Long before Frances met Skelly, a girl of Glencarragh was married to the sea...
All seventeen years of Aibhlinn MacFinlay''s life have been rife with struggle. The daughter of a drunken and abusive father who blames Aibhlinn for the death of her mother, she''s cast into the role of caretaker for him and her three brothers. As a result of her boorish father and the rumours that her mother was a selkie, Aibhlinn has spent her days as an outsider, never quite fitting in with the island folk, but never really wanting to. All she really wants is to be left alone to roam the woods and moors -- the only places where she truly feels she belongs.
But her beloved island is home to a dark legacy. In circumstances lost to the mists of time, a bargain was struck between the humans and the faeries who inhabit the fickle sea upon which so many of the islanders depend for their livelihood. Every seven years, a mortal girl is chosen to become the sea bride and is taken, by her faery bridegroom, to live in Faery for three days and three nights. In return for this, the sea faeries prevent the savage, marauding water horses from hunting on the island and in the waters surrounding it, thus ensuring safety and prosperity for the people of Glencarragh.
On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Aibhlinn''s father writes her name in the book for the sea bride choosing...
When the unthinkable happens, Aibhlinn faces a life-altering choice - both for herself and the generations of women who will follow her.
Will she quietly accept the centuries-old traditions? Or will she fight to protect the land and people that she loves?