Page 51 of Cursed Shadows 2

My voice is small, “That’s why I visit.”

Ocean eyes flicker to me. It should worry me how eagerly I would fall into them and drown.

Under his stare, I confess, “Who knows how much longer they can live like this? The earth will die, and this will all be gone. Dust and ash. Sothat’swhy I come here, to experience it while it’s still alive.”

He considers me for a long moment. Not thawed, exactly, but less of a sour shadow looming over me.

I fall back in the booth with a sudden smile and slide a fork closer to myself. “Experience it,” I say and jerk my chin at the food.

He makes no move to follow suit as I first tuck into the bloodred spaghetti. His nose wrinkles as I slurp up the thread-like food. Red specks of sauce splatter all over my chin, but this is a messy food, and I don’t know how else to eat it. Not like it’s a food found in our lands.

I finish half the bowl before my stomach starts to swell a bit too much, and I’ll soon be full. I push it aside, then drag the deep-fried Mars bar towards me. “This,” I say and stab my fork into the gooey chocolate, “is my favourite.”

My words strike movement through him.

Fork in hand, he reaches out and takes just a smidge of it.

I watch intently as he brings it to his full, pink mouth.

My gaze latches onto his tongue as he lures the melted caramel and chocolate mush off the prongs.

The face he makes is instant. A twist of dislike.

“Sweet,” is all he says.

“Try this one.” I gesture to the black pudding. “I don’t like it.”

He sighs softly but does as I say.

It’s not lost on me that his eyes sharpen at my orders.

I wonder what sort of husband he would make. The kind that bristles at his wife’s orders but obeys them anyway?

The blush is hot on my cheeks at the thought.

For a moment, he studies the seared black lump of meat on his fork before he takes it into his mouth.

I watch too closely. “What do you think?”

He chews for another beat, then swallows. “It is acceptable.”

“Does this realm grow on you?”

He drops the fork with a clatter, and I know he’s fast growing tired of it all. From the darkness of kohl lines, his stare spears through me. “Why are you so intent on my liking of this world?”

I stuff another bite of chocolate into my mouth.

His hiss isn’t without venom, “You talk of their inventions, their art, their food—but do you ask yourself, at what cost?”

“I vex you.” I suck my teeth clean of caramel. “But tonight, you are vexing me,” I mumble under my breath. “You’d be a fright for your wife in times of long travel.”

“I have no wife.” He drums his fingers on the table, just once. “My future wife, however, won’t be sneaking off to this realm any time no one is looking.” The barbed tone of his voice dips into something husky as he adds, “Perhaps that would make me more amiable in travel.”

It clicks.

I study his sour mood through a fresh lens. It isn’t thatI’mbothering him, but that he sees this all as a threat. That I, a halfling, might like this place enough to choose it over the fae lands.

“Dax.” I tilt my head. “I don’t have any desire to live in this realm. I don’t yearn to belong here, and I don’t see myself as one of them. I only like to experience it sometimes.”

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