The Unkindest Tide (October Daye, #13)

by Seanan McGuire

to all the people who have sent me pictures of their cats when asked to do so.

My family tree has a lot of thorns, and a tendency to draw blood.

May was singing along as Journey asserted the need to continue to believe.

You can’t bandage someone else’s wounds while you’re bleeding to death from your own.

Tybalt gave me a wounded look. I would have called it making puppy-dog eyes if he weren’t literally a cat.

Living in a house with three other full-time residents and an endlessly shifting cast of visitors has taught me to take my pleasures where I can find them,

Some of the Daoine Sidhe could beat him for pure prettiness—prettiness is sort of what the Daoine Sidhe do—but

Arden or Etienne would have texted.” As Queen in the Mists, Arden Windermere is officially in charge of telling me when it’s time to go out and do hero stuff.

Anything that relies on flowers has never come easily for me. Anger, on the other hand, gives my magic a pretty substantial boost. And boy, was I pissed.

that still didn’t make it okay for someone to be ringing my doorbell uninvited at ten o’clock at night when my fiancé was finally feeling frisky.

Sometimes I wonder how she ever manages to take her hair down without screaming. And then I remember that she’s so much older and more powerful than I am that she could easily swat me like a bug, and I keep my idle questions to myself.

“Am I interrupting something?” “If I say ‘yes,’ will you leave?” I asked, folding my arms.

Her gifts come with a cost. That doesn’t make them evil. It just makes them expensive.

the china hutch, which was really more of a “random mail and things we didn’t care about enough to put properly away” hutch,

“Come give me a hug before shit gets serious.

“Between my lessons and Toby’s hero stuff and hanging out with Dean, there hasn’t been time for visiting old people.” There was a sharp intake of breath. If I turned, I knew I’d see Dean Lorden, absolutely horrified by the flippant way his boyfriend was talking to the Luidaeg.

“Luidaeg.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You didn’t come here to eat nachos. Please. What’s going on?”

And I had the Roane, and they were sweet, and kind, and even seeing the future couldn’t convince them to be anything else.

My sister looked at my descendants and saw them as sacrifices. And then she saw them sacrificed.

If we handed down the sins of the parents without consideration for circumstances, we’d never have parents or children again, because all the babies would be dead in their cradles, unable to learn.

“You know what happens now.” I sighed deeply. “Yeah. I do.” The Luidaeg lifted an eyebrow. “You’re not going to argue? Try to run? Any of that bullshit?” “No. Even if I thought I could get away with it—and I know enough to know that I can’t—I wouldn’t do that to you.”

The Luidaeg took a deep breath. The air around us slowed until it became perfectly still, like the air right before some terrible storm rolls in.

“Must I begin quoting sweet William before you’ll believe me?” “How did I wind up falling in love with such a nerd?” I asked.

“You’re too good at getting your own way,” I said, and slid my hands into his. Tybalt’s smile was a knife drawn in a darkened room. “I’m a cat,” he said,

With as often as both of us seem to wind up dead, we should really get a frequent-flier card for the underworld.

She’s too human for Faerie, and too fae-touched to be comfortable as a part of humanity.

the woman who won when I didn’t even know that we were competing,

“Caffeine doesn’t do anything for me anymore, so coffee’s just bitter and frustrating.”

Mom?” “Yes, sweetheart?” said Janet, before I could open my mouth.

“You’re my mom, but she’s my mother. We can’t pretend she isn’t.

She’ll not do this to my daughter.” “October’s daughter,” said Tybalt. “My own person,” snapped Gillian,

she was still one of my best friends because sometimes, when you’re lucky, the good things don’t have to change.

As my squire, part of Quentin’s job is accompanying me when I do stupid shit; it’s a learning experience.

“It’s sort of like going on vacation, except for the part where it’s not going to be restful and we’re all going to die.”

“You’re Sir Daye?” he asked. “Last time I checked,” I said. “Why?” “No offense, I beg, but I thought you’d be . . . well, taller. And larger. And terrifying. I expected substantially more in the way of teeth.”

“Are you just babbling at me until I start feeling better?” “Yup!” Marcia beamed. “Is it working?”

This doesn’t make things right. But it makes things better than they’ve been, and maybe that can be enough to let us move forward, you know?

“oceanic” scents were dominant—wind and waves and sea grasses, kelp and sand and ambergris—there

She was, in her terrifying way, trying to be kind.

meticulously decorated in a mixture of “pirate queen” and “fae noble”

Pete was a decent hostess, and she hadn’t shown any signs of transforming us into anything unpleasant, which was about all I asked for in one of the Firstborn. My standards may be low, but hey. They’ve earned it.

Our wars shook Faerie when Dad and the Moms were here to rein us in,

my blessings on their household, solely because it cheeses Eira off.”

We’re not humans, Annie. We don’t live and die by the sins of the father, nor should we, given the amount of mischief our forebears got up to when allowed.

“It’s terrible to be the one who has to set things right when you didn’t play any part in breaking them.”

the fainters never get the opportunity to breed, because the other Merrow kill them for being weaklings.” “You’re going to like my Mom,” said Dean, in a dazed voice.

for the love of Oberon, don’t make me regret letting you in.” “Would we do that?” I asked. She raised an eyebrow, looking at me flatly. “You, Amandine’s daughter, hero, king-breaker? In a damn heartbeat.

“She thought if she made the future unknowable, she could keep it from happening. She didn’t understand.”

She was their mother in mourning and their unforgiving monster,

The child wrinkled their nose. “You didn’t answer my question.” “I’m the motherfucking sea witch. I don’t have to answer your question.” The child’s eyes widened. “You said a swear.” “Again, sea witch. I’m allowed.”