Page 23 of A Storm in Every Heart
I open my mouth to tell her about the ship in the bottle, then stop, realizing what a painfully stupid idea that is. If I give it to her, I’ll have to explain how I got it. Somehow I doubt Odessa will take: “I don’t know why I did it, it was like a compulsion,” as a reasonable explanation for threatening the local shopkeeper—even if he is a prick.
I shove the small paper-wrapped package in my pocket and cast around for anything else to say. “Just wanted to see if Jett was right.”
Her eyes narrow. “Excuse me?”
“Everyone knows sirens are monsters in the water, but I’ve never actually seen one.”
Her glower intensifies, and she swims closer. When she reaches the edge of the lake, where her feet must reach the bottom, she stands straight, water raining down from her in waves.
For the love of the fucking gods.
Odessa is unusually, overwhelmingly beautiful. It’s not an opinion, just an undisputed fact.
She’s wearing a long white nightgown, which is soaking wet and sticking to her curves in a way that leaves no question that she has nothing beneath it. Her skin is practically glowing. Her long hair—which sometimes looks red and sometimes blonde depending on the lighting—is soaked to a dark cherry red and hangs down over her chest, barely hiding her nipples from view.
Her hips swing as she walks out of the lake and stops in front of me, close enough that I could reach out and grab her in an instant.
She looks up at me from beneath her eyelashes. “Do I look like a monster to you?”
I blink and shake my head, mostly to clear the fog suddenly clouding my rational mind. Odessa misinterprets the motion as my saying “no,” and sneers at me. “Then you’re not nearly as smart as you think you are. Be careful, Kastian, or one of these days I won’t be able to resist drowning you.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“Back at you.”
Dessa stops and glances over her shoulder at me, but instead of being annoyed, her expression is hard to read. She looks conflicted before she turns back around and walks away without another word.
I have to physically hold myself back from chasing after her. I feel bewitched. Possessed. Insane.
This isn't like me at all, and I have no idea what it means.
Of course, Odessa is beautiful, but I don’t think that’s the reason for my fixation. If her appearance were the only draw, I would have gotten over it months ago.
I think it must be the fact that she’s a mystery.
Despite knowing each other for a year, I don’t really know Dessa that well. She won’t let me know her, because she’s been standoffish from the very moment we met. With literally everyone else in the kingdom, she’s all smiles and sunshine, but with me it’s like a storm suddenly rolled in.
Yet, I don’t care. She can be as sullen and ill-tempered as she likes, and I can’t get enough.
Usually, there could only be one explanation for this sort of inexplicable fascination:A soul-bond.
Soul-bonds are unbreakable connections that only form once. There’s debate among the Fae whether the connections are predestined or form organically. Some believe that they are fated connections, but most think that bonds are triggered, usually in a moment of heightened emotion or trauma.
Everyone agrees, however, that once a bond forms there’s no breaking it.
If one partner dies or is somehow lost, the other often dies. Males tend to feel the connection first, and once bonded they will never leave their partners—ever. That’s why there’s nearly no such thing as infidelity among the Fae.
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
If things were different, I would assume that my inexplicable obsession with Odessa was a sign of a bond forming, but I know that’s impossible.
Odessa can’t be my soul-bond because a bond only forms once, and I already found mine. I found her years ago and lost her just as quickly before the bond was ever able to flourish.
It’s still there, though. I can feel it in my chest, taunting me, making sure I never forget.
As if I ever could.
