An Elemental Tail
Page 7
Nik walked out of the ocean as a man and sat on the fine sand that glittered like powdered moonlight. The full moon hung in the sky like a white pearl, scattering light over the sea. He took a breath. Air filled his lungs with a familiar and welcome stretch of tissue. In his human body the gashes in his skin wept. The wounds were raw from the sea salt. They refused to heal, but he liked the sting. The pain made him remember his life as a human.
Coming back here the first time after getting his tail back had been almost as bad as the time it had been stolen. Once again he was crippled, only this time it was by four hundred years’ worth of memories. And Isla.
He dug his fingers into the cool sand. Had he spent longer as a human than he had as an Elemental? It didn’t seem possible; he’d watched empires rise and fall. Sank ships and changed the course of history, and yet those memories didn’t fill him the way his short time with Isla did. Their moments together filled his thoughts—not even he could out-swim them. What had he done for millennia?
Nymphs tickled his toes, giggling, trying to lure him back to the sea to play. He scowled at them. He didn’t want what the nymphs were offering. His emotions ran deeper. He was able to think beyond himself, of the suffering caused by his storms and of the lives lost in shipwrecks. Destruction wasn’t a game anymore. It had consequences.
Nik tried to dredge up a memory that gave meaning to his life as an Elemental. One encounter merged with the next, an endless frittering away of an eternal life on self-indulgent revelry and lust.
It wasn’t lust that had made him sacrifice his flesh for a woman. It was love. A surge of loss threatened to crush the human heart in his chest. He closed his eyes and tried to swallow the ache.
As the sadness passed, his skin healed. The missing pages of the book had been returned to the sea.
Isla had let him go.
He knew it would happen one day, but the open wounds had never stung as sharply as being whole and forgotten. The sorrow that made it hard to breathe was his own. He didn’t want Isla to let him go. He should never have let her go. His body melted back into water and he drowned in the tide that would take him back to Isla.
The woman he loved.
****
With the pages gone, Isla felt emptier. She stepped away from the river and gathered up her things. She didn’t need a man. And she didn’t have time to pine over one. Rain splashed her skin, washing away the aching malaise that had taken over in Nik’s absence. She tipped her face to the clouds, a shadow of a smile on her lips.
“Isla.”
Invisible ropes pulled her around to face the owner of the voice before she could resist. Seeing Nik broke her heart again. He hadn’t changed. His crimson hair whipped around his face like kelp in a storm. She turned away, forcing her feet to walk and her ears to ignore him. She was free.
“Isla, please wait.”
She shook her head but paused, allowing him to catch up. “Why did you come back?”
Why now?
“I need you.” He took her hands and kissed her like he’d been gone hours, not months.
She opened her mouth to speak and found herself kissing him back. Craving his touch like the earth needed rain.
He cupped her face with his hands. “You don’t need me. You have no place for me in your life. But I want to be there. I want to be with you.” Nik stepped back, his hands falling to his side. “If you’ll have me.”
Isla drank in the sight of him. Six months ago she would have said no. Now…she didn’t need him, but she wanted him with every cell in her body. “I don’t have time to date, and I don’t know when we’d see each other. But I want you.” She threw her arms around his neck.
He swung her around, her feet never touching the ground until she was dizzy and breathless.
Nik set her down, still holding her close. “We’ll make it work.” His eyes were dark, filled with a sincerity she hadn’t seen before, or maybe she hadn’t wanted to see.
She nodded. “We can make it work.”
As she spoke, the clouds opened. Water poured out of them like the gods were emptying buckets. One bright red scale fell to the ground and melted in the rain as two humans ran for shelter, holding hands and laughing.
Other titles by Shona Husk
Novels
Dark Vow, Carina Press
The Goblin King, Sourcebooks Casablanca
Kiss of the Goblin Prince, Sourcebooks Casablanca
For the Love of a Goblin Warrior, Sourcebooks Casablanca
The Outcast Prince, Sourcebooks Casablanca
Novellas
Boyfriend in a Bottle, Samhain Publishing
Brightwater Blood Samhain Publishing
How to Breathe Fire, Samhain Publishing
Kissing Phoenix, Ellora’s Cave
Tasting Thanatos, Ellora’s Cave
Sharing Sirius, Ellora’s Cave
Enchanting Absinthe, Ellora’s Cave
Saved by the Trickster, Ellora’s Cave
Dark Secrets, Carina Press
Midsummer’s Eve, Momentum Books
Free Reads
Soul Song
Dar-Otter, Pearl Otter, Can’t find me
About Shona Husk
Shona Husk lives in Western Australia at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Blessed with a lively imagination she spent most of her childhood making up stories. As an adult she discovered romance novels and hasn’t looked back. Drawing on history and myth, she writes about heroes who are armed and dangerous but have a heart of gold—sometimes literally.
With stories ranging from sensual to scorching, she is published with Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing and Sourcebooks. You can find out more at
www.ShonaHusk.com
www.twitter.com/ShonaHusk
www.facebook.com/shonahusk
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