We cleaned up in the chilly lake water and, though there was no sign of her, I couldn’t help but wonder if Leanne was about.

What would she make of this?

A part of me I didn't like very much hoped she would be able to sense the lay of the land. The better part of me reminded that ugly part that she’d been instrumental in us finding Saorise and she had been nothing but lovely to me. She deserved to find someone - or someones, as the case may have been.

Back in the cabin, we ate a hearty breakfast. It was amazing how comfortable we all felt together. Something that could have changed everything between us for the worse had, if anything, changed it for the better.

After breakfast, we were able to sit down and talk through the plan for the coming night.

"According to Leanne," Declan explained, "there is an underground river that runs right through the Mung estate. He uses it to supply running water to the whole property. It's an impossible swim for a human - at least without diving equipment - but for us, it's the ideal way in, and from which they probably won't be expecting any attack."

Connor nodded. "There may be a few guards down there. He's no fool, after all. But I bet there's not as many as there are elsewhere."

"And don't forget, he doesn't like company," Patch put in. "He's not going to have guards around if he doesn't have to. And he doesn't tell them stuff if he doesn't have to. So, the chances are that they won't be on the look-out for seals. That would be 'need to know' information."

"Once we're in," Connor took over, "we use our other secret weapon."

They all looked at me.

"Am I missing something here?"

"We could disguise ourselves as guards or workmen," explained Patch. "But most guards aren't allowed in the main building unless there's an emergency - like us breaking in. On our way here, we were able to get some more intel off the net. Most of it came off like speculation from conspiracy theorists with nothing better to do, but one post from a woman who used to clean for him felt right. She complained that the pay was exceptionally good but that she knew in her gut something weird was going on because certain rooms were off-limits.”

“I bet,” Connor said with a harsh laugh.

“Just when she and the others started to get curious, they were switched out with a new crew from another temp company called Happy Maids, the third company that year. Apparently, he doesn’t like anyone getting too comfortable. The good thing is that the cleaning staff is allowed in the main house. We don't really look the part, but you, on the other hand..."

"I look like I should be scrubbing toilets for a living,” I asked with a mock glare.

Patch held up his hands. "Only in as much as you are small and non-threatening."

“Hey, it’s honest work.” I shrugged. "It’s a bit of a body blow to feminism, because I could be a stealth ninja beneath this soft exterior. Considering the circumstances, though, I’ll let your political incorrectness slide."

"You probably won't have long before someone realizes you're not supposed to be there," Connor went on, sparing me an eye roll, "but hopefully you won't need long."

"We're hoping," Declan spoke up, "that once you're that close, Saorise will be able to sense you and contact you."

It was wonderful that they had now accepted my connection to Saorise to the extent that it was a key part of their plan, and it was great to be asked to play such an important role in that plan, but there did seem to me to be a pretty major problem.

"I don't like to be a downer. But how am I getting into the building? I'm not a seal, I can't swim underwater for that long."

The guys looked at each other before Connor looked back at me.

"We can get you in, but it will require extreme bravery on your part, and we cannot guarantee that it will work. We won't make you do it and we won't blame you if you don't want to."

"When you say you can't guarantee that it will work...?" I left the end of the sentence unsaid.

"It’s dangerous," clarified Connor, not wanting to let me get into something without fully understanding it. “There’s a chance--”

"I could die, right? Okay, then." I nodded.

They all stared at me blankly. "You don't want to hear what the plan is first?"

I shrugged. "I want to hear it. But it doesn't make a difference. If this is our best chance of saving Saorise then I'm doing it. And if it was likely to kill me, I don’t think you’d have suggested it. Am I right?"

Connor nodded hesitantly. “That’s true. Still, there are risks--”

“Risks that any of you, including Saorise, would take for me,” I cut in smoothly. “So let’s go, what’s the plan?”

I think they all knew what my answer would be before I said it, but it was still nice to see the pride mingled with the uncertainty in their faces.

I was one of them, now. Family.

"Well, as Leanne described it," Declan began, "there’s no air in the river tunnel. No human could swim along fast or agilely enough to get from outside to inside on one breath and the rocky, treacherous pathways would make scuba gear more of a danger than a help. One of us," Declan continued, "could swim fast enough. You would need to hold on tight, and hold your breath while we swim you there. We could stop and breathe into your mouth, but when panic sets in, you might fight it, and--"

"But you think you can get me there fast enough that I won't drown?" I pressed.

Declan flicked a look at Connor, who answered. "We don't know exactly how far it is. Leanne can't tell us that. But we think - since we'll be going with the current rather than against it - we can make it."

