“Not very well,” I scolded, and somehow, breaking that tension, I felt her emotions shift beneath me, softening into something more relaxed.
“Hey, that felt like a personal attack, Mr. Masseuse.”
“It wasn’t an attack, it was simply an observation. I need my clients loose and relaxed if they want to benefit from my service, and they’re usually more compliant when they focus on breathing and not chatting.”
“Wow. Do you always insult clients while they’re face down and vulnerable?”
“Yes.”
She let out a hum. “Interesting business model.”
“Shhh,” I said. “Less talking, more breathing.”
As the session continued, details began to surface in the emotional texture beneath my touch. Not images—my gift didn’t grant visions—but patterns, subtle shifts that told their own story. And through it all, there was something else. Or rather... something missing.
I had already assumed her sea sprite lineage was minimal, but the longer I worked, the more that absence stood out. Most beings in Crescent Cove carried some trace of magic woven into them, even if faint. It changed the way stress settled and the way emotion moved through the body. Humans, on the other hand, held onto things differently, without the natural ebb that magic allowed.
And Kara... she felt almost entirely human. It could have been that her bloodline was so diluted her body responded like one, but she was still here, in a town only accessible to those with sea-born magic in their veins, so she couldn’t be human.
But then why did she feel so different?
I knew I was letting suspicion get the best of me. A stranger in a new town, carrying too many emotions I was now siphoning, ones that were clearly starting to affect my own thoughts. I pushed it down before it could take hold, and I turned into some conspiracy-driven lunatic.
I was just being an ass, and while I could press her for answers, it wasn’t my place to question her lineage. That responsibility belonged to the council, should they ever decide to look closely enough. Humans were allowed to visit from time to time—festivals, trade, the occasional surf competitions, thanks to some limited-time enchanted objects that always came with a strict limit—but living here? Owning property? That wasn’t something a temporary guest could do, but more importantly, that wasn’t my problem to deal with.
No, my job was simple: absorb what she carried and ease what I could, then send her on her way. Nothing more. Just a normal client I provided a service for. And while I could definitely feel there was more to her, it wasn’t my place, nor should I care, as long as I got paid in the end.
“Can I ask something?” Kara said after a while, her voice edged with that drowsy honesty people slipped into when they started to let go.
“You just did.”
She made a small sound, somewhere between annoyance and amusement. “Do people flirt with you a lot?”
I stilled for half a beat, remembering that when I took too much, it could lower people’s guards, like they were getting drunk off the feeling of having all their stress stripped away. I should have expected it, but it still caught me off guard before I resumed my work.
“Why?”
“Because,” she said, dragging the word out like it should be obvious, “you’re a tall, broody man with magical hands in a town full of lonely people and sea fog. It feels statistically inevitable.”
“Some do,” I said after a moment, not quite sure how to shut the conversation down and not entirely sure I wanted to.
She let out a soft laugh. “That was such a pained answer.”
“It was a sufficient answer, was it not?”
“Mm,” she hummed, sounding entirely unconvinced. “So you like to be mysterious too. Just so you know, that doesn’t exactly help. In fact, it just intrigues people more, because...”
I pressed into a knot near her spine with just enough pressure to make her hiss, and whatever she had been about to say dissolved into a sharp intake of breath instead.
I think she got the message, because after that she didn’t ask another question, though a part of me wanted to see just how far her curiosity would go. I knew in this state it would only make me a bigger asshole than I already was if I let her.
By the time I finished, her entire body had gone loose, and I knew I had taken most, if not all, of her burdens. I stepped back, flexing my tentacles, because what I absorbed from her alone felt like a week’s worth of strain, and I could already feel it beginning to settle too deeply beneath my skin.
“That’s enough for tonight,” I said.
Kara made a small, distinctly unhappy noise into the face cradle. “Already? But I was having such a wonderful experience,” she said, still sounding like someone who had a bit too much to drink.
“Well, you’re done having it.”
