The Unkindest Tide (October Daye, #13)

by Seanan McGuire

He looked even more anachronistic than the others, like he’d just wandered out of some hot new show about attractive people and their sexy problems.

“Are you seriously going to stand there and talk about my tits when things are this messed up?” “Be reasonable, October; I could have been talking about your ass.”

The last thing I need today is for one of the Firstborn to see me naked.”

My parents wanted to be gods. I just wanted not to get slaughtered by my siblings.”

“Please, continue pretending I’m not here. I’ll make it easier by not being here.

The man smiled without warmth. It was the cold smile of a predator, something rising out of the deeps to snatch its prey.

I did him no harm, only offered him the knife and told him how to cut himself.

“If she’s allowing Dianda to be arrested for treason just because I’ve overthrown a couple of monarchs, she’s not a good queen.”

Whatever happens next is on your shoulders. Figure it out. But know that I won’t allow you to get yourself killed in a stupid way.

“I heal like it’s a contest, remember? I can break my hand on this damn door and keep right on going.

“Some of you would be gods if they were allowed,” said Tybalt. “And all the ones who would be gods are the ones who shouldn’t be gods.

A surprising number of fae nobles have email these days,

His legs had brought his pants with them when they came back.

He picked up one of the ramen packages, wrinkling his nose. “Really?” he asked. “There’s so much salt in these things.” “I bet when you live at the bottom of a literal ocean, you don’t care as much,”

“There’s no need to tell Tybalt I got impaled.” “Again,” said Quentin. “Again,” I agreed.

executing an elaborate bow that mostly involved her tentacles going in what seemed like an impossible number of directions at the same time.

She’ll come back with bruised knuckles and cracked ribs and a smile on her face.”

“Yeah, no,” I said. “This is stupid, and I’m not playing.”

I was so far off-script at this point that I might as well have been part of an entirely different production.

“What I lack in authority, I make up for in big pointy things.” I leveled the trident on him.

He gathered her into a complicated hug that involved at least six limbs on both their parts.

I’m done with squires. I’m bad for their health.”

“I am a King of Cats,” said Tybalt. “Your High King has no authority over me.” “Maybe not, but he has authority over me, and I’d rather not piss him off.”

Liz’s house was all white wicker and faded damask. It looked like the sort of place that should come with a kindly grandmother pre-installed.

I silently reminded myself that throttling her, while not a violation of the Law, would probably be considered impolitic at best, and really rude at worst.

“Why do I care, Liz? Because when someone turned me into a fish and took me away from my family for a decade and a half, the Law said no crimes had been committed, and no one came to save me.

and there, floating in the tangled kelp that matted around the pylons, was a gray sealskin without anyone to wear it, cast aside like so much garbage.

Crown Prince in the Mists Nolan Windermere, and his ‘please don’t cause a diplomatic incident because you don’t understand what’s happening’ Cassandra Brown.”

She wouldn’t want you to be fighting right now. Not each other, anyway. This is Dianda we’re talking about: she’d absolutely want you to be fighting everyone else.”

If fae could get gray hair from stress, he would have been a silver tabby by now.

“Why are you covered in blood again?”

The Undersea made the rules. We were just cheerfully exploiting them for our own ends.

What she wasn’t doing anymore was making any effort whatsoever to dull down the sheer volume of her presence. She had weight in the world. The world was damn well going to acknowledge it.

“The sea witch is moving against you,” blurted Torin. Amphitrite’s eyebrows rose. “Really?” She turned to the Luidaeg. “Really?” “If I am, I’m not aware of it,” said the Luidaeg.

“I said I’d do this. That means I have to do this. That’s the way it works for me.

Your family died or left you or turned out to be assholes, and that sucks,

Weren’t you tempted?” “No,” said Marcia. She met the Luidaeg’s eyes and didn’t flinch. “I have other paths to walk, and other roads to run. I can’t do them wrapped in a sealskin that isn’t mine.

I knew Patrick and Dianda would be holding onto each other, as inseparable as salt from the sea.

I mustered a wan smile. My head was pounding. “Ow,” I announced. “Ow, indeed, you infuriating woman,” he said,

They were wearing human street clothes—blue jeans and a Pokémon T-shirt—and the glitter of a human disguise sparkled around them.

Ginevra looked unsure. I decided it was time to offer her the greatest incentive I had left. “If you allow this,” I said portentously, “I will give you the password for the Wi-Fi.”

April has a certain understanding with electrical systems. She understands that she wants them to do what she tells them, and they understand that it’s best not to argue with her.

they’d need to come up with a whole new title for me. I’m not a stupid Prince. I’m not a stupid Princess, either. I’m me.”

Pixies swarmed around the hummingbird feeders, sipping sugary red juice and squabbling with each other in high-pitched voices.

romantic comedies, artifice-filled narratives where boy meets girl—always boy meets girl, which is remarkably limiting and pedestrian for a genre supposedly built on the shoulders of love—through

Walther would be an excellent choice. He knew me and wouldn’t make any nasty jokes about my attempts to argue with a car.

the idea that someone could simply refuse to pay for medical care was baffling.

And then there was Helen. She spoke to me kindly but without reverence, like I was anyone, like I was no one, like everyone deserved to be spoken to that way.

“I’m not a young lady,” said Cal. The man blinked. “Excuse me?” “I said, I’m not a young lady. I’m not a young man, either. I’m a young me, and I don’t like it when people use the wrong pronouns.”

I’d been feline for almost a week when I was nine, unable to convince my magic that I’d be better off having thumbs and attending my lessons.