Changing, that is.
As I saunter down the busy walkway, I remind myself I’m not going to spend the rest of my life feeding in that castle. I’m going to show my parents, and more importantly, myself, that I am more than my curse.
Here, I’m just a girl.
A girl who has no fucking idea where or how she is going to live. I’m going to figure it out. All on my own.
“Aura.”
The bark cuts through the street noise. My shoulders snap tight, a shiver racing to my ears.
Closing my eyes, I pause for three long beats before turning around.
My skipping delighted heart drops to my stomach, weighed by the same feelings I always have whenever I see him.
Talon.
My protector stands, staring me down as people walk by us on either side as if we are rocks in a moving stream. Dark, shaggy hair hangs in his eyes. He wears his usual fae leather jacket and pants, and he’s blending in no better than I am. People slow as they pass, their gazes falling to the black scales creeping out from under the jacket covering one pec before morphing into the sculpted flesh of a man.
Even though his back and arms are covered, I know exactly where those scales start and stop on his body. The heat seeps between their glowing fissures as a warning.Touch, and you’ll burn.
The people here shoot glances at him the way people in our Fae Realm do. With fear and awe. The words I always heard whispered were “dangerously gorgeous.”
The dangerous part is true in more ways than they know.
His dark, imposing figure seems to suck all the energy of the city to him, and an orange glow flashes in the depths of his eyes as he takes me in. Exasperation? Annoyance? Maybe both.
A stab of guilt goes through me.
“What do you think you are doing, Aura?”
My shoulders drop as I let out a heavy sigh. “Talon.”
His name is a complaint, my voice filled with irritation, submission, and longing.
Every part of me aches at the sight of him. My heart resumes its usual attempt to break its way past my ribs so it can fall at his feet.
A tingle sweeps across my lips as my body and soul are stricken with a fierce need.
A need neither of us will ever see satisfied.
No matter how many hands touch me, they will never be his. Every day it kills me. Just as I know it kills him.
“I’m taking control of my life,” I say, proud that the words come out steadier than I feel.
He shakes his head. “We have to get you home.”
My lip curls. “No.”
Talon’s jaw flexes as if he’s grinding down something unspoken. He scans the city, nostrils flaring at the unfamiliar scents, then mutters, “At least tell me you’re not planning to start eating from sketchy food trucks like the one over there. Looks like it hasn’t seen a health inspection since the Realm Wars.” He keeps staring at the truck with hand-painted letters that announce it to be The Salty Bastard. “Smells like lobster and grease.” Then he shakes his head.
“Aura. You don’t belong here.” As he steps toward me, his words are a whip snapping against a familiar sore spot, leaving a harsh sting in its wake.
“I don’t belong anywhere.” The hurt is raw, but I can’t hide it. I could never hide anything from him.
Talon’s expression softens.Pity.
Anger bubbles up in me. I am not to be pitied. Or feared. Or admired. No one ever sees past princess, Succubus, or unearthly beauty to realize I’m a person.
