HAIL

No matter how much I try to focus on the jangly mortal music, the varied human figures around the restaurant, or the interplay of the artificial light across the posters framed on the walls, my gaze keeps sliding back to the short, curvy woman in the hooded leather jacket.

It doesn’t make sense. If all I’m doing is evaluating objective human-esque visual appeal, there’s at least one face in the crowd more striking than hers. The hood is covering her vibrant hair. She isn’t doing anything except perching on a bar stool to gab with one of the locals.

But maybe it also does make sense. I still find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that Periwinkle’s diminutive hourglass frame held enough power to sear my skin raw in the time it takes to blink.

Watching her beam at her conversational companion, I can’t help thinking that there’s a glow to her even when her hair is out of view.

The cream puff has some kind of energy to her beyond anything I’ve encountered before, crammed into a deceptively innocuous package. Of course that fact would gnaw at me.

It’s not even the only power she possesses. As little as I care about the feelings of the humans we’re surrounded by, I’d have to be an idiot not to notice how the older woman Peri’s talking to has lit up after just a couple of minutes of chatter.

Peri pats the woman’s hand, so familiar you’d think they’ve been friends for years. “It sounds like you’re doing your best. The way you describe them, I can tell how much they matter to you. You shouldn’t let anyone tell you not to do your best.”

I have no idea what she’s going on about, but clearly her new friend does. The woman smiles even wider. For fuck’s sake, are those joyful tears shimmering in her eyes before she blinks them away?

“I’m so glad you stopped in here tonight,” she says. “Are you sure you have to leave town right away?”

Peri laughs in a sweetly apologetic tone. “We’ve got some work to take care of. But maybe we’ll be able to come by again on our way home!”

I don’t give a shit about the happiness of any of these humans. If they’ve made themselves miserable, it’s almost always their own fault.

So why can’t I stop watching Peri work her weird magic? What is this stupid tug inside me as if I’d want to go over and bask in her brightness up close?

I yank my attention away and find myself looking at Raze, who’s sitting at a table with our fearless leader and a few regular restaurant-goers. His eyes flick toward Peri more often than they’re fixed on his supposed companions.

The big lug has gotten somewhere with her. Not just ultra-protective mode, but that kiss…

The image pops up from my memory with a twinge I don’t like at all. How the fuck would a brute like him know how to handle any woman, let alone one as soft as Peri? Why would she look so pleased about it?

My jaw clenches. No matter what I do, I end up thinking about her. After all this time being forced into her presence, she’s gotten under my skin.

How many other powers does she have that we don’t even know about? Maybe she’s some strange variation of succubus?

I want to unwrap her and understand exactly what she is. How she works. What would fascinate her the same way she’s hooked my attention.

Maybe if I got as close to her as Raze seems to have, all these questions would stop nagging at me. I’d see she’s just another being, with the same desires and weaknesses as any other, just different trappings than I’m used to. Then she wouldn’t have this hold on me.

The idea steadies me. I manage to polish off my chili fries with their kick of spice while only stealing a few glances toward the cream puff.

Before I have to decide whether to start implementing my plan right here, Jonah gets up from the table. Peri turns immediately as if attuned to his movements.

She always notices things so quickly. I’m going to have to be careful to convey exactly the right attitude.

The sorcerer in our midst motions us toward the door. “We’d better get some rest.”

He’d better get some rest, he means. All I have to do is slip into the shadows for a matter of minutes, and any fatigue this human body has taken on will have melted away.

We all have to keep up our sham of mortality, though.

We head out of the restaurant, Peri and Mirage waving goodbye to the locals they chatted with. I force a small smile so I can’t be accused to looking outright unfriendly and sabotaging our mission.

Jonah waits until we’re in the van before commenting on everything we’ve learned. “I think we should head up to that hermit’s property first thing in the morning. Find out exactly what kind of monsters he’s been seeing.”

Peri nods eagerly. “That’s our best lead.”

As Jonah drives a little farther outside of town so we can settle in for the night without raising questions from the locals, she sinks back on the bench as if getting cozy. Raze rests his large hand on her knee with a possessive air that rankles me.

He didn’t eat anything at the restaurant, only drank some soda. They don’t serve the kind of bloody meals he needs. Which means he’ll have to go off on a hunt once we’ve found our spot for the night.

As expected, the moment our sorcerer pulls off onto an overgrown lane and parks, the lizard man murmurs something to Peri and lunges off into the shadows. Mirage bounds out after him.

While Jonah gets out his sleeping bag, I aim the warmest smile I can summon at Peri. “We’ve been stuck in one box or another almost all day. Want to take a walk with me?”

Jonah shoots me a wary glance, but I ignore him. All that matters is the brightening of Peri’s face in response. How do her eyes sparkle so vividly?

She springs off the bench to join me. “That sounds perfect. Thank you for inviting me.”

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My senses aren’t as honed as the basilisk’s, but I can pick up on the traces of our companions’ presence well enough to set off in a different direction from both the carnivore and the ridiculous fox. It’s a pleasant enough patch of forest. Pines and birch trees loom tall around us. A light breeze rustles through their leaves.

