“Your guide can swim, as you should’ve learned to do long ago. He’ll be able to rest along the shore, but he won’t be able to go past that tree there,” he motioned with a jerk of his head to a tall, branchless trunk to his left. It was barren, the bark stripped, leaving it sad and naked for all to see. The tree itself looked cursed, as the rest in the naked forest were. “There’s a heavy charm that marks my territory. You’re only here because I’m carrying you in myself. You wouldn’t be able to find it on your own if I weren’t here to help you. I would’ve explained it all to you earlier, but you haven’t been to sleep since we last parted.”
Philip glanced down at my wet and petrified face as Finn’s voice reached our ears from a few yards down the coastline. He was calling out my name, scared that I was lost in the ocean. I opened my mouth to reassure him that I was alright, but Philip shot me a deadly look that made me shrink in his arms. “She’s not your concern anymore,” he called to Finn. He didn’t pause for Finn’s anguished cries and war-laden threats. Philip’s grip on me tightened as he carried me deeper into the stripped and naked forest.
Twenty-Seven.
The Blackness of our Fog
As soon as I had enough of my bearings together, I struggled for Philip to let me down. Now that we were alone, he complied, touching my feet to the hard soil and sand mixture that didn’t seem fertile enough to grow anything. The urge to vomit rose up in me when I tried to work up the gumption to kiss him in a welcoming “I’m so glad to see you, honey” kind of way. He wore a beige shirt and black pants, his white-blond hair standing out against the natural colors that surrounded us.
Distraction came at me in the form of a dog barking. The howl was calling out a warning for... something as it tore a path through the branchless and barkless trees that were way too close together. Had they branches, they would’ve been all intertwined to the point of not being able to see a single thing. As it was, the morning suns shone on the last thing I expected to see running toward us.
It wasn’t any old dog. Sandy, my neighbor’s pit bull came bounding toward me, tongue out and cautioning me to stay back with a warning growl. “What the... Is that my dog?” I quirked my head up at Philip in confusion.
Philip smiled that I was talking to him, asking him normal questions, like how a regular couple might converse. “I had one of my Ekeks sneak to the surface and bring him here for you. I thought you might enjoy someone familiar on my island to make you feel more at home.”
My knees buckled and I dropped to the ground, opening up my arms and welcoming Sandy with the hug we both needed. “Hey, boy. I sure missed you. What are you doing here, huh?” I snuggled his bowling ball head to my chest and scratched under his chin while he licked my face in earnest.
“He’s groveling, as he should be.”
“Groveling? Sandy’s my buddy. He’s never done a thing to need groveling for.” I kissed the top of Sandy’s head. “Poor baby. You’re probably terrified being here. I’m with you now. Nothing to worry about.”
Philip wore a superior smile that told me he knew something I didn’t. Judging by the touch of evil he had in everything he did, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the source of his smirk. “Let’s get you dried off. Then we can talk about your mutt.”
I frowned up at Philip as I released Sandy, who stayed close to my heels. “His name is Sandy, not mutt. Be nice.”
Philip chuckled, looking not as evil, though I held tight to my healthy fear of him even as he tried to relax me with conversation. “Oh, darling. I miss you ordering me around. The only thing I get is blind obedience. I rather enjoy the sound of you thinking you have any control over me.”
I shot him a baleful look, which he smiled at. I touched my forehead, grimacing as my brain started to catch up. “Oh, I need to go back to the shore. My backpack’s there with all my things.”
“I have plenty of things for you and your dog. What did you call him? Sandy? There’s nothing you need back there. Your guide will find it after he exhausts himself trying to find you, I’m sure.” Sandy rubbed his side against my ankle affectionately. “I’ve got a treat for you both in the hut.” Philip led Sandy and me to the clearing I’d seen in my dream. In the center of the perfect circle was a simple hut, framed by the stripped trees. It was the same no-frills hut he’d shown me before, but the realness of actually being here made me gasp.
“Our palace, milady,” Philip offered. He opened the door and ushered me inside, introducing me to the one-room abode that was exactly as I remembered it. My knife was in my backpack on the shore, so I searched with careful eyes for anything I could use as a makeshift weapon when the time came.
