Page 7 of A Storm in Every Heart
As expected, at the change in my tone, the shopkeeper immediately swivels around to stare at me. His stern expression falters, and his gaze goes unfocused, flicking lazily back and forth between my eyes and my chest as if he can’t help but look. A pink flush tinges his cheekbones and the tips of his pointed ears.
I might not have magic like the full-blooded Fae, but my mother was a siren. Thanks to her, I’ve rarely encountered a man whom I couldn’t persuade to see things my way.
“Give me the ship,” I request, still infusing my voice with the siren song. “You want to give it to me. Nothing would make you happier than to have my gratitude.”
“As you wish,” the shopkeeper says dazedly.
I smile, but before I can claim my victory, a bell tinkles behind us as the door opens. I glance over my shoulder and my face falls. An all too familiar figure has entered, his broad shoulders filling the entire doorway. Our gazes collide, and I stiffen as if an icy wind has entered the shop with him. “What are you doing here?”
Kastian steps further into the shop, letting the door swing closed behind him with a thud that rattles through my bones. “I was looking for you. You’re needed back at the house.”
My eyes narrow. “And they sentyouto find me? Really?”
“Something like that.”
For a moment, all thoughts of the ship in the bottle and the shopkeeper flee my mind, replaced by mingled annoyance and worry. Everyone knows Kastian and I don’t get along, and neither Alix nor Daemon would ever send him after me unless it was an emergency. “Is something wrong?” I demand. “Is Jett back, or?—”
Kastian puts a hand up to halt my questions. His gaze has fallen on the silent shopkeeper, and he looks startled, as if he only just noticed there’s someone else in the room. “Morning. You alright, mate?”
The shopkeeper blinks a few times, his eyes sliding in and out of focus, seemingly unable to form words. I bite back a groan.Dammit, I hate weak-willed men.
Actually, I hate pretty much all men, but the weak ones are by far the worst.
Kastian’s dark eyes narrow at me. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing! Why do they need me at the house?”
He completely ignores my question, all of his attention now focused on the swaying shopkeeper. “That doesn’t look like ‘nothing.’ It looks like you cooked him.”
Heat rises to my cheeks and I scoff. “I barely did anything. How was I supposed to know he had such a weak mind?”
Kastian’s black eyes flash, and he shakes his head, his expression somewhere between exhaustion and bemusement. “Just tell me if it’s going to wear off or if we have to do damage control.”
My eyes narrow. I don’t want anyone doing damage control for me, especially him. I bite the inside of my cheek and try to remain calm. “It’ll wear off a few minutes after I leave.”
“Good.” Kastian wraps his fingers around my upper arm and begins tugging me toward the door. “Let’s go.”
I yelp in protest. “No, wait! Just let me get my ship!”
He ignores me, his fingers tightening. I struggle, but the effort is pointless.
His majestyis the only man in Ellender who’s ever been able to ignore me.
The day that Daemon returned from prison with a pack of criminals and a kidnapped human woman in tow was also the first time I’d seen Kastian in over a century.
Until that day, my life had been in ruin. The curse on the kingdom of Vernallis was raging, and the court was in disarray. Daemon had been gone for ninety long years and his absence, combined with my secret melancholy, had driven a wedge between myself and Aunt Beatrix. I was working in the palace while she remained living at the Ashwater Estate. Our entiresmall family was spread thin across the continent, and with the curse looming, I never expected to see any of them alive again.
Then, everything changed when Daemon received a pardon from the king and reappeared in Vernallis—and he wasn’t alone.
Besides Alix—the human woman he’d accidentally kidnapped who would later become his soul-bonded mate—he’d brought three friends he’d met in Dyaspora Prison: Jett, an entertaining trickster from the desert kingdom of Solistine; Fox, a strong and silent soldier from the snowy kingdom of Thermia; And Kastian, the source of all my problems for the last one hundred years.
It had been decades since I’d last seen Kastian and I’d half-convinced myself he was dead. Except, there he was, standing beside my estranged brother and wearing a Vernalli military uniform, looking at me as if we’d never met before. I was so shocked I hardly recognized him.
On that day, he looked exhausted. His curly black hair was chin-length and his usually dark complexion was ashen, like he’d seen little of the sun in decades. Now, a year later, his hair is cut short, only slightly longer than the hint of a beard on his square jaw. His bronze tan has returned, and he’s dressed casually with his black shirt open at the neck to reveal the edge of a large tattoo that I know extends down his right forearm. I have to admit he looks good, but that’s the only good thing I’ll acknowledge about him.
Every moment since Kastian Stormbreaker reappeared in my life has been slow torture, and my only comfort is knowing that at every opportunity I torment him right back.
“Let go of me!” I screech, as Kastian drags me out of the shop and onto the street.