The terrain is lumpy with uneven earth and protruding granite, but that only makes it feel wilder. Untampered with by human expectations.

I breathe in the cool night air, perfectly fresh without a single taint of humanity, and let it ripple through my nerves. It’s easier to shed my qualms and focus on my goal with the natural world all around me.

And that’s especially important when the cream puff insists on being so attuned to my mood.

She aims a softer smile at me, her hood pulled back now so her teal hair tumbles over her shoulders. “You really like being out in nature, don’t you? I guess you don’t get much chance to enjoy it back at the school.”

I think about the arid desert around the academy, the hot sun baking my skin to the point of pain. “The environment there has some things to recommend about it… but I’m most at home in greener places.”

Something about my being resonates with the woods, as if I was made for this kind of environment even though I came into existence in another realm on the other side of a shadowy rift.

Peri inhales deeply with a satisfied sound. “It is nice being out somewhere so peaceful… I need to be around people some of the time, but all the emotions can get a little overwhelming.”

I wouldn’t have thought she could appreciate the stillness the way I do. But possibly she’s only saying that to cozy up to me the way she seems to with everyone.

That’s fine. Right now, I’m aiming to cozy up to her too.

A particularly steep jut of the forest floor gives me the excuse to take Peri’s hand and help her up. Once we’ve clambered onto flatter ground, I keep my fingers wrapped around hers. My thumb traces patterns across the soft skin on the back of her hand.

The rest of her must be even softer.

I need to get on with finding that out so I can set aside this absurd attraction.

Peri sets up the perfect opening before I need to. “Thank you for trying to get Gloss to stop bothering me back at the school. I know sometimes I’ve bothered you too—I never meant to. I hope we can keep getting along better.”

I stop and turn toward her, tugging her hand so she faces me at the same time. “I hadn’t really taken the time to get to know you,” I say, picking the words I think will hit the mark best. “There’s a lot more to you than I realized. It’s hard not to appreciate that once I’ve noticed.”

When I skim my fingers along the line of arcing line of her jaw, Peri’s eyelids dip. A ruddy light wavers through her hair that matches the hunger stirring inside me.

Good. My usual skills work just as well on her as almost every other being.

I lean down and brush my lips against hers.

Peri kisses me back, resting her free hand against my chest as if to steady herself. As her fingers curl into my shirt, the warmth of the kiss and her touch spread through my usual chill faster than I expected. A pang of need shoots straight to my dick.

She shouldn’t have that effect on me. I shouldn’t want her this much.

Just get it over with. Get through it and prove that she’s nothing more than all the other eager women who’ve thrown themselves at me. There’ll be nothing intriguing about her then.

Deepening the kiss, I nudge her back against one of the trees. A quiver runs through Peri’s body where we’re pressed together.

She eases her head away from mine. Her voice comes out breathless. “Wait. Where do you want to go with this?”

I can show her without any words. I trace her side, from the slope of her breast to the curve of her hips, and the gasp that slips out of her has me hard in an instant.

That’s right. Just like this. Always so fucking simple.

I dip my head to kiss her neck. Her honey-sweet scent floods my lungs, her skin so temptingly tender against my lips. All that power she stores in this marshmallow of a body, and she still gives herself over to me so easily.

It’s only a fluke. The effects she can provoke—all of them—are totally meaningless. Accidental stumbling. She doesn’t really see anything.

She doesn’t know me. How could a being like her have any idea—

Peri’s hand tightens where she’s clutching my shirt. All at once, she’s pushing me backward, stepping to the side at the same time to put a little more distance between us.

I blink down at her, frustration and unfulfilled desire swelling up inside me in tandem. What the fuck is she doing?

Those crystal-clear eyes peer into mine. “I can’t do this without talking to Raze first. But I don’t think it’s a good idea anyway. You’re not really happy about it.”

A sharper jab of irritation trickles into my voice. “Of course I’m happy. I wouldn’t kiss you if I didn’t want to.”

Her brow knits as she studies my face. I have the sudden, shameful urge to leap off into the shadows so she can’t see me at all.

“Maybe,” she says, so gently it sets my teeth on edge. “But it’s also making you upset. What’s the matter? Are you nervous about running into more of those strange shadowkind tomorrow?”

How can she be veering off onto that random subject when I was working over her body less than a minute ago?

I step closer to her again. “I wasn’t looking to talk.”

But when I dip my head and reach for her face to draw her mouth back to mine, she jerks farther away.

A deeper crease forms between Peri’s eyebrows. “Something’s wrong. It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me about it, but I can’t just ignore it.”

A twisted mass of anger and helplessness knots in my chest. “Well, forgive me for wanting to fuck you,” I snap, and stride off without looking back.

My heart is thudding too quickly, my limbs still flushed from the feel of her against them.

Where did I screw up? How could she shrug off what I was offering like it was nothing?

And why do I feel so awful at the thought that I might have just lost any chance I could have had at taking another shot?