There was the same tin bucket in the corner, a handmade wooden table, and a basket on the counter, along with jars of various sizes. I was shivering in the center of the hut, dripping all over the planks of the wooden floor. “Do you have a towel or something?”
“I do.” He didn’t move, but stared at me, as if seeing me in his house was the most fascinating thing that had happened in months. Since he was sequestered here by himself, I guess it probably was.
My fists climbed to rest up on my hips. “Well, are you just bragging, or can I actually use it to dry off here? I’m kind of dripping all over the place.”
He narrowed his eyes skeptically. “Why did you come here?”
I blinked at him. “Are you serious? I just crossed an ocean by way of a sea monster, and you want to know why I’m here? I told you, I wanted to give us a shot where I didn’t have to be afraid of you invading my mind, and you could see if we’d actually be good together for real. This way we can figure out if we should be together, or if we should move on.”
“See, that’s the reason I’ve been running over in my mind, but now that you’re here, it doesn’t add up. Why would you give yourself over to me, unguarded? Knowing what you do about what I did to your sister, why would you come here?”
Sandy looked curiously between myself and Philip, head tilted to the side and ears flopping.
I huffed, arms akimbo. “Because I’m a masochist, apparently. I’ve got a thing for lost causes, and you’re about as lost as they come.”
Philip’s head turned to the side, his dimpled chin tightening as he sized me up. “A little impertinence is charming every now and then, but you’ll do well to remember that I’m the master here. I’m not a lost puppy in search of redemption. If you’re hoping to change me, you’ve come on a fool’s errand.”
I cast him a look of deep displeasure. “You’re pushing your luck, dude. I don’t need a monologue on how it’s impossible to change a man. That’s a tune I’m well familiar with. I just need a towel.”
He watched my attitude a few more seconds before moving to a chest and pulling out a blanket. The cream fabric was fuzzy, and as he wrapped it around me, he pulled me closer to him, his hand on my hip. I wished Finn hadn’t removed my hoodie. My white nightgown was sticking to me, drawing attention to areas I didn’t want Philip thinking he was welcome to explore.
It was now or never, and I knew the “never” option was too tempting to seriously consider. I took a chance and rested my head on his chest, ignoring Sandy’s irate bark at my bold move.
Philip’s hand drifted up, combing his fingers through my dripping tangles. I could hear the erratic beats of his heart and knew he was just as nervous as I was. It was a big deal, him letting an actual person onto his island of isolation. I was a risk, just as much as he was a risk to me.
“I have to tell you something, and I need you to not freak out.”
His hand stilled in my hair. “What is it?”
I swallowed, driving the knife into my heart for the greater good. “When we kissed in my dream, it’s not the same as kissing an awakened Omen in real life. There’s hallucinations and colors, and it’s, well, it’s pretty trippy.” Sandy went nuts, barking and growling until I snapped my fingers. “Hush up now, boy.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
My hand cli
mbed up to rest on his beige shirt. “Because I want to kiss you. I want to see what kinds of colors we make together.”
Philip moved his hand under my chin, and I reminded myself not to flinch. He tipped my face up, and beneath the unrepentant warmonger I knew him to be, I could tell that he was also a man who wanted to be desired. Of all the things he could command, he couldn’t make a woman want to be with him.
Philip’s eyes zeroed in on my lips, and though we’d had sex before, this definitely felt like virgin territory. “Philip?” I whispered, leaning up so our mouths weren’t more than a few inches apart. I didn’t want to know what he smelled like, so I tried not to notice the sharp oaky scent that wafted into my nose unbidden. “When was the last time you kissed a woman?”
His eyes hardened in time with his grip on me, tightening me to his chest so I could barely breathe. “The last time I kissed a woman was the last time we kissed, so do the math from then.”
My tone remained soft. “I mean in real life, not in an Omen’s mind.”
A flicker of utter loss sliced through the anger in his eyes with all the delicate grace of a butterfly’s wing, making him look lost in a storm of his own making. “I can’t remember. If it happened, it must’ve been lifetimes ago. I’ve been here for ages, locked in my island.”
