Page 29

My hand was steady on his wrist as we made our way to the side door of the club, and down the warped wooden steps, into the rain and darkness beneath us.

The deep hum of bass and laughter dripped down through the floorboards, distorted and drowned out by the rush of waves onto the shoreline.

We descended the stairs to the water’s edge. Myself in front, my gait calm and focused, with Jake lumbering closely behind, still spellbound. The club's lights above us glowed stark against the night, casting a purple-and-blue haze that reflected off the water.

I didn't look back at him. My gaze remained locked forward, my focus sharp. The hunger inside me was clawing beneath the surface, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep it at bay. Despite the feeling, I was determined to pry more information from Jake before I harvested his darkness.

Jake’s gaze remained clouded in my voice’s golden spellbound haze as he stumbled over the scattered driftwood and rocks, his expensive shoes sank into the wet sand as we made our way down to the water.

The moment my feet touched the water-soaked sand, my shoes dissolved into mist, the cool spray kissing my skin. The puddles of water greeted me, rippling outwards in slow motion with each step. I closed my eyes, listening to the crash of waves against the pilings as I breathed in the salty air.

Is this what I should call home now?

The sloshing of Jake's footsteps behind me came to a stop, and I turned toward him. He was confused and disoriented. My compulsion no longer shackled his mind, with my last command to follow me now completed.

As I began to move towards him, I stopped as another pang of hunger shot through my stomach and chest, sharper and more insistent than before.

Shit, I pushed it too far, I think. Just hold it together a little longer…

Jake’s eyes were wide with confusion as he looked around him, unsure of how he’d gone from the bar to below the docks. “What the fuck is going on?” he asked, voice shaking. His suit was completely soaked through, whether from the ocean spray or my own subconscious manipulating the moisture around us, I wasn’t sure. The curse’s hold on me was taking over, and the control I had felt only hours before had begun to slip away.

Focus. You need answers.

Determination blazed in my eyes as I marched towards him, putting every ounce of magic behind my words. “Tell me where I can find Preston Willows.” My words struck through him, but I could tell something was off. The golden light within me barely flickered as the words left my lips.

Jake’s brow furrowed, and his eyes glazed golden, but not as strongly as I was used to seeing. “Preston…he–he doesn't come to the office that much. We…sometimes party–” He pressed his eyes shut and stumbled backward over a rock, landing in the sand. Confusion and fear warred across his face. “Wait, what the fuck is happening to me?”

My pulse quickened, and for the first time on a hunt, panic welled within me. This had never happened to me before. Was I too weak, or was the hunger too strong? My ability to compel wasn't working as I needed it to.

Anger and fear shot through me as my body tensed under the weight of the hunger. The chances of getting closer to Preston were slipping away every second, and that wasn’t something I could afford.

Pushing my limits further than I’d ever gone before, I said, “Think harder. Give me something useful. An Address. A location. Anything.” My body screamed at me, and it was like hundreds of needles were digging into my skull.

Jake stumbled over his words, his voice wavering and the golden gaze in his eyes flickering. “He–he does acquisitions for waterfront properties. I don’t…I don't know.” The enchanted coil that had coated his tone dropped, and his voice became his own again.

Jake looked on in terror, his eyes wide and wild in the glow of the moon's light. “What…what the fuck are you–..” His face had lost all color.

With a gasp, I dropped to my knees. Pain shot through my body, and my human glamour began to wane, flickering in and out.

I was out of time.

My choices were either feed or die.

Goddamnit, I almost had it.

A burning sensation washed over my body as my skin peeled itself away, sloughing off into the water. I’d waited too long, and now the glamour was falling apart on me. My fingers webbed, the taloned claws bursting through my skin as Jake looked on, paralyzed from fear.

I wrenched my head towards him, the impossible blue of my eyes boring into him and cutting through the darkness. The voracity of my hunger overtook me, ripping me open, just like the gills along my neck.

Jake crawled backward, his back smashing into the piling. The eyes that stared back at me now—terrified and hopeless—were nothing like the ones I’d seen earlier. The man in front of me now was just a ghost of who he’d been in the club. Any remnants of arrogance and confidence stripped away.

Desperately, I clawed at my hands, trying to gain some control back. The skin sloughed off and fell into the water, dissolving the moment it met it, returning to mist and spray. Beneath it, dark iridescent scales gleamed like jewels in the moonlight. I’d failed to get the information I needed from Jake, but I sure as hell wasn't leaving empty-handed.

My legs buckled beneath me as the curse’s magic took control, weaving around them like ribbons of golden light, unmaking the human glamour. I stumbled backward as a wave crashed over me, and my tail formed fully beneath the surface, powerful and complete.

With the glamour finally released, I felt a sliver of magic return to me, my body no longer fighting to hold the human form in place.

I turned back to Jake and stretched out my hand, beckoning him to me. “Come to me…” I whispered, the command leaving my lips as it teemed with the golden magic I expected this time. It coiled itself through the waves, wrapping itself like a rope around him, and he slowly moved towards me in his spellbound haze.