Page 43 of Of Rime and Ruin
I was a fool to take the healer’s advice.
Kingly routine? Interact withmorepeople? How is this helping anyone? I’ll never be one of them; I only scare them. It’s the one thing I’m good for.
As I approach the center of the market, the crowd thickens. They gasp and scurry out of my path. Voices echo loudly, growing more unbearable by the second. Their eyes watch every twitch of my face.
I clamp my teeth. Suck air through my nose, out my mouth. Breath crystalizes on my exhale, pushing through drying lips.
Too many people around. Nowhere to hide.
Somewhere, a shop owner slams a door, and I jump out of my skin.
Two guppies dart across my path, and I narrowly miss barreling them over.
My heart beats quicker. The knot in my stomach bursts, and ice crawls along my spine.
Fuck.
The guppies shriek, a pitch too high, piercing and ringing through my head.
I pass them, but the ringing persists.
Like an itch inside my skull.
Louder.
Louder.
I slouch deeper in my cloak to hide the blue scales creeping from my fingertips.
Louder.
I’m through the gate now, a few paces from my back door. Orson rushes to open it for me, and I storm inside, leaving behind the wind, the snow, the voices, the chaos.
“Leave me,” I bark to the guard.
My feet slip on the floor, numb and wet.
The ringing intensifies.
I lean against the wall and grasp my skull with both hands, dropping my package. I squeeze. Hard. But the ringing is still there. Itching, burning.
Come.
A foreign voice sings through my thoughts, and the world grows still.
It sounds like a golden sunrise—warm and clear.
What the fuck?
A shiver traces my spine.
The scales crawl past my elbows. In my stomach, the Beast purrs, awakening with a burst of ice.
And then I’m running.
Chapter nineteen
Nahla