“And can breathe for me if I stay calm enough to let you?”

"Yes,” Patch said with a sage nod. “But there is no guarantee. And we’d never get over the loss if something happened to you, Sienna. You have to understand how important it is to stave off panic.”

I looked at them. "I already gave you my answer. It hasn't changed. Let’s do this."

That afternoon, Declan and Patch went out to scout the area around the mouth of the underground river, to make sure it was not guarded. I found Connor seated on the porch, staring into the trees with a somber expression on his face, and sat down beside him.

"Alright?"

"Ask me again tonight."

"It'll work," I said. "We'll get her back."

"You don't know that." There was a hardness in Connor's voice. "We want to believe that the worst never happens to us, or the ones we love. That sort of thing only happens to someone else. But we're all someone else to someone else."

I took a deep breath. "I've been wanting to ask you; about Eileen."

Connor's eye-line remained unchanged, staring out into the forest.

"If that's okay," I added.

"I don't know if it's 'okay' or not. It'll never be okay." His face twitched involuntarily. "In a way, you're the last person in the world I want to talk to about Eileen. But you're also the one who most deserves to know, I guess."

He still didn't look at me, and I wondered if looking at me, the woman in his life now, felt like a betrayal of the woman he had clearly once loved.

"The short version is; Eileen was my first love. I mean, there had been other females - you know what it's like when you're young. And as you have probably gathered, selkie are a little freer in that area than humans are - we have a bit more animal in us. But still, when a Selkie finds someone they love then that is no less real than it is for humans."

"I have no trouble believing that," I said. For all the unusualness of our relationship and how quickly our tragic circumstances had drawn us together, I loved them all. And it was very real.

"For Eileen and me, it was easy," Connor continued. "We loved each other and that was it, from the first. I don't think it ever crossed either of our minds that we wouldn't spend the rest of our lives together - which is a long time for a Selkie - raise a family. All that. Then, one day..."

He paused, trying to find a way to tell a story that I think he had never planned to tell.

"She’d gone on a trip to see family and I hadn’t seen her for almost two weeks. We agreed to meet up at our favorite restaurant for dinner. She didn't turn up at the agreed upon time, but I didn't worry. Eileen was," a nostalgic smile flickered about his lips, tinged with melancholy, "not punctual. Any little thing could throw her off schedule. A wounded bird, pausing to help an elderly person with their groceries. But time passed, and I realized something was wrong."

He swallowed hard, his throat working restlessly at the memory.

"We looked - Declan, Patch, Saorise, our whole family - everywhere. I finally caught her scent near one of our favorite swimming spots, but it was too late. We found her bloodied body in seal form rolling on the tides. She was covered in hatched marks that had rubbed her skin raw. We--” He broke off, clearing his throat. “We think she must’ve been caught in fishing net so she couldn't surface. Drowned and tossed back by the fisherman who wanted nothing to do with a dead seal."

The horror of it quite overwhelmed me. How could Connor ever look at humans and see anything other than destruction? How was he able to sit here with me now? To love me?

He might have sensed my thoughts because he met my gaze and laced his fingers with mine. "It was a long time ago. And it was an accident. Humans fish carelessly, but I have to tell myself that those men were trying to provide for their families. That not everyone is like the people who run the Twisted Clubs.”

I gave his hand a squeeze, grateful for his words, and nodded. "But how do you move on from something like that?"

"You don't," said Connor, simply. "I tried for a long time and then... Well, inevitably it was Saorise who sat me down and talked to me. She told me that I would never be able to move on, that I loved her too much. And the only way to live was not to move on from her, but to take her with me as I went. To carry that memory forever. And I wouldn't mind the weight, because it was Eileen." He shrugged. "She's always with me. And it still hurts, but it hurts less because I kept her in my heart."

I nodded silently, my eyes burning with unshed tears. Poor Eileen. To have had her life cut short so brutally when she had so much love to live for.

“But you need to know that there is room aplenty in my heart for another love, Sienna,” he declared, pulling me toward him, eyes blazing. “And every minute we spend together makes me feel another step closer to whole.”

He crushed his lips to mine and I kissed him back with everything I had, savoring the beauty of the moment. It might be the last if we couldn’t get Saorise back. The devastation such a loss would leave behind was one I couldn’t imagine any of us could recover from.

I shoved the thought away and wrapped my arms around Connor’s neck, holding tight.

We had to succeed. Failure was not an option. I’d only just found Saorise again. Only found true love for the first time.

And I wasn’t letting go without a fight.