Page 25 of Cursed Evermore

Would she even believe me?

Worse… what if I’d imagined seeing that guy?

“I’m okay. Just needed air.” Better to say that for the moment.

“Okay, come back in. I got some drinks on the table.”

“Thanks.”

We made our way back to the door. Before I went inside, I glanced over my shoulder, and I swore I could feel his presence.

I just couldn’t see him anywhere.

It was as if he was never here.

Chapter 5

Wolfe

“The Boundaries Between Us”

The crisp night air clashed against the shadows that kept me hidden from her sight.

Tucked in the archway across from the tavern, I cloaked myself in the Obscura, an in-between layer of shadow magic that existed just beyond the reach of this world. A realm where light failed, and only beings like me could breathe.

No matter how hard the beautiful red-haired maiden searched, she wouldn’t see me. Magic or not. This was a hollow realm, untouched by mortal or elemental magic, threaded only with the shadowcraft I wielded. Only those who knew the path through shadows could slip between the threads binding it together.

The air around me warred with the space, as if it sensed I didn’t belong here in Stormfell. A mortal land that abhorred magic of any kind.

The Fae were hated here because humans were terrified of us.

Had they seen me, the greeting I would have received would not have been a good one. Not for me, and especially not for them.

Without realizing who I was, they would have tried to fight me. Then I would have burned them alive for pissing me off.

I kept my gaze trained on the girl who was still desperately searching for me, even as her cousin came out and ushered her back inside the tavern.

I could still feel the aftershocks of that moment our eyes met. It was an unspoken connection between us that had no right to exist.

The mortal realm's air was thin in my lungs, lacking the ancient power that infused Galaythia, yet her presence made the atmosphere vibrate with raw energy.

Elariya Grayson.

That was my target’s name.My little thief.

Her name rolled through my mind like a forgotten melody. I pressed deeper into the shadows, my fingers curling into my palms as I tried to figure her out.

She’d seen me in the tavern.

As if I hadn’t been cloaked, she’d seen straight through the magical shield that should have made me invisible. She shouldn’t have been able to do that. But she had.

I’d arrived in Stormfell at dawn with my crew. They stayed on my ship while I ventured out here to find Elariya.

I’d been in her midst, completely invisible all day, as I’d collected information about her. There’d been moments when I was right next to her and she was oblivious to me.

It should have remained that way, but something changed inside the tavern and those bright hazel eyes had locked on mine, staring into the abyss where my soul struggled to survive.

She was already breathtaking with her heart-shaped face and high cheekbones that could slice through a man’s defenses, but when she looked at me… the world shifted.