I clutched my chest, throwing my hand to my forehead like some fainting maiden, feigning awe. Anything to lighten the affliction. He caught the jest, lips tugging at the corner.
But even as the truth hummed beneath his voice, undeniable, I wasn’t quite sure what he was proud of. Sure, I hold power and am slightly lethal, all traits one aspires to be, but there is certainly nothinggoodabout who I am.
Still, he said it. So, maybe it was true.
The crowd thickened as we moved deeper into town, voices rising in waves, the village finally waking. Faces blurred past, nods here, faint smiles there, thin pretenses of civility in a place built on endurance.
A crooked sign swung on rusted chains above a corner shop, its sweet, familiar scent suffocating around my throat.
Guilt slid without warning into my chest. I knew where we were headed. And I was going tokillCallum for it.
Excuses scrambled through my head, frantic as birds in a cage—I forgot my cloak.True enough.Winter flu, sudden and tragic.Less true, but not my first time feigning it.
Callum slowed his strides before I could give one breath, then halted completely, his shoulder blocking my path.
“Stay here,” he said before darting away.
I turned, right into a wall of salt and sea. “Sorry—” I started, then cringed. That scent. That damned smirk.
Reve.
He turned, grin slicing across his sunburnt face, his blond hair plastered to his temples, those careless blue eyes still sky-bright and irritating. His ears, rounded, mortal, still pretended to belong to a boy who never grew into the charm he wore.
But once, gods help me, for a year when I didn’t know better, it had worked on me.
“Hey, V!” he sang. “Haven’t seen you around in a while.” His voice was deeper now, stripped of the boyishness I remembered.
I forced a thin smile. “Hi, Reve.” My arms folded around myself as I peeked past him, where Callum stood shoulder to shoulder with Duke, the two leaned close, words hushed between them. “No rest for the wicked. You know how it goes.”
He tugged at his quilted jacket, puffing his chest as if to fill the space between us. “Not sure if you heard, but my next voyage to Amarrow’s been postponed.” He grinned wider. “I’m here for a few more months.”
I blinked, unsure what reaction he wanted. We hadn’t seen each other in over a year. Why should I care how long he stayed? And yet, interesting...
Trade with Amarrow didn’t simplypause. It was a neighboring continent, reachable only by sea, its ports relying on our coin to thrive. Something was wrong if the ships weren’t moving.
My mind reeled with what could possibly be causing the trade disruption, but I could barely string a thought together because Reve was still staring at me.
“Yay?” I offered flatly.
“That’s the spirit.” He chuckled, stepping forward, hand outstretched for my arm. The grin fell when I shifted back, hope slipping like sand through his fingers. “We should meet at the pub this week. I hear some Fae woman from a southern territory wandered in, claiming sheknows,”he mouthed his next words, “the Viper.”
The world shifted. Everyone knew of the curse, the stories, the whispers that traveled like fog. But no one spoke of the familiarity.
Why, out of every village in Luamis, would this stranger arrivehere?
Reve kept rambling, something about songs, about stories, a voice like melted silver. His words blurred, dying beneath the alarm pounding through my head, my body already scenting a hunt.
I forced calm, anything to change the subject. “Pretty sure she’s playing you all for coin.”
I slipped past him and his voice followed, layered with confusion. “How did you know she charged?”
Because I don’t know her.
My tongue clicked against my teeth. “Because that curse doesn’t exist. Not anymore.”
It was a myth, a legend, a scary story honed into gloom. All the above, yet none of it true.
I halted beside Reve when his hand raised to stop me from passing. “Come on. Either way, it’ll be fun. Youdoremember how to have fun, right?”
