Page 8 of Curse the Fae

Maybe this is as close as we’ll get to acknowledging who we are to each other.

We pause, our bodies soaking one another. When the serpent leans in, I inhale zestful notes of bergamot and black pepper.

Water swabs my knees, which are still hefted around his waist. “Why am I here?” I ask. “Why did you force me to this place? What do you want from me?”

“Silence,” he draws out while grazing his second dagger across my mouth.

My lips tingle, and I quiver at the sensation. He means if I don’t hold my tongue, this heartless Fae will take it from me, the way he took my spear, the way he and his brethren took my sisters, and the way he stole my breath moments ago. He will do it expediently and without a shred of remorse.

Truly, I should comply. However, with his body crushed to mine, and with the water lashing around us, I recall the last time we’d been submerged like this—back when his gaze was more lucid but his hatred no less penetrating. Back when I was still capable of doing harsh things just like him.

The very thought unhinges me, causing a reply to vault from my lips. “You haven’t changed.”

It’s the wrong thing to say.

His gaze slits. Some type of private rancor charges across his face and makes the gold flare.

Swiftly, he frees the other dagger. I go as limp as a string, plonking into the water a moment before he snatches my wrist and hauls me across the pool. His tail swats, surging us toward a bank fringed in bulrushes. Kicking him or battling against his grasp is futile. His vicelike grip drags me along, so that I flop about like a netted trout.

Even if I get away, what purpose will it serve? His sinuous bottom half proves I can’t outswim this water Fae any more than I could have the sharks.

Something nips at my skin. Several somethings, in fact.

Belatedly, I notice bronze caps covering the tips of his fingers. Ornamented with intricate cut-outs, the tips narrow into spikes that resemble claws. They must be the source of that metallic radiance I’d seen during our skirmish. If I hadn’t been busy fighting for my life within minutes of entering this realm, I might have had the sense to perceive them.

The caps pinch my flesh without breaking it. Be that as it may, this ruler could snip my tendons if he so wished. He could exert pressure there, should I give him a reason to do so.

The depth vanishes. As it does, my captor rises from the water, rivulets racing down his arms…and his hips…and his legs. As the air hits his body, fluid drizzles from his skin, and humanlike pair of nude limbs materializes beneath him. They shudder into being with every inch that emerges from the pool.

I have no time to gawk because, at the same time, the sandy floor scrapes my knees. The Fae hoists me to my feet. I stagger atop the embankment, as wobbly as a sailor on dry land, with wet grains sinking like sponges beneath my soles.

The Fae keeps going, striding ahead without preamble. For some peculiar reason, his fingers sweep the air as though he’s tracing it. With his free hand, he tows me like a beast of burden and heads into an adjoining passage. Stones replace the sand, flat compared to the crusty ceiling and walls, though still precarious for me. I slip several times, whereas the fiend attached to me stalks forward like a shadow, his form exercising the stealth and grace of someone used to prowling these halls.

I catch a glimpse of naked skin, taut muscles, and the crescent of a sculpted backside. Then I avert my gaze, my cheeks scorching.

I stumble, a mini oath threatening to pop like a bubble from my mouth, although I’ve never uttered a curse in my life. “I can’t walk like this.” My lisp echoes through the atmosphere. “I have no shoes. Not anymore, as I’ve lost them to The Deep, though I wouldn’t have taken them off to begin with, except there were sharks, and then you appeared, so I needed the ability to swim. Not that you’ve asked about my bare feet or that you tend to say much at all, but my point is, whatever I’m here for, whatever you expect of me, I can’t do it if I break a bone.”

He doesn’t answer, nor does he feel obligated to stop. Of course, I hadn’t expected a monster to behave like a gentleman, but I’d hoped for a reaction, or at least for him to slow down.

While I’ve never screamed or raged, I want to yell. Or not yell, precisely.

I want to…raise my voice.

I open my mouth. That’s when he stops and whips his drenched head over his shoulder. His eyes manage to land on my face, clicking there without having to guess. Although his pupils aren’t directly affixed to mine, their affect is the same, producing a lurch in my stomach.

A mute warning contorts his features. I close my mouth, then grunt as he pulls me ahead. On the way, I keep my head high, even while my eyes stray to the rail of his spine and the athletic muscles bunching along his arms. He’s not bulky, nor is he remotely thin. Instead, the Fae is sculpted like a statue, like some demonic king of the sea. Also, he’s tall like me, though he still towers several inches above my height.

Additional scales protrude from certain joints, including his elbows and ankles. Other than the eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair—which plunges to the base of his spine—the rest of him is as sleek as a swordfish.

At least, from this angle. Since I can’t tell what graphic details his front would reveal, my gaze trips to his narrow waist and the contracting swells of his…

I blink away. However unintentional and unseemly, the prospect of viewing the most private areas of his nudity burns my cheeks anew. This has nothing to do with interest. Fae or not, he’s a loathsome specimen. He always has been.

Yes, our history is brief. No, we never knew one another’s names.

But when I’d said he hadn’t changed, I must have hit a nerve.

The thoroughfare multiplies into numerous corridors. For the first time, I notice golden lights radiating naturally from the ground. The floor illuminates conical masts that sprout from the earth and end in points, reminiscent of inverted stalactites. Verdant tufts of grass bloom from the floor and splay from cracks in the walls, the otherworldly greenery requiring no sunlight.

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