I didn’t stop at the edge, I ran down to the water, to the man who had just poured his heart into the song that threatened to undo me all over again.
“Oh, Kye...” I rushed to him, ready to fling myself into his arms, all curses be damned.
“Hey! No!” He jumped from the coral and backed away from me so fast, he nearly tripped over his feet. “Easy, easy there, butterfly.”
He held his hands in front of him as a barrier between us.
With the echo of the magical song dying in my head, I stopped abruptly, then blinked, feeling disoriented. The ocean was there. The glass palace stood behind me, hauntingly beautiful as always. The ground beneath my feet remained solid and real. Yet the reality seemed to have shifted around me once again.
“What was that? What...what’s happening to me?” I rubbed my chest where the longing was now gone but left a gaping hole of regret behind it.
Kye ran a hand through his long hair. “Sorry. I didn’t know you were close enough to hear me. Or that I even remembered this damned song.”
“It’s a beautiful song,” I defended the melody that had left me feeling on the verge of tears and in mourning of some paramount tragic love I’d never actually lost or even had. “I heard you humming it, and I just had to hear the lyrics.”
He paused his gaze on me, studying my face for a moment.
“The words weren’t meant for you to hear. Not for anyone, really...” He propped his hands on his hips, staring down, then kicked the glass sand that had formed under his bare feet. “Like I said, I didn’t know you were close. The last time I saw you, you were trying to climb the ramp to the top of the front tower.”
I had abandoned that endeavor less than halfway through, sliding down the glass ramp before finding my way here shortly after.
“I discovered that the glass is too smooth to climb,” I explained.
“There used to be a staircase, too,” Kye said. “But I broke it.”
“Why?”
“From rage. Confusion. Despair. You pick one, I no longer remember.” He shrugged. “I broke many things when I first learned of...” He glanced down at his hands.
“Learned that you can turn things into glass?” I finished for him.
“Right.” His voice was distant now, flat, the magic of music gone from it. “And that I can kill people I love by simply hugging them.”
That must be the most terrifying, most cruel part of this curse.
“Had no one warned you?” I asked softly, my throat tightening with compassion.
“No. Curses rarely come with forewarnings, my dear,” he replied sarcastically.
His snarky answer failed to offend me. I tried to imagine what it must’ve been like for him to discover the full evil power of the curse. How he would’ve rushed through the palace, seeking out the people who were closest to him, needing their support, only to watch them die in his arms. How he had realized he was the one who murdered them. How he had raged through the palace afterwards, tormented by denial, anger, and despair.
And then I wondered how he had found the strength to go on.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to jump on you like that. I didn’t mean to force a hug on you.”
At that, a crooked grin spread across his face.
“Oh, my darling Maren, I would’ve loved to welcome you with open arms. Trust me, I’d thoroughly enjoy hugging and caressing all your delectable curves.” He slid a slow gaze down my frame as if imagining touching every part he looked at.
A movement below his waist begged for my attention, but I refused to look that way again. I didn’t need to see his perfect dick rising and swelling in size as he fantasized about caressing my body.
Despite my best intentions, however, my mind readily conjured the same fantasies too.
That fucking magic of his. I had no experience with it. Nothing in my past had prepared me to deal with magical curses or taught me how to act around wickedly attractive naked men whom I couldn’t touch.
He was no longer singing, yet it still took effort to fight that invisible pull between us.
“However, at least one of us has to remain cool-headed, and responsible if we want to keep you alive,” he continued with a sigh. “ Especially, since I’ve already grown fond of having you around, and I greatly prefer having you alive.”