I didn’t actually have to fake sympathy for him. My hand rose to touch his cheek, stroking the barely prickly skin as I gazed up at him with true compassion for his plight. “Oh, honey. You don’t have to be alone anymore.” I leaned up on my toes, brushing my lips to his too briefly to be considered a kiss. Philip was motionless, savoring the first kiss he’d had... maybe ever. At least in this lifetime, I was his first, so I took great care to move slowly.
The kiss unraveled, going deeper in layers I wasn’t sure I understood the depths of. Sandy was angry now, but his growling and barking were drowned out by the banging that started introducing itself to our kiss. The drums echoed all around me, bashing inside my head and making me lose all sense of who and where I was. The red and yellow from Mason, the blue and gold I’d bathed in with Von, and the green and silver Finn had given me were replaced by a black fog that had tinges of royal purple to it. The fog moved like a thick snake around us, spiraling and climbing upward until we were wrapped tightly in the tension that only seemed to build. My tongue beckoned his to come out and play, and the dance they did together was strange but somehow delicate.
I waited for the carbonation feeling to run through my body and over my skin, welcoming the strange sensation when it announced the breaking of Philip’s curse I’d set out to undo.
Philip’s hands coiled around my back as the kiss deepened beyond what I’d needed it to be. I tried to let the kiss fade away, but Philip held me tighter, wanting more.
It didn’t matter. His curse was broken, which meant that Philip was mortal again.
Twenty-Eight.
The Truth about Sandy
It took too long to extract myself from Philip’s lips. A graceful decrescendo was hard to execute without arousing suspicion that I wanted to murder him where he stood. Finally I was granted a whole foot of space when Sandy bit down on my leg. “Ouch! Sandy, no!” I stumbled to the only chair in the hut and flopped down on its wooden seat, shaking the imagined fog clear so I could see what was in front of me. A few drops of blood ran down my leg under my jeans and stained my sopping white sock.
Philip braced himself on the wood wall, his hand on his chest. “That was incredible. That’s what I’ve been missing? That’s what that cursed Kapre kept me from all these decades?”
I winced, realizing that I’d just kissed a super old man. Add rapist to that, and you got yourself the winner for the worst kiss of my life, courtesy of Terraway. I tried to appear enraptured, gazing up at him in wonder. “Was it everything you imagined? Because that was worth a trip across the ocean for me.”
“Is it like that every time?” He motioned me to him. “Again.”
Sandy stood between me and Philip, growling low at the man as he readied to attack. I checked the puncture marks from his teeth and guessed that Philip didn’t have any modern first aid supplies handy. “Sandy, you’ve never bitten me before. What’s gotten into you?”
The breathlessness was replaced by a smug smile. “Oh, he’s not thrilled that you’ve taken up with his oldest friend.”
“Is that supposed to make sense to me?”
“I guess there’s no harm in it now. You gave me that gift, so I suppose I should give you yours.” He reached for a wooden jar on the counter and dipped his knuckles in, pulling out a handful of crimson dirt. “You have no idea how hard this was to find, Levi. How hard I searched through the eyes of thousands of muted souls. So many years of turning over every rock to find this for you. Though the search wasn’t entirely without joy, I’ll admit. I got to see the world through their eyes,” he said wistfully.
My mouth dropped open. “That’s what the rations were for? So you could live a life and see the world away from the island you’re stuck on?”
“Wouldn’t you want to see the world if you could? I know your dreams. You see big and beautiful things you’ll never venture to in real life. The rations dull their minds so I can float in and out, experience the world with my spirit while my body’s stuck here.”
I wanted to get into a heavy ethics debate, but that would be admitting that I thought him worthy of saving, which I did not.
He mumbled a few incoherent words and blew the red dusty dirt out at Sandy, coating his maw with the powder. An evil upward turn of Philip’s lips came to his face when Sandy sneezed. “You didn’t think I’d be able to find it, did you. You thought yourself cursed forever, banished to wander the Topside as a simple dog. I’ve been sneaking residents of Terraway up there for a year now. It wasn’t so hard to use that same tunnel to get you down here, back where you belong. I was just waiting until I had something to make the trip worthwhile. But I found it, Levi.” Philip’s eyes danced with excitement, making him look much younger. “One of my soldiers found the old Kapre’s missing ruby. I ground it up and used it to undo your punishment. You’re free, brother. Actually free.”
