone seal-shaped things in the open ocean were like ringing the dinner bell, but there was a wildlife preserve island he could swim around. Technically Finn was still a juvenile seal despite being twenty-one and legal everywhere as a human, but as a single bachelor male seal, he didn’t want any trouble. There was nothing real seals had that he was interested in having, forget fighting for. The rook had a new alpha though, and the sea lion was all bluster. Finn just wanted to stay the fuck out of the way. The fuck out of the way was a