Page 61 of Apples Dipped in Gold

I smiled too.

“What…what are you?” I asked, spinning again at her direction.

The woman laughed, and it sounded like chimes. “Why, I am a nixie, and so is my sister,” she said. “This river is our home.”

“I do not have a home,” I told her. “Well…not anymore.”

“Poor beautiful creature,” she said with a frown. “Elke and I will take you. Would you like that, beauty?”

Before I could answer, there was a terrible scream, and I looked to see the other nixie, who had been sitting on the rock, playing her flute, fall back into the water, a knife lodged in her eye socket. Then the woman in front of me hissed. My eyes connected with hers as she changed before my eyes, her teeth growing sharp and her hands webbed as she gripped my wrists.

“Mine!” she growled.

I screamed.

“Samara!”

Lore bellowed my name just as the creature yanked me into the water. I fought with her, clawing at her face as her hands fastened around my throat. Then suddenly, she was off me, and I was able to rise to my feet, choking on water as I gasped for breath and Lore fought with the monster.

“The comb, wild one!” said the fox. “Throw the comb!”

The comb? I had forgotten about the comb. I couldfeel it in my hair, and though I had no idea how it might help, I obeyed the fox’s orders, but it was so badly tangled, I couldn’t get it free. I tore at the wet strands while Lore grappled with the snarling creature before me, but even he struggled. She was slippery and wet, but her grip was strong, and soon she was able to throw the Prince of Nightshade off with a guttural scream and dive into the water toward me.

Panic filled me as I yanked at the comb, ripping hair from my head in painful clumps. Finally, it tore free just as the monster broke the surface of the water and launched itself at me.

I threw the comb, and when it hit the water, it turned into a thousand spears. The nixie’s glowing eyes widened, and she kicked her arms and feet as if she wished to swim away, but it was too late. She gave a short, high-pitched cry before she was impaled on the sharp spikes, and then there was silence, save for the sound of her blood dripping into the water.

In an instant, Lore was beside me, his hand on my face.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, but I really couldn’t think, and I didn’t answer him.

Instead, I turned to look at the nixie again, who was bent in half, a hundred spears piercing her body. Before, she had seemed to glow beneath the moonlight, but now her skin was dull, and her hair fell over her face in a cascade of yellow.

“Cut off the nixie’s hair,” said the fox. “And it will turn to gold.”

I looked at the fox and then left Lore’s side, wading to the nixie with the knife in her eye and pulled it free.

“Samara?”

I ignored Lore and went to the nixie with the yellow hair, took it into my hand, and cut it with his blade. As soon as the hairs were severed, they became glimmering, golden thread. I turned to Lore with his knife in one hand and the gold in the other.

“I’m fine,” I answered, even though I was not, and gave him the knife.

I climbed out of the river and followed Fox back to camp.

Chapter Nine

Dreams Do Come True

Lore

I walked behind Samara as we made our way through the forest, pelted by icy rain. She was not fine, and she was cold, shivering so hard she could barely walk. I had tried to offer her my cloak, but she had shoved it off and left it on the ground, charging ahead wrapped in the wet blanket from the river. It was frustrating that she was so stubborn, that she would sacrifice her comfort just because she was angry with me.

I could fucking kill Cardic.

I would when I saw him next.

Why would he tell her I was in love when I could not tell hershewas who I loved?

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