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“Let’s just walk.”
When her fingers slide into mine, I exhale. I’ve not quite lost her yet. A part of me wishes she’d run before it’s too late, turn me down so I can move on to someone less… just less. I will that voice in my head to silence, though, because I don’t have the luxury of starting a hunt over. Too close to the end goal to let it go.
We’re both quiet on the walk to the beach. Esmeralda holds my hand for stability as we climb down the creaky, salt-and-sun stained wooden stairs. The pull of the curse is something fierce, gripping my heart tight, squeezing it, threatening to rip it out of my chest. Hell, I’d almost do it myself just to make this pain stop. In a remote part of my memory, I hear the words that brought the curse to life, spoken in her sibilant tongue.
Sand crunches under our shoes. Esmeralda bends to remove hers, gripping the straps with her pinky finger, and wiggles her toes. For once in my life, which has always been a calculated game of chess, my next move feels nebulous, because though she’s entertaining this walk down the beach with me, Esmeralda is a flight risk. I feel it in the tight set of her shoulders, in the way her hand grows slick in mine. Too perceptive to fall for my charade, not enough sense of self-preservation to steer clear of me. She’s an interesting contradiction.
“Tell me more about your mother,” I ask.
She tenses. “I’d rather not.”
“I’m estranged from my family.” It’s not a lie, considering I haven’t been able to see them since I’ve been cursed. It’s just not by choice. “It’s a… complicated situation. I don’t think I’ve ever felt devotion as deep as my mother’s.”
Now she’s looking at me, eyebrows furrowed and eyes sharp, like she can pluck the secrets I’m hiding from my soul. “And yet you cut ties with her?”
“It’s not quite that simple. I wasn’t given a choice.”
She shakes her head. “There’s always a choice.”
“Did you have a choice when you mother died?” It’s a low blow. I know it pierced straight through her heart from her sharp, sucked in breath.
“I guess I didn’t.”
This is it. The opening on the checkerboard to make my move. I can hardly think over the ringing in my ears. Forcing both of us to come to a stop, I step in front of her. “What if you could have a say in it?”
The corners of her lips curl in a smile that’s all sours and bitters, with a scent to match. “I don’t think that’s how that works.”
“What if it were? What would you do, if you had a choice in the matter of your mother’s life?”
“Are we talking hypotheticals, now?” She’s not teasing. It feels like a question that, at its core, demands an honest answer. I’m not ready to give her one, so I nod.
She takes a deep breath, slides her eyes from mine to the bright red horizon. “If I had a choice, I’d choose to save her. Every time. No matter the cost, what I’d have to do for it. I…” she shakes her head and for a moment, I fear she won’t continue. But she does. “I’ve missed out on so much not having her with me, and honestly, if the last few months showed me anything is that I’m extremely ill-equipped to handle life without her. So yeah, I’d do whatever it takes to get her back, because living like this is just… existing.”
This is the perfect material for a bargain. I can offer her what she wants most, without much hassle, to be honest, if she breaks the curse. And if she doesn’t… she called her own life an existence. It’s not crazy to think she may be willing to gamble it.
Her eyes drop to the sand, and she digs her toes in, drawing circles. “Now that I’ve let you take a ride on the pathetic train, I’m going to head home.”
My fingers tighten around hers, my other hand reaching for the nape, pulling her closer. I’m not letting her go, when I’m so close to striking a deal. “What if there was a way for you to get your mother back?”
Esmeralda scoffs. “Don’t play with my feelings, Teizel. It’s nasty and unbecoming and will get you kicked in the nuts.”
“I’m not playing.” I press my hand to the back of her head, forcing her gaze to mine. My usual iron grip on my glamour is slipping, and by the warmth I feel in them, I’d venture a guess fire is lit in my eyes. Esmeralda gasps, her pupils darting between each of mine, but she’s entranced, unable to pull away. “Not yet, at least. I do want you to bargain with me, though.”
“What the hell…”
Moving my hand until I’m cupping her face, I let a little more of my glamour fall to reveal long, sharp black claws. Even without applying much of any pressure, my index finger leaves a paper cut on her golden cheek. What I’d give to lean down and lick the little red bead off, but that would be pushing it too far. Her heartbeat flutters so wildly, it makes her neck pulse.
“I have the power to make anything you’ve ever dreamed come true. Riches, fame, even immortality are all things I can provide. But you’re not interested in any of that… you want your mother back. Very well then, little one. Bargain with me, and I will go find her soul and bring her back to you.”
Her breath quickens, coming in shallow and irregular. When she reaches to her scratched cheek and pulls away bloodied fingers, her scent changes. No more bitter almonds and smoke, no trace of sweet apricot marmalade. Esmeralda is all salt. A little of it could remind me of the Mediterranean Sea, but it’s so overpoweringly briny I feel like I’m drowning. It’s not a little fear, a little exhilaration. It’s pure terror. Dread settles into my stomach like a boulder. I’ve come on too strong.
“What in the absolute freak are you?” she hisses, pushing against my chest and stepping away.
“I’ve told you to be careful of things that go bump in the night.”
Her eyes narrow. “I’ve seen night terrors before. None of them had claws and glowing eyes.”
I try to keep our interaction casual, as if this was just any other conversation, and shrug. “Clearly, you’ve never seen the real monsters.”
