Page 63 of Cursed Shadows 2

Her loss is instant. She hisses a foul word at the stones before Ridge widens his grin and steals the small silver coins she gambled with. As he stuffs the coins into his pocket, he looks up at our scattered group wandering downhill. His gaze lingers over Eamon the longest before he snaps his attention to me and gives a friendly wink.

At my side, Aleana leans around my shoulder to get a good look at the gambling games, and I feel the curiosity spark off her.

But I’m more focused on the sudden chill pressing against my back. Behind me, Daxeel’s aura shifts into ice—and I had no idea he had wandered so close to me in our stroll, that he had abandoned Samick somewhere behind and come up to my back as though feeling an urge to shield me. Suppose he does.

Still, I lift my hand in a lazy wave aimed at the familiar fae with cherry blossom hair. My limbs are made heavy by the grimroot I tried just once more before we left the tower. It’s what keeps my pace wandering and my mind distracted on this walk.

“Should we be worried,” Ridge starts and pushes up from the boulder, headed for me, “that one of ours is sneaking off with the enemy?”

There’s a lightness to his words, he’s only playing, and I veer off to meet him.

Daxeel keeps close to me.

“You should be more concerned about how you’ll miss out,” I say with a smile and a flickered look to Eamon’s pink face, “if you don’t come down to the Gloaming for a drink.”

Not my place to invite anyone to this bar with this group, but I owe Eamon this and so much more, so I dangle a loosecome with usall the same.

Ridge’s lilac eyes glitter like they’ve come to life. His rosy lips widen even more around white, sharp teeth.

“Oh I’m certain I’ll be thirsty for a drink once I have cleared out Luna’s pockets,” he says, and I guess Luna is the fire-haired female watching us, her gaze lingering over me, then Daxeel, then Samick. “Perhaps I’ll see you there.”

My small is wicked, but loose under the cloud of grimroot. “I hope so.”

With that, and the sheer glacier nips of Daxeel’s disapproval biting at my back, I wiggle my fingers in a farewell, then leave Ridge to his gambling.

Eamon looks over his shoulder at me with a fierce blush that creeps along his sharp cheekbones and a pursed set to his mouth, but I see the smile he fights, the warmth in the way he looks at me, and then he’s turned around again, walking alongside Rune who he shares the root with.

I think Eamon’s cheeks stay hot the rest of the walk to Kithe.

And the moment we reach Kithe, I decide that I am in love.

At home, I find romance in the ordered streets of the Royal City; I see beauty in the rowhouses built too close together, but to make friends with neighbours is quite a nice thing; I smile at the tidy gardens beside the porches; and I hear the songs in the water fountains that bring a forever soothing rush to the air.

Kithe is not the Royal City.

The path leads directly to the heart of the town, through a narrow, dimly lit lane. The dampness in the air reminds me of fresh morning waves on a beach, a pinch of salt and the sweeping caramel aroma from nearby markets.

Then as we leave behind the damp lane and step into the rushing bustle of a busy street—I widen my eyes.

First, my attention is snatched by the folk. Not just the sheer number of them flooding the narrow and winding streets of Kithe, streets lined with four-levelled homes with sagged thatched roofs and little balconies hanging overhead, but rather how the folk blend.

Unity.

That word echoes in my mind.

Here, I see it.

A litalf male and a dokkalf female walk hand in hand; a dark male with a human he steers through the streets, a human I think might be his changeling child; a light female who smiles bright and laughs, the sound is like bells; and even that irritating sound of children screeching as their parents chase them down for wash hour, eventhatsounds a little like a layer of a melody.

My breath is restrained, like I can’t bring myself to fully release it because if I did, it would somehow disturb this romance around, it would blow away all the beauty like a gale wind.

At my side, Aleana reaches out for my hand.

My eyes flare for a beat. I forgot she was there. I was so entirely consumed by the fragrance of this town, the song of Kithe that Aleana had melted into the little pockets and shadows of darkness.

Grip firm on my hand, her skinny legs find strength enough to steer us through the throngs of folk, and we keep pace.

Daxeel falls into step behind us, he and Samick becoming our shadows.

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