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“I thought my magical kiss would break the curse. Wasn’t that why you kissed me?”
He looks at me for a long moment, a pensive look on his striking face. A strand of light blue hair has stuck to his cheek, curling like a swirl of morning sky. “You are a princess. You didn’t lie about it. The kiss is working.”
“What?” He looks the exact same way he did yesterday. What is he talking about?
Slowly he rolls onto his side, hauls himself further up the shore, dragging his great blue tail out of the muddy water, and then I see it.
The disappointment at realizing that no, he hadn’t really wanted to kiss me, that the kiss was really meant as a cure to a curse, is eclipsed by horror.
“Oh Gods. What is that? Looks like a wound.” A wound running the length of his tail all the way to the end where the thick tail fin begins. “You’re bleeding.”
He’s still looking at me, eyes glittering. “You’re horrified.”
Am I so transparent? And yet… “It could get infected. You could die.”
“It could. I might.” A shrug of broad shoulders. “Do you care?”
“No. Why should I care?” I sniff and raise my chin. “But why is it happening? How is that supposed to cure you?”
He sighs. “I am not sure, but… How do you think the shift happens? The tail splits into legs.”
“But it hasn’t.”
“Not yet. I told you. I suppose that the shift has started but it will take work to finish it.”
“And more kissing, apparently.”
He gives me a strange look. “And more kissing, yes. Do you dislike kissing?”
“I don’t…” I wave my hands. “Stop. This isn’t about me. Or kissing.”
“I thought that was what you were saying.”
“No. I was saying that… Why would kissing help break the curse? A princess’ kiss? Who made up this nonsense?”
“Magic isn’t logical, Selina. Its laws are different.”
“Be that as it may, there are things you’re not telling me,” I whisper, still staring at the long wound, wondering if I’m going to throw up. “About the curse. About you. Who are you, really? You say you’re a Fae king, so what are you doing here? Why did you leave your kingdom? Why are you half-fish and not half-wolf or lion or some other animal? Why didn’t your people come looking for you to take you back home?”
“Home…” His voice trails off and his pretty eyes go distant. “It’s complicated.”
“Isn’t everything?” I scuff at a pebble with the toe of my bottine. “Give me back my pendant, Adar. It’s mine. You have no right to keep it.”
“Is it yours, though? Princess Selina of Kyrene. This pendant has the Grenshaw family crest on the back.”
“I take it the Fae are not familiar with the concept of gifts?” I say coolly.
“This isn’t a gift. It’s a love token.”
I swallow hard. “Says who?”
“Says the arrow-pierced heart carved on it.”
“How would you know what a pierced heart means? I bet you don’t have one.”
“Ouch.” He lifts a hand to the right side of his chest. “And yet that hurt.”
I roll my eyes to the sky. “Really.”
