Page 10 of Soulgazer

His lips are a firm, unfamiliar plane beneath mine, and I haven’t the least idea how to explore it. A puff of hot air rushes past my cheek. His eyes are bright with amusement, warped by how close we stand.

Embarrassment devours me.

“I’m sorry.” I start to drop back, his laughter chasing across my lips. “I’m so sorry. I—”

“Where exactly do you think you’re going?” Before I can draw fully away, the Wolf catches my earlobe between his fingers, folding the edge lightly over his nail. “If you’re going to do a thing, you’d best do it proper.”

Fire licks across my entire body. I feel eyes on us by the dozens—see it in the way his chest puffs out, arms flexed to keep me close. Irritation flickers inside me, only to vanish when his fingertip finds the hollow below my ear, stroking once.

“Come back here, Trouble.”

Cupping my face, the Wolf guides my lips back to his—parting them as though I am a ripe plum, sweet for the tasting. He traces their seam with the tip of his tongue. My hands knot in his hair.

That is when it happens.

It’s sudden—relentless—the beating of our hearts against my skin. My soul drowns in the noise until salt explodes across my tongue, and I realize too late that after seven years of silence, it’s finally broken free.

The curse. My vile magic.

The Wolf’s hold falters as I buckle forward, choking on the waves of it because Iknowhim, this stranger. I see a hundred different versions of his face, feel the weight of his hand upon my chest—I know that I’m going to tear through his world like an arrow through flesh, and he will bear those scars for the rest of his days. I will steal his rest, and he will rob me of mine.

We are going to break each other.

I collapse under the vision’s abrupt retreat, caught by this stranger’s arms.

Not a stranger. Not for long.

I don’t realize I’m crying until the mask bunches beneath my cheeks. The Wolf reaches for it, and I stay his hand—trembling and pale, whatever urgency from before gone with the rest of the magic.

“Ah. Shite.”

“It’s fine.” I can barely breathe, my eyes locked on his. The deep blue iris is nearly swallowed by black. “Just—”

His jaw goes slack, and it’s only then I realize my second mistake.

Because while I’ve been fighting an entire ocean inside myself, he’s watched the battle wage in the colors of my eyes. Blue to green, gray to brown, churning like the sea captured in a vicious storm—the mark of the magic. My soulstone curse.

But as I study his face, it’s not surprise that lingers. It’s…

“It’syou.”

The word has barely left his lips when a high wail splits the music once more, catching the ear of every reveler gathered around us. He twists to see the eldest queen blowing on her carnyx once again—and I rip my arm from his grip.

I hear the Wolf’s shout as I burrow between bodies to the slender promise of safety.

“People of the Crescent!” My father’s voice lands like a sharp blade in a thicket of thorns against my skull. I want to melt into the earth—escape this madness. “It is my great privilege and honor as rí of the Isle of Reborn Stalk to announce the first union of this Damhsa Babhdóir.”

Dizzy with nausea, I break through the last of the crowd only to turn and see Da standing on a dais in his crown of silver-crafted mushrooms capped in glowing quartz, the Stone King just beside him. My skin crawls, muscles jerking beneath like a dozen spiders have chosen them for their nest.

“Rí Maccus, king of the Isle of Unbound Earth, will take my only daughter, Saoirse, to wed on the final sunset of the season.”

A laugh climbs my throat. Maybe a cry.

I stumble farther into the dark.

“May the stars, skies, and Slaughtered Ones bless this night.”

Four