Page 44 of For the Ghastly and Beautiful

“Am I going to grow a tail?” I narrow my eyes, torn between terror and excitement over the prospect of becoming a mermaid. I’ve read one too many fantasy books.

“No.” he blinks in confusion as he shakes his head. “You’re a water elemental now. I don’t know why you would think about growing a tail. That’s…” He pauses to collect his thoughts. “Not even a possibility.”

I nod as I stand to stretch. “Neither was being sucked into a waterspout and spit out in a different world, yet here I am.”

Ecaeris rolls his eyes, then grins when I throw Connak’s ripped shirt at him. There is so much humor in his expression that I begin to think I’ve missed some joke…

But he smothers it as he lumbers to his feet and strides his naked ass right out of my room.

“Where are you going?” I call to his back, then palm my forehead because I sound like a clingy girlfriend. “You owe me another shirt.”

I walk to the stone basin in the bathing area of my room, cleaning myself up as I grumble under my breath. The wounds on my wrists and hands are already dull pink marks. Rapid healing is a beautifully strange phenomenon.

A calloused hand brushes my hair over my left shoulder, and I smile before I can stop myself. His chest presses against my bare back as he rests his arm over my right shoulder. Hanging from his fingers is a cream-colored linen t-shirt.

“Connak is taking you to see William tomorrow, so you can get a new shirt from him then.”

I slowly turn to face Ecaeris, brow quirked as the smile still teases my lips. “How very primal of you, Mongrel. Will you rip this one off when I put it on?”

“Possibly.” He shrugs, feigning indecision before he smirks. “Eventually.”

“Are you sleeping in here tonight? Or will you continue to walk the halls naked?”

I don’t let my expression slip, but the words startle me. I wasn’t thinking before I spoke, though now I hope he doesn’t go. He drags me against his chest, lifting me up. I tangle my legs around his waist as he carries me back to the bed.

“I lost the battle,” he murmurs as he sits with me in his lap. “But I think I’ve won the war.”