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Despite my efforts, I knew I was making mistakes, and the unsettling truth I’d been trying to keep down finally surfaced. I was starting to have feelings for Ethan Ward, and that was the most dangerous thing I could possibly do to him.

The drowned tree waited for my return, its ancient arms glimmering in the filtered light. I need it now more than ever. My safe haven to clear my mind and sift through the flurry of thoughts racing through my head.

Floating beside the barnacle-encrusted giant, my fingers trailed along the kelp that draped across its frame, swaying gently in the current.

Settling myself against the giant’s roots, I pressed my eyes shut, listening to the rush of water. In the darkness of my mind, Ethan’s emerald-lit eyes and his shy, uncertain smile grinned back at me. I smiled to myself as I thought about his clumsy hands and the innocent light that radiated from within him.

These kinds of thoughts have to stop, I thought, knowing they were pointless, careless, and most importantly, dangerous.

I opened my eyes and sighed, sending a flurry of bubbles streaming from my lips. For a fleeting moment, I thought I saw his face smiling back at me within their delicate reflection—hundreds of tiny, beautiful Ethan Ward’s rising to the surface.

My face flushed, and I swiped my claws at them, scattering the forlorn illusion.

But even still…I found myself thinking, what if?

I tried to quiet my mind and let the comforting pressure of the water surround me, but it was different tonight. Heavier than usual, and I wasn't sure if it was by nature or my own tangled emotions.

The date—if I should even call it that—kept replaying, over and over in my head. I’d grown to appreciate Ethan’s nervous ramblings and the way his face lit up over things that seemed so mundane to me now. What I hadn’t expected was the connection.

Hearing Ethan speak about his own loss had shaken me. I’d heard the pain in his voice, knew what it felt like to fight to hold it together. It was written all over his face, and at times, I felt like I was looking at my own reflection.

Ethan understood what it meant to lose someone. It’s not like I’d had any time to process the loss of Dad. Hell, just admitting it out loud made it more real than it ever had. It fucking hurt, but also, I felt like someone finally heard me. Saw the pain I’d been drowning in.

In that moment, I wasn’t forced to hold it alone. Even if just a fraction of it, I got to share a tiny piece of the weight that had been dragging me under since I found out he died.

Tonight, I felt like Ethan truly saw me.

I shook my head and somersaulted away, strands of kelp twirling in my hands as I spun. As much as I hated to admit it, tonight had also been fun, a true escape from the curse, the hunger, all of it.

Fun, I thought, laughing at the foreign concept.

Once you’ve seen the darkness of the world, nothing looks the same anymore. But, with Ethan, even for those brief moments, I’d forgotten about all of it.

The memory of Ethan’s hand holding mine sent warmth surging through my body, but was quickly met with a crippling guilt.

I pressed my eyes shut and grimaced as I thought of his face, spellbound and blank, staring back at me. Those beautiful green eyes had been robbed of every ounce of joy by my golden song. The gentle and kind nature of his voice, stripped of its warmth and replaced with a hollow obedience.

That’s your fault, I thought. All because I wanted answers, for my own selfish desire for revenge.

I’d stolen his will and autonomy, just like how Preston had stolen my own choice.

I knew that comparing myself to the men I hunted, the ones whose hearts I consumed, wasn’t the same. But where the hell did the line begin to blur?

Ethan hadn’t asked me to do that to him, nor had Eddie. So why should I get to make that decision for him?

How the fuck am I any different from the men who think they can just take and take and take?

I slammed my first into the seafloor, sending a tiny school of fish scattering. The water around me churned and eddied with my rage, and I swiped at the swirling currents, breaking them to nothing.

“Seriously?” I scoffed.

Without even trying, the power to manipulate everything around me came so easily to me now, even when I didn’t want to. The water, Ethan—everything bent to my will.

Pushing myself up from the tree, I swam aimlessly around the forest of kelp, as if I could exhaust my racing thoughts.

I thought about what Ethan had said, about the rumors of ghosts dwelling within Pike Place Market. It had always been a local legend—something I’d always laughed about. But tonight I’d seen plenty of ghosts to confirm that legend, it just wasn’t the kind I expected.

Memories with Dad buying flowers, the smell of the best damn donuts in Seattle, and the Magic Shop that had brought me so much joy as a child—those memories haunted me more than any ghost could.