Betrayal 2012 by Amber Garr

that I brought with me.  Someone’s going to send me more.”  I already called my sister to beg her to pack me another suitcase and send it promptly to Virginia.  Three outfits were not going to get me through my time in Jeremiah’s lair.
    Graham huffed and began to walk towards the street.  I said a quick goodbye to Palmer, asking him to check in with me every day, and hurried off after my babysitter. 
    We climbed into the back seat of the town car.  From the smell of him, I’d guessed that Graham hadn’t been to bed yet either.  Stale cigarette smoke and an excess amount of alcohol drifted off of him causing me to turn my head to the side for the entire drive just so I could breathe.  For all the responsibility he had as a Council member, Graham Forrester really didn’t seem to take life seriously.
    We hardly said more than a few words to each other before we arrived at the airport and were sitting in our first class seats.  Doing my best not to show how scared I was, I glued my eyes to one of those human celebrity gossip magazines and pretended to be enthralled.
    “Are you still seeing that selkie?” Graham asked out of the blue.
    “Excuse me?”
    “Well you’re obviously not with Kain so I’ve been wondering if you continued to see the selkie after everything that happened.”  I was so caught off guard the only thing I could do was develop an attitude.
    “I don’t really think that’s any of your business.”  Plus, I didn’t really like knowing that the Council was privy to my love life, or lack thereof at the moment.
    “You’ll end up with one of us,” he said with a surety that made my heart shudder.  Was he speaking metaphorically or literally?  “It will be the only way for you to live.  He won’t stay with you forever.  He can’t.  Besides, a selkie is too far beneath you.  It’s almost as bad as dating a human.”  I couldn’t help but notice the hint of humor in his eyes.
    “You’ve dated a human before?”  It wasn’t unheard of but I hadn’t known anyone who’d actually tried.
    “Several,” he said dismissively.  “They’re so easy to control, it just isn’t fair sometimes.”  I watched as he sighed and laid his head back against the seat while a memory consumed his thoughts.  Imagining the worst, I decided to try and concentrate on my magazine for the rest of the flight. 
    Graham was only a few years older than me but it seemed as though he had lived several more lifetimes.  Not only was it disturbing but it also made me feel young and immature and I refused to let him ruin this trip any more than it already was.  It was bad enough that he’d said he had to babysit me.  Taking my hint, Graham pulled an eye cover over his face and was asleep before we were in the air. 
    We drove through the elaborate iron gates at the entrance in the early afternoon.  The sun was high in the sky and I welcomed the warmer temperatures and constant sea breeze.  Especially since there was a deep chill in my bones at the reminder of where we were.  Kain, Carissa, and I had visited Jeremiah as our first stop in trying to find the selkies that attacked Brendan and stole his skin.  It was the incident that set the stage for everything else that followed.  My parent’s death, discovering my powers, and Brendan leaving all occurred because I had run away from home.  And now I was coming back to train with a man who embodied everything I vowed not to become.  Someday I hoped that I would finally make the right decisions that led to a better path.
    “I see he still has the fountain,” Graham said while bending forward to look through the front window.
    “You’ve been here before?”
    “A long time ago,” he said without looking at me.  I wanted to ask more but the sight of the fountain sent a wave of dread through me.  Would Jeremiah be angry about Abhainn?
    “I stole his sprite,” I blurted out, thinking that maybe if I confessed the fear of facing my