Page 97 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
And several more for me to catch my breath.
“You’ve color in your cheeks again,” Alistair told me.
“Did I not before?” I pressed a hand onto his side for support when the next wave swelled.
“No. Except where you’d scratched…rubbedyour eyes. You were pa-pale. But you have more color now.”
“Laughing will do that to ya.” I stroked my hands over his shoulder, letting my fingers bump and bounce over his scales. Smiling when his contentment poured into my heart, shielding me from the bitterness of the sea.
My fingers caught on a jagged pucker of skin, near the base of his throat, and the heat radiating from it nearly scorched my fingertips.
I frowned, pulling my hand away.
“It’s a rune,” Alistair said.
“Magic?” I tapped my fingers against the crinkled line, hissing when it sizzled my skin.
“Yes. That one stops me from eating.”
“It stops you fromeating?”
“I can only eat when I’m fed. If I eat from the waters, outside of my feedings, I won’t be able to swallow. I-I’ll…” He sighed. “There’s a missing word…when something you eat doesn’tstay…”
“Regurgitate? Vomit? Puke?” I supplied.
“Yes.”
My hand was numb as it slid away from his neck. “That’sbarbaric!”
“They do not want me to eat from the waters. The creatures…if I eat all of them, others won’t…they won’t live here. The waters need the creatures.”
If that was supposed to reassure me, it didn’t.
I squinted at him, my eyes tracing the shape of the rune. It blended well. The jagged line flowed with the curve of his scales and the slope of his neck. If I hadn’t felt it, I never would’ve known it was there.
I flattened my hand against it, gritting my teeth through the stinging pain.
This was cruel.
Malicious.
Demeaning.
To not even let him feed himself.
To make him barf if he dared to go against his schedule.
A bitter, lemony taste flooded my mouth.Hate.
I actually, legitimately,hated the people who ran this stupid island.
“Pippi?” Alistair ruffled my hair with another soft breath.
“It’s not right.” I pulled my hand away when the searing pain escalated to unbearable levels. And scowled when I flipped my palm over and found not a single burn or blotch of red.
“It is what it is.” A nonchalant statement, betrayed by the deep, bone-aching sorrow radiating off him.
“And you’ve other runes? They keep you from surfacing?”
