Showing results for "Skin" in Epic

I’m a selkie, trapped above the waves until I can recover my skin. Humans used to call us seal-wives many years ago - before they broke the planet. I thought that fewer humans, after the warming, would mean less danger. My kind believed our world was finally recovering. We were wrong. Up here, the magic is fading and Old Ones like me are being traded as trophies for rich and powerful humans to display in collections. Without the Old Ones, the magic fades; without magic, the planet dies. Humankind has gone too far, and someone has to put a stop to it.

In the first installment of the A Fire Beneath the Skin trilogy, the city of Klaar has never fallen. No enemy has ever made it across the Long Bridge or penetrated the city's mighty walls. Even when a powerful invading army shows up at the gates, the duke and his daughter, Rina Veraiin, are certain that it poses little threat. But they are cruelly betrayed from within and, in a horrific spasm of violence, the city is brought to its knees.

Spring has come, and with it the dragons, using tactics they've no right to know. Not without a more experienced mind leading them. As suspicions around King Orin's state of humanity deepen, Aaron steps foot into the wider world for the first time. And oh, there are so many plots to be plotted, out here.

Sure, creating new worlds and guiding imaginary people on grand adventures was an amazing pastime, but finding myself imprisoned within one of my fantasy realms wasn’t on the agenda...My life went from picture-perfect to a complete disaster in the blink of an eye, but it took several years before I recognized the bitter irony of my downfall. Not that it mattered. With only death to look forward to, I found no amusement in the cruel joke until an unexpected visitor changed everything.

The High King now wages open war in the east, and the stirrings can be felt even where Mag and Albern wander. The weremage Kaita continues to elude them, and their hunt has stagnated—until war finds them at last, and they are forced to choose a side. On the battlefields between Feldemar and Dorsea, loyalists and rebels pay a heavy price in blood—and the Uncut Lady once again unleashes her skill upon her foes. But not even Underrealm’s traitors represent the darkest threat in the land. Whispers slither through the towns and cities of a dark wizard roaming.

Selkies are Scottish seal people, and are considered magical shapeshifting creatures, able to interbreed with humans. Spoken of in many old stories, the females are said to make caring wives, and the men to be charming and good lovers. If their skin is captured, they will remain on land, though more is heard about women being captured than the men. If they find their stolen skin, they will return to the sea and any mate or family therein, though remaining nearby to watch over their land-children.