Unsealed: Fireflies & Faeries, #3

By Selina J. Eckert

Long ago, selkies were told humans would destroy them. Can Adella bring the two races together again?

Young selkie Adella loves observing the humans that come to the aquarium where she spends her days, and she longs for the day she earns her land legs and can walk among them. But far too soon, her father summons her home, leaving her only one day to say goodbye to the human friends who think she is a seal.

Desperate for one chance to see her friends face to face—and maybe come up with a scheme to convince her father to allow selkies to return to land—Adella makes a deal with a sea witch. In exchange for temporary land legs, all Adella has to do is find the witch's missing pearl.

But Adella has never walked on land before, and she only has one night to accomplish her task before her father appears to take her home beneath the sea forever. Good thing she has those human friends—if she can convince them that she's telling the truth about herself.
 
Unsealed is part of Seasons of Magic, a standalone series of novellas. If you like sweet fairy tales, forbidden friendships, ocean magic, and summer nostalgia, then you'll love this whimsical story inspired by The Little Mermaid. Grab your copy today and dive headfirst into Adella's world!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paper Cranes, LLC
• Release date: Mar 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9781954466258

Selina J. Eckert

Selina is a biologist-by-day, writer-by-night native of Pennsylvania. She lives with her husband, dog, and two cats and spends her time writing, reading, creating art, and dreaming about fictional worlds. Besides writing and sciencing, Selina also runs an author support business, Paper Cranes, LLC, that provides editing, consulting, and mapmaking services to authors, writers, and students. She has written two fairy-tale retelling short stories that were both finalists in Rooglewood Press short story contests and a fantasy short story, “Queen of Mist and Fog,” available through her newsletter.

Book preview

Chapter One

Observe and Report

Adella blinked her eyes open as something hit her spotted gray skin. She’d been lounging on the edge of the water, soaking in the bright, hot sunshine of August, and was almost asleep. Her gaze landed on a bright pink piece of plastic, almost shaped like a butterfly, with a bit of rubber sticking from one side.

A pacifier?

Or, at least, that was what her sisters had called it when they brought one back home after their own visits to the human world. And she’d seen one or two since she’d come to the aquarium, a safe place for her to stay while she was here on her own visit. The only safe place, according to her parents—the leaders of the Selkie Scouts.

Her first real assignment, alone, with no one to supervise her. Even if she wasn’t allowed to actually interact with the humans beyond the aquarium workers. Even if it meant her every move was still restricted by her parents and the Scouts. It was the most freedom she’d ever had, the most she’d been allowed to think for herself and make her own choices. And though she yearned for more control over her own life, she wasn’t close to getting it. Not yet. The keys to her future freedom were in their hands, since she hadn’t yet earned the magic that would let her walk among the humans, disguised as one of them. Since she hadn’t proven to her parents that she could be trusted. That their people could be trusted to walk among the humans freely.

She looked up the rocks from the beach, trying to see where the pacifier might have come from, and only one small family stood on the boardwalk overhead. She couldn’t quite make them out from here, not with the way the sunset backlit them, but she could sense a familiarity in that small family of three: a mother, for sure, with a wheeled cart that pushed around a baby, and a young boy, the same family that visited every few days.

They turned away, and Adella glanced at the pacifier again. Were they just going to leave it? Or maybe the boy would come get it later? Adella certainly wasn’t going to touch it. Right?

Lesson one: the Selkie Scouts observe and report. Do nothing else.

But the pacifier didn’t fit in with the rocks and sand, disturbing the natural calm of the enclosure. It was too bright, too pink, so surely one of the humans would come pick it up.

But maybe not until tomorrow. Or maybe they’d never notice it, and the baby would be without the pacifier forever.

Adella turned her face up to the boardwalk again, blinking in the fading daylight and hoping for another glimpse of the family, but they didn’t seem to notice their loss. It was a warm, clear summer evening, and with the cotton candy sunset over the ocean, it wouldn’t be long before the humans started their explosions of stars in the night sky. Already the bright white bulbs on their strings and the glittering rainbow lights on the rides and at the booths were flashing, preparing for another night.

Adella slid off the rock where she’d been warming herself in the sun and let the cool saltwater of the aquarium enclosure caress her. A few other seals basked in the fading light behind her or frolicked in the water with her, but none of them were like her, not quite, not even the new, very large seal that had been added only this week. But they did provide excellent camouflage.

Lesson two: when observing humans, the best hiding place is right in the open.

She flopped up onto the sandy beach and grabbed the pacifier, a little act of defiance. She didn’t have to directly interact with the family to at least bring it to her favorite humans. And they’d be able to get it back to them. Maybe.

She shambled toward the small shelter where the humans brought dinner every day, her stomach already growling. The aquarium would be closing to the public for the night soon, which meant the lights would go out, the humans (except the security humans) would go home, and she would be free to roam as she pleased.

She reached the edge of the enclosure, just under the shelter, and dropped the pacifier as close to the gate as possible. The shelter itself was empty, and her heart sank like a stone in the ocean. No one was here.

Then a voice cut through the distant din of the boardwalk.

Adella! I knew you’d be here.

She flopped around in a circle to see the boy approaching from around the side. She hadn’t seen him coming, but his name badge flashed in the sunset. Will. She couldn’t read it, but she knew that was his name. Knew the name badge showed he worked here. And in his hand, just as she’d hoped, a shining silver bucket. She gave him a happy little bark.

Will laughed. That’s my girl.

Not far behind him was her other favorite human, the girl, Isabella. They usually worked as a team, and she could almost call them friends, even though she couldn’t directly talk with them while she was in this form.

Will set the bucket down in the shelter and unclipped the small gate, using a key only a few humans seemed to have. Then, he grabbed the bucket and stepped inside her hiding place with Isabella.

The other seals heard the click of the lock and started making their way across the beach toward Will and Isabella, ready for their own dinners.

But Adella, as hungry as she was, wasn’t only there for the glimmering fish.

Will set his bucket on the ground and settled into a seat on the steps that led from the shelter to the beach. He sighed and reached for Adella’s head, scratching her under the chin in the exact right place.