I stood, indignant. “What are you doing to him? Don’t piss me off, Philip. Leave my dog alone.”
Philip didn’t listen to me, but addressed only Sandy. “It’s time. Either you tell her, or I do.”
My eyebrows creased in confusion. “Tell me what?” This was supposed to be the moment I stabbed him through, and now I was caught up in half a riddle.
A low growl started in Sandy’s chest, rippling up as he bared down and braced himself for... something. Philip’s eyes watched with delight as Sandy started whining at my feet, like he was apologizing for some crime I had yet to discover.
Then suddenly his body twitched unnaturally, his right shoulder elongating and stretching out, losing its caramel fur and looking more like... like a human’s. I yelped and hopped backward, my hand over my mouth to stifle the incoherent shrieks that wanted to announce my freak-out. I’d seen this before when Mason transformed from wolf to man.
Sandy twitched and convulsed, growling and barking with pained fervor, until lying on the floor in the middle of the hut was a fully grown, naked man. He had auburn dreads, and too many muscles to be anything other than a bodybuilder, or like a Viking or something.
I plastered my body to the wall, my breath coming in shallow pants when I realized the truth. “Matruculan?” I guessed, my hand moving to my chest to still the rapid jumps before my heart grew legs and leapt out of my chest to head for safer, less magical ground.
Philip nodded, his eyes on the man who had only seconds ago been my dog. “Of course.”
Suddenly all the too-sentient-for-a-dog things became clear. Of course a dog wouldn’t bring us takeout when we were starved. Of course a dog would’ve attacked us at some point when we trespassed onto his absent owner’s property. Dread washed over me in waves. I’d told Sandy my deepest fears and confessed my secrets to him
growing up. I didn’t have a mask of “I’m fine” around him. I’d slept in the dirt with him on more than one occasion, and now here he was – a man who looked to be pushing thirty, lying at my feet, and in desperate need of some clothes.
Despite the fact that I was freezing and still wet, I cast my blanket to the floor as an offering, hoping someone would explain what the flip was going on.
“Give him a moment. He hasn’t been upright in... how old are you? Well, add nine months to that.” Philip drew a pair of shorts from his trunk and cast them down on the man, who was still assembling his bearings on the floor.
The only thing I felt was the blood draining from my face when the implications of what Philip was hinting at started to become clearer. “You mean... This is... But I don’t have a...” I plastered my back to the wall, my arms sprawled out to brace myself as my knees began to debate whether or not they wanted to hold me upright.
Philip leaned down and clutched the man’s hand, pulling Sandy to stand on unsteady feet after he slid on the pair of shorts. Sandy’s auburn dreads had caramel streaks throughout. His nose was... I mean, it was my exact nose. His eyes were the same shape as mine. His expression – well, I’d never seen anything like it. He was awash of shame, fear and hope, though I scarcely understood my own jumbled emotional state.
Philip slapped Sandy on the back and all but shoved him toward me. “Darling, this is Levi, my oldest and dearest friend. He was an apprentice with me many lifetimes ago, sent to work for a very difficult and short-sighted Kapre. One day, we stumbled upon a way to make what was thought to be an impossible curse, and used it to bless ourselves. The elixir of Matalo was our creation, but our master punished us for our ingenious discovery. Said we weren’t worthy of such responsibility.” Philip sniffed at the offensive memory. “I was sequestered to the island here, so I could live out my eternal days alone. Levi was banished Topside, confined to his Matruculan animal form.” Philip watched me watch Sandy, petrified as I was. “I’ve been working to weaken the magic these last couple weeks after one of my soldiers found the Kapre’s lost ruby. I was able to step out of the enclosure to take you into my island.” His hand rested on Sandy’s thick shoulder. “With the help of the dust from the ruby our master held a few of his curses in, now Levi’s free of that part of his punishment.”
Trap Page 14
