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“I could not resist,” she said.

“Because you bargained with them,” I seethed. “Foolish creature! What did you trade?”

She was quiet.

“Creature,” I warned, the word slipping between my teeth.

She did not look at me as she answered. “Three strands of your hair.”

“Three strands?”

Her gaze met mine. “I only had one. The other two must have belonged to your mistress.”

“Or abrother,” I snapped.

Her mouth tightened. “This is your fault! I would not have traded anything if I had not wished to guess your true name!”

“No one told you to bargain with the mountains!”

“He did!” she said, pointing to the selkie’s head.

“He wanted to kill me!” I yelled, kicking the head, sending it soaring into the surrounding woods. “I would have given you my name had you sucked my cock for four more days!”

It did not matter that I did not have the time. It did not matter that she must love me too.

“If I desired you the least bit, I might consider another trade, but as it is, you are the last person in this forsaken place I would ever fuck!”

“Do not be so certain, especially where your freedom is concerned.”

“Do not degrade me for giving you pleasure.”

“I am not degrading you,” I said. I felt myself bending over her, but she was just as stubborn, rising on her toes to match my venom. “If you let me, I wouldworshipyou. Perhaps then you might know what it is to be grateful.”

She slapped me and I reeled back, pressing a hand to my face to quell the sting, though it was covered in the selkie’s blood.

Her eyes glistened as she stared back at me, and I could not figure out what I had said that had made her angrier.

“Do not make me feel worse for something I already regret.”

I felt like she had cracked open my chest and laid everything inside me bare, and I hated it.

“If you had told me why you wanted my hair, I could have saved you a limb. The mountain does not know my name.”

“I am beginning to think no one knows your name. Perhaps you have no name at all.”

“I have many names,” I said. “It is the consequence of living so long.”

“A cruel existence,” she seethed. “Perhaps you should die, and you would not have so many.”

“Ah, but they do not end when you die,” he said. “I have died many times and I will come back with more.”

She paled at my statement, and I inched closer to her.

“Give me your hand,” I said.

She hesitated but stretched her arm out, trembling.

I took her hand and placed her injured finger in my mouth. Just as I predicted, she tried to pull away, but I held her, sucking hard, and when I released her, her flesh and bone were restored.