Page 75 of Cursed Shadows 2

I push up from the metal chair. My bottom feels deflated. I ache to rub it back to its shape from whatever flattened mess it is now. Instead, I kick my boot back in a firm, jolted curtesy, more military focused than for nobles, but I’m tired of her already.

She watches as I stalk off, and even once I’m through the glass paned doors, it’s like she’s still watching me, like she can see through the walls. Ridiculous of course, but I don’t shake that feeling, Ican’tshake that feeling that I’m being watched closely as I stalk through the foyer, then out the frontdoor.

Behind me, the door shuts on its own.

I frown at it for only a moment before I mutter unkind words about Melantha under my breath and crouch over to tighten my laces.

The string of “fuck” “bitch” “judgemental” “uppity” “your son isn’t even that great, he’s actually a bit of an arse” becomes a murmured melody as I straighten up—and catch a pair of lovely hazel eyes on me.

Those eyes glitter amber with what I suspect to be amusement, and my face heats up, fast.

It’s a just a human.

But it’s a young, female human standing in a white cloak in the front-garden over. Kalice, I guess. Aleana has mentioned her once or twice—her human changeling neighbour.

And she just heard some real nasty stuff I said about her friend’s family.

I do all that I can think to do. Smile and let the blush steal my face. I don’t doubt that my smile looks as forced as it feels. Still, I manage to slap one on for the human girl.

The slender human only meets my stare for a beat before she reaches her frail hands to the back of her bone-white cloak, then draws the hood over her mousy hair.

Just like that, her face is hidden in shadows.

Hmm.

Something of a bitch.

I roll my tongue against the side of my cheek as I push through the metal gate. Its groan is louder than the Warmth’s hush draped over the town.

I take the streets I remember from the Gloaming back to the centre of the town. It might be a longer route than I need take to Comlar, but it’s the one I know—and I don’t want to take any wandering chances around here, not when I’m on my own and the streets are as dead as a human in the care of an unseelie.

I walk a cracked stone bridge over a familiar stream.

I don’t hear the water disturb beyond the gentle current. Sowhen the soft lure of a loving hum snares over me, I flinch with a gasp and throw my wild stare at the intruder.

From the calm ripples of the pale waters, a head has emerged. The glistening turquoise hue of his complexion is so closely matched to the waters washing over him that it takes me a moment to spot him—but it’s the white of his eyes that hooks me, textured like paint strokes.

A blue selkie.

He blinks his blank, yet focused eyes at me. “Why don’t you come in for a swim, pretty halfling?”

Halfway over the bridge, the glare I aim his way is darkened by my rising moodiness. I need coffee and a cool breeze and a wash, not a chat with a blue selkie.

The sneer sticks to my face like the satin of my dress clings to my skin. “So you can fuck me or drown me?”

He shadows me along the bridge, his head and neck above water, but the rest of his glistening water-blue body submerged, and the camouflage means I can’t see the rest of him.

“Both,” he answers with a faint smile. No malice to be found in the way he watches me, eyes so wide and almost brimming with admiration. It’s easy to see how humans fall for the blue selkies. They do adore their chosen ones.

It’s the fate of the chosen one that isn’t to my interest.

He means to make his water bride. Fuck me and drown me, simultaneously, then keep my spirit for the rest of his century-long life. Only when he dies would he take my spirit’s hand and steal me away to the afterlife with him—and join with me fully there.

Suppose it’s their version of mates or evate. A twisted kind.

“Come to me, my halfling bride,” he starts to sing as I near the end of the bridge, and the haunting melody of his voice snares around me like invisible ribbons and ropes, “to the waters where many have died. In my arms, you will be loved forever; all I need is your eternal surrender—”

“Oh, go drown,” I snap at him, and just like that, I cut through his call as though my voice is a sword.

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