Page 54 of These Eternal Bones
The selkie laughs, flouncing over to the wardrobe. “Nothing a few extra layers cannot fix. Master, I think it would brighten her spirits.”
“Syringa?”
Her wide, tired eyes turn to me before snapping away once they meet. I pretend not to be gored by that small action. “Fine.”
The selkie clasps her hands together, tugging Molly from the bed, as always, the resilient creature seems impervious to the mood in the room around her. The lack of warmth hits me like a blanket of snow as I blur off our bed, stepping between them to press a soft kiss on my mate’s forehead.
I wait until I am in my office before I dare summon Tien. “Has there been any word at the port?”
“No, it appears all has been silent since the last letter.”
Rage rises in me like an iron left too long in the fire. The putrid captain had, in fact, sent word back to the bastard who thought to take my mate from me. He’d done so simply to demand payment for her passage, perhaps ransom her back to what Molly called New Eden. A nagging in the back of my mind screams about everything I stand to lose.
It seems Joseph was more than willing to pay to have her returned. It seems perhaps he was more than willing to cross the ocean for her, too. My fangs descend, my claws scoring the top of the windowsill as I glare out at the turbulent waters. He may be willing to cross the ocean, but I would burn the world for her. I will return to the defilement I once was, and it would be all too easy to fuck and hold her as the snow turned red with their blood. Their screams would be nothing but an accompaniment to the cadence of her breath, their pleas a symphony in tune with the beating of her heart.
27
Cold Water Prophecies
Molly
The horse shifts underneath me, but for once, I pay it no mind. The beautiful white and gray steed fits in perfectly here, backed against the lapping ocean and snowy trees. His coarse mane tickles my inner palm as I make another pass of my fingers through it. Although it feels a bit of a betrayal of Jin, whom I’ve become quite fond of over the past months, I do not think he shares the same affections toward me. Péal’s ankle-length skirts rise as she dismounts, showing off a length of darkened flesh at her thighs.
“Are you alright?” My voice rings with concern, the sound of it nearly startling me; it’s one of the first things I’ve uttered in days.
Her soft, pale brows furrow before tracking my line of sight and letting out a giggle. “Of course, mistress.” With that, she hikes up herskirts, showing off her legs and well, otherthingsI’d rather not have seen as well.
I scramble to dismount, ungracefully jerking the hem of them back down. “Péal!”
“It is simply skin, mistress. I am a selkie; my coloring changes to darker gray toward the middle.”
“Still, it's freezing out here, and you were wearing nothing underneath your skirts!”
“I am–”
“A selkie, yes,” I breathe, exasperated at times, no matter how much I adore the small, odd woman.
“It’s odd, mistress.”Yes, odd indeed. “How you still flush at the sight of nudity but spend most of your days bare as the day you were born and screaming the walls down.”
My cheeks flush a bright shade of pink, proving her point. But at least it wards off the rest of the chill, although I’m not cold. The sheer number of layers I’m wearing is perhaps too warm. The sound of my chuckle is almost as alarming as my voice, earning me a warm smile from my companion as she plops down on the muted sand. Nothing like the warm beaches in Mertigas.
Like the last few days, my mind is swarming with questions, doubt and…grief, I suppose, for something I didn’t know I lost. Something I’ve felt all my life but had no name for. So many questions that I cannot choose one over the other, so I opt for silence. My boots drag the sand as I join her, a heavy sigh leaving my chest.
“Eight times.”
My head snaps over to the woman, a question on my face, although I put no voice to it.
“I overheard part of your discussion with master Elric the other night–”naturally.“You have died eight times…that I am aware of.”
Eight.
Wow…
I wait for some kind of crushing sadness, some kind of overwhelming snapping of my mind like the other night, but an unsettling resignation fills my chest instead.
“Soulmate magic is a tricky one. Especially when it’s perverted by an outsider, it can be shattering. My kind, the fae, have mates as well, you know? To a lesser degree than what the gods hold, but it is…in concept, the same.”
“You have a mate?” I ask, ignoring the rest of what she said, the way my gut pitched in my stomach.
