How It All Goes Down
Nine Years Earlier—Sean
- It's November, and ten-year-old Sean Kendrick is on the beach with his dad.
- This isn't a vacation with a good-SPF sunscreen and a fluffy romance book to read; it's the Scorpio Races, and somebody's gonna die.
- Even though Sean is only ten, he helps his dad get his capall uisce—his water horse—ready for the race.
- Because his dad seems afraid, Sean has one wish for the red horse: "Do not eat my father" (Prologue.24).
- Sean's wish is granted, although not in the way he expects: it's a gray horse that eats his dad. "Nothing is as red as the sea that day" (Prologue.32).
- Young Sean vows to never be afraid again.