“She really wants it, doesn’t she,” the selkie said right before I took off in a run after the thief.

Maybe she thought the cloak would work for her…heck, she was running for the water. I could tell she wasn’t a fairy, though.

Just an idiot thief. And she was plunging into the water. “It won’t work!” I called after her. “It only works for its owner!”

“I need to…I need to…”

Escape? Maybe that was it. Had she been another fairy maybe…but she sensed to me as entirely mortal. No, not quite. There was a bit of magic there. A trace.

And then a wave knocked her off her feet. Fortunately, that was all it did, it didn’t start sweeping her out to sea.

But she let go of the cloak and the water took it. I didn’t go after it. I trusted its owner could do so faster than I could.

Instead, I plunged towards her, glad I was dressed for the beach. I had her wrists in a moment. “Look at me. It wouldn’t have worked for you.”

“Please.”

“What are you running away from?” I realized after a moment, it was a who.

“I…” She spread her hands. She had webbing, the mark of somebody who had a selkie ancestor.

“You don’t have enough of the magic,” I told her, softly. “But there are other ways to escape. I can help you.”

The selkie had retrieved her cloak. She looked at me, smiled, and then swung it around herself as she plunged into the water. What surfaced was a seal, swimming rapidly out to sea.

I had a feeling it wasn’t the last I’d ever see of her.

“He’ll kill me. He’ll kill you.”

“Look at me. Use the Sight, if you have it.”

Her eyes widened, seal-like in that moment. “You…” she whispered.

“I can help you.”

“He’s coming,” she whispered.

Partner, boyfriend, husband, father? Kanesha knew about abusive fathers.

“Are you sure you want to leave him?” I asked her.

“Yes.”

“Then stay close to me. Walk next to me. Pretend nothing’s wrong.”

Kanesha had heard. She moved to the other side.

“When he sees me with anyone…”

I smiled. “He won’t.”

Her eyes widened. “Glamorie?”

“Something akin.” I strengthened the ‘nothing to see here’ field, wrapping it around all three of us. There were lots of people on the beach.

He wouldn’t see us. I was determined of that. Of course, it was only the first step. And the future steps would likely involve beating him up.

Or the police. Restraining orders, though, seldom worked. At least not in the stories I’d heard.

And I was a long way from my own turf.