Page 28

Maybe her eyes had played tricks on her the night before.

“If you can get to the water, do you think your fins will appear?” Niera asked.

Alistair, one arm draped casually over his bent knee, one around her back, shrugged.

“I don’t know what to expect other than being able to swim underwater like I did before the curse. Fins would hasten my ability to swim, but I’m strong either way.IfI can make it into the water.” His fingers tightened on her side. “How’re you feeling? You seem to be doing much better than last night.”

He was right. She’d pondered her lack of illness and energy depletion, noting that last night, she’d experienced a similar resistance to the spell while in Alistair’s company. Maybe it had to do with their fated connection, or maybe with his ocean affinity.

Either way, she was grateful to experience the ocean without the threat of being sucked to a husk and left to blow away in the wind. Or leaving her stomach turned inside-out on the sand. She had never expected to find beauty in the sound of waves or the cool sand sifting between her toes.

She certainly never expected to find peace with a man of the sea like the one beside her.

“I think you do something to repel the effects of the spell.”

“Or it’s just me,” he teased.

“Maybe.” Lifting her head from his shoulder, she looked out at the roaring ocean. “You think it’s time to try?”

Alistair nodded once, glancing around the beach. She searched for any cats that might keep him from breaking his curse. No signs of furry cuteness littered the shore.

“If I can get to the water, I don’t expect you to wait here. Not without your crystals if I can’t offset the effects of the spell.”

She became aware of the tension in his muscles as he brushed sand from the rolled-up hems of his jeans. He kissed the top of her head and stood, scattering sand in the squalling wind. The moment their connection broke, the sea fae spell seeped into her bones, unleashing a merciless attack on her gut. She clutched her midsection and squeezed her eyes closed, willing away the sickness.

“Niera. Go back to Annie’s.”

“What if you can’t reach the water?”

She dared to lift her chin and meet his eyes. Perseverance, determination, and a stroke of worry rolled over his face.

“This is the first time in years the cats haven’t come to the beach the night I try to enter the surf. I don’t know why, but I’m not going to question current circumstance. However, you’re growing paler by the second. You need to go.”

Niera nodded, accepting Alistair’s hand—and the subtle protection of a skin-to-skin connection—as he pulled her to her feet. She brushed sand from her pants and shivered, despite her warm attire.

“I want to make sure you reach the water.”

Alistair grinned.

He cupped her face and drew her close, pressing a kiss to her lips. A sweet, slow, toe-curling kiss that infused heat through her blood, even as he stepped away.

“I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Niera hugged herself as she watched Alistair jog to the water’s edge. He stopped a couple of feet back from where the surf spread over the sand before pulling back into the choppy waves. His shoulders rolled as he lifted his sweatshirt over his head and cast it aside. Lights from the boardwalk cast his muscular back in an array of enticing shadows, daring her to drool.

He tossed her a glance, then slid a bare foot closer to the water.

The faintest caress of pressure touched her calf.

She snapped her head down.

“Oh, no. You’re not stopping him this time,” she hissed at her feline friend.

Holly slid her body along Niera’s leg, hindquarters lifting, tail high. Sparkling green eyes glowed as they gazed up at her, and that ever-present smile on the cat’s mouth.

Niera shot Alistair a desperate look, but he’d turned away.

She gasped.