Page 133 of A Taste of Bliss

“Pi!” I scream. He stiffens, letting Jinx’s bloodied arm thump to the ground. It looks still attached. Mostly.

I reach out and pull Pisces up, and he seems to come back to his senses. He looks down at the kitsune, who’s screaming in agony, and then at me. Jinx’s blood is covering his face and the front of his shirt.

His eyes meet mine and they narrow. He scowls at me and shrugs. “I said if he touched a hair on your head, I’d rip him apart. And I did.”

He levels his gaze next on Grim, who’s got Jinx firmly in hand, as Bell tends to his wounds, using her healing magic to basically regrow his arm.

Jinx is lucky the air elemental is here, otherwise he’d have quite the scar, since the shackles mute his powers to heal himself.

Part of me wishes Bell wasn’t here to heal him.

He deserved it.

Well, maybe. I’m not quite sure anyone deserves being eaten alive.

My eyes find Pisces again and he’s scowling at me.

“What is your problem?” I snap at him.

“Nothing,” he grinds out, his teeth completely back to normal. Now that I’ve seen his siren teeth, I can’t believe I let him anywhere near my sensitive areas.

He starts to walk out the door but turns and glares at me again. “How could you not fucking tell me?” He points at himself. “I didn’t know what the rune meant. You did. How could you not fucking tell me?”

Ice.

That’s what it feels like. Someone must have pushed me into the icy Pacific Ocean.

Something tugs on me, but no one is touching me. I look at Pisces, I stare at his eyes, looking from one to the other. But there’s nothing. No rune.

“There isn’t anything there,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.

And yet, something inside me feels like it’s cracking, like pieces of dried mud flaking off with each breath.

“Are you really going to pretend you don’t see it?” Pisces asks in a threateningly low whisper. “I’ve wanted something like this my entire life, and you’re going to deny me it?” Tears gather in his runeless eyes, my own eyes threatening to unleash as well. I reach out a hand to him, but he smacks it away.

“Fuck you, Bliss,” he says, but before he can storm off, a form materializes before him. In one instant Pisces is standing there alone, the next the song wraith has him pushed against a wall, hand to Pisces’ throat.

Tears are streaming down his face, which now sports a confused look.

“What the fuck?” Pisces manages to get out, despite his airway being cut off.

Tears.

Oh my stars.

“Leave him alone!” I shout, trying to tug the wraith’s hand from Pisces.

“My dear, dear Bliss. I’ve come to gather what you owe me,” the wraith replies, looking at me out of the corner of his eye as he places a small glass vial next to Pisces’ face. “I just needed you to unlock them.”

Something clicks into place. He never needed me to steal them. He needed me to cause them.

Oh stars. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Pisces tries violently to throw the wraith off him. “You bastard,” he says, snarling. “You fucking played me.”

What?

The wraith smiles, finishes collecting the tears, and pats Pisces on the cheek like he’s been a good boy. “Thank you both for playing your roles perfectly. I’ll be in touch for next steps.”