Joan and the Selkie: Joan of Kerry, #4

By Kat Simons

No one visits a dragon's island uninvited…

 

When Joan's dragon companion, Rory, discovers a mysterious satchel on his secret island off the coast of Ireland, they both know something feels amiss. And since the satchel holds a carefully folded selkie skin, that something promises to be bad. Selkies never leave their skins unattended. Not on purpose.

 

Joan and Rory set out to uncover the secret of the abandoned selkie skin, a quest that brings them face to face with more of the mythical seal people. And a tragedy that has cost lives.

 

To save the day, Joan and Rory will have to face the dangers of the ocean deep.

 

And they might just have to burn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: T&D Publishing
• Release date: Jan 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223602583

Kat Simons

Kat Simons earned her Ph.D in animal behavior, working with animals as diverse as dolphins and deer. She brought her experience and knowledge of biology to her paranormal romance fiction, where she delights in taking nature and turning it on its ear. After traveling the world, she now lives in New York City with her family. Kat is a stay-at-home mom and a full time writer.

Book preview

Joan and the Selkie

No one visits a dragon’s island uninvited…

When Joan’s dragon companion, Rory, discovers a mysterious satchel on his secret island off the coast of Ireland, they both know something feels amiss. And since the satchel holds a carefully folded selkie skin, that something promises to be bad. Selkies never leave their skins unattended. Not on purpose.

Joan and Rory set out to uncover the secret of the abandoned selkie skin, a quest that brings them face to face with more of the mythical seal people. And a tragedy that has cost lives.

To save the day, Joan and Rory will have to face the dangers of the ocean deep.

And they might just have to burn.

JOAN AND THE SELKIE

A Joan of Kerry Story

KAT SIMONS

T&D Publishing

JOAN AND THE SELKIE

Copyright © 2024 by Katrina Tipton

Cover design: © 2024 T&D Publishing

Cover art: © Valentyn Oleinikov | © Vitalii Gaydukov | © Tudorpopaart | Dreamstime.com

Published by: T&D Publishing

T&D Publishing: https://www.tanddpublishing.com

Kat Simons Website: https://www.katsimons.com

Kat Simons Newsletter: https://bit.ly/KatSimonsNewsletter

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

eBooks are not transferable.

They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Thank you

Books By Kat Simons

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About the Author

To my personal Irish hero.

And to the family he helped me build.

1

Joan gently set down her legendary sword on the couch in her sitting room—a room that had been expanded to fit Rory in the smallest size he could manage, which meant it was still pretty huge. The couch and coffee table had been pushed up against the wall closest to the galley-style kitchen so she could train. It was drizzling wet outside that day, not her favorite weather for training in, so she’d pushed all the sitting room furniture aside and used the open space on the ground floor of her Kerry cottage instead.

These days, sword training was primarily running through a series of forms and exercises to keep her muscles strong and loose. She used the sword often enough in actual situations, she didn’t need a sparring partner anymore. But sometimes Rory still helped, giving her something to clang off of and to keep her on her toes.

Today, however, Rory was supposed to be sleeping on his little island, on top of his piles of jewels and gold—she still found it funny that he kept a hoard all these years. He didn’t add to the hoard anymore. Just kept it there to sleep on because, in his words, he found it most comfortable.

He was a millennia old dragon, so she supposed he’d earned some comfort.

But because he was supposed to be sleeping, or rather catching up on sleep he’d missed while they were on their last adventure, she hadn’t been excepting anyone to knock on the large barn doors that took up one wall of her two-story house, the wall that fitted neatly into the side of her sitting room. And which enabled Rory to get in and out of the house. There was only so small a dragon could squish himself, especially one Rory’s size. He could manipulate his bulk, shrink himself down if needs be, but with that much mass, there were limits.

The faces of the construction lads when she’d explained how she wanted a giant sliding barn door in her sitting room…

The knock on the door was high enough on the wood, she knew it was Rory and not a neighbor—which was rare—or a delivery person—her regular guy had stopped asking about the barn door and simply used the people-sized front door.

Frowning, she pushed the barn door to one side, opening up a chunk of wall and letting in the rain. Her wooden floors could take it, but she had to be careful not to leave good rugs or electronics in this part of the room for just this reason. If it was raining when she had to open the door, and it rained a lot in south Kerry, everything withing a meter got wet.

You’re supposed to be sleeping, she told the big golden dragon standing outside. Can’t sleep? Want to play chess? Or more to the point, want me to beat you at chess until you get frustrated and can sleep?

We might have an issue, Rory said. He was