Page 61 of Of Magic and Rum
I know what he means but refuse to take a compliment from this sea snail.
“I’m only worthy because of my beauty?” I press against the cave wall behind me, rubbing my lips together. They’ve grown increasingly drier.
“I—” Nøkk blinks, taken off guard. I doubt he does this often, considering he kidnapped the first aquatic female to strut on this island and claimed her his mate. “—I only meant to refer to you as attractive.”
I roll my eyes and shift to the other foot. “You’re saying beauty holds only so much worth because this isn’t your true form.” Displaying a hand down his body, I squint at him. “What is your true form, anyway? How far off base was I—calling you a troll?”
Nøkk shakes his head and moves to the hearth ablaze with orange flames. A ladle sticks out from an iron pot, and he stirs whatever is inside. “Why should it matter? I can take any form I wish.”
“Any? And this is what you went with?”
His appearance isn’tunattractive—quite the opposite—but I won’t let him have the satisfaction. As handsome as he managed to make himself appear, it’s alie.
Nøkk freezes and aggressively shoves the spoon back into the pot with an echoingclang, spilling boiling contents over the sides. He spins on his heel and shoots me a glare that couldmelt the marrow in my bones. “Not what you prefer, my dear?” His form gets lost in darkness, a shadow swallowing him before appearing in front of me. But it’s no longer Nøkk’s face—it’sJack’s. “Perhaps this is more to your liking.”
A jellyfish’s sting shoots through my veins, and I seethe at the monster stealing my pirate captain’s face. But Nøkk can’t even dothisright. He’s got Jack’s face and eyes, but he doesn’t sound like him. He doesn’t walk or carry himself like him. And the bit of chest I can see poking from the shirt—he sure as hell didn’t get Jack’sphysiqueright.
Despite the consequences, I spit right in the son of bitch’s face. Because it’s worth it. Jack’s worth it. They’reallworth it. “You couldn’t dream of being half the man Calico Jack is as a deity, let alone amortal, Nøkk.”
Nøkk is physically shaking, and he slaps a hand over his eye, wiping my saliva away. The previous face he’d chosen returns. He lets out enough of a monstrous growl to rattle pebbles from the cave ceiling, several bouncing off my head, but I ignore them. “Of all the insufferable females to grace my island, it had to be you.”
And now he’s singing an entirely different tune.
“Mm, spoiledgoods, Nøkk?” I’m a breath from his face, fighting the compulsion to gag from the damp stench he’s exuding. The sun doesn’t settle in this being’s skin; the salt from the water and air don’t cling to it. He’s a bog creature. And I’ll live an eternity suffering from thirst before giving myself to him.
Nøkk snarls before turning his back on me. “I willnotspend another thousand years alone.” His right hand is trembling, and he stretches his fingers wide before curling them into a fist and waiting for the tremor to pass.
My bottom lip has begun to crack, and I lick it, but my tongue is like coarse sand against it. “I’d rather be alone than forced into eternal companionship with someone I don’t wish to be with.”
“It’s because you’ve never had to endure seclusion.” Keeping his back to me, Nøkk grabs a small wooden bowl from the table and moves to the hearth, scooping the steaming contents into it. “It can drive you mad. Force you into such an abysmal place of desperation you’ll do just about anything to numb the pain, even if it’s temporary.” Nøkk takes exaggerated sips from the bowl, occasionally tossing me a challenging stare from the corner of his eyes.
My mouth no longer maintains moisture, and the sound of water sloshing in the bowl causes pain in my temple. “This sounds like excuses from aweakmind.”
Nøkk tilts his head back, draining the rest of the broth, letting some of it roll down his chin and not bothering to wipe it away. “Your cousin was weak then?” He rests the bowl on the table and snaps his fingers. “Wait, no. Youruncle.”
I still refuse to acknowledge how he knows so much about my family.
“You and he arenothingalike.” I had intended to lace my words with a growl, but my voice cracks, and I seethe at him instead.
“Are we not?” Nøkk sits on the table’s edge and folds his hands in his lap. “Was he too not desperate for a companion? Forced her to be with him?”
My shoulders start to slump, but I force them back and fight the urge to wince from the strain. “He made her his entireworld.”
Nøkk’s hands move to the table, gripping it so tightly his fingers shake. “You think I can’t do the same?”
In quite the literal sense, I’m withering away in a freezing corner of a cave, and he dares to ask this? I give him the middle finger as my answer.
“Those two have lived a very long and fulfilling relationship after they surpassed the rockiness.” Nøkk drums his fingersagainst the wood. “I dare say she grew to love him. You can do the same, Rhode. End your suffering. Agree to be mine. And we, too, can eventually be as your uncle and his beloved are.”
She grew to love him because she had no one else to love. The Underworld tied her to him with no hope of escape. Idohave that hope. And the possibility of something true with Jack. Something I’vechosen. I close my eyes and hang my head, calling to my powers by only a fraction, barely a sliver, only using enough to mist my skin. An ounce of relief settles over me before being lifted away.
I flare my eyes open, and Nøkk stands there with a hand outstretched, pulling the water from me. Hundreds of tiny droplets suspend in the air before he lowers his hand, and they fall to the cave floor as forgotten fog. My knees find the ground in a slump. I need to preserve my strength, and pretending I still possess the ability to stand after he takes my last effort to cure myself would be futile.
“It’s pointless to try, Rhode. You cannot beat me. Suffer or succumb. Those are your only choices.” Nøkk slides the chair in front of the hearth and reclines, settling.
No. I have many choices. And they’re out there looking for me. I can’t beat him alone but with my crew? We can make him pay. I need to hold out—force my mind anywhere else from the pain ratcheting through my body, begging for water.
I’d fallen asleep, lulled by the flickering flame of the hearth and the consistent rhythm of a single drop of water landing in a puddle on the cave floor from a jagged ceiling rock. Sometime later, I snap awake with a gasp. A knot has formed in my neck from my chin hanging toward my chest at an awkward angle. A violin sounds from the darkness—a macabre melody with soothing undertones. It’s almost hypnotic and makes my head fuzzy despite how weak my body has become.
