Filed To Story: The Saltwater Curse Book PDF Free
Just the thought of needing to start again makes me sick.
But when I think about the Curse…it doesn’t make sense. How could the fate of all krakens possibly be on my back? I’m a random human plucked off the street. There’s no way a
Goddess picked me to be the supposed savior.
“There’s no…back door?” I think out loud.
Ordus casts his attention to me.
“For the Curse,” I clarify. “You can’t use reverse psychology on the Curse and make it take someone else’s land—okay, not like that. But, I don’t know? Maybe bounce the Curse to a parcel of land not being habited. Like…like the space cemetery in the South Pacific Ocean by…” I click my fingers.
Where was it? “Point Nemo!”
“Uh…” He glances to the side, like he’s finding a way to nicely tell me I’m insane. “I…do not know where that point is…or a space cemetery.”
“It’s where countries dispose of their spacecrafts like satellites and space debris.” I read an article back when Dad was alive, when I still had interests outside of pleasing Tommy. “There are no oceanic currents in the area or something like that, so there’s no marine life. If there is, there would be even less life caused by the chemical spillage, radioactive material, general waste, and collision shock. If you deflect the Curse to the cemetery, it would be perfect.”
Ordus scratches the back of his head then snatches his hand away like he doesn’t want to ruin the braid. I bite back a smile—another foreign feeling. Did I smile or laugh with Deedee and Nat?
He frowns. “Even if that was possible, I wouldn’t have the slightest inkling on how to do it. Any kraken who may have ideas are either dead or have gone to seek sanctuary elsewhere.”
“Fuck.”
“I do not have the magical capabilities to wield that type of power,” he adds.
I tip my head back and squeeze my eyes shut. I can’t have the fate of all krakens in my hands. I just can’t. How many krakens are out there? A hundred? Three hundred? Thousands?
“May I ask you a question?”
“No,” I say immediately. Ordus’ face falls, and my gut constricts with guilt. “Maybe,” I amend.
“Who is after you?”
I take a deep breath. It’s the question I’ve been dreading. I figured he’d ask sooner rather than later.
My hand wraps over the scar on my wrist like it might hide the evidence of my past. As I rub it, pins and needles pierce my flesh from my elbow down to my fingers at the thought of Tommy.
There’s not a single person who knows who and what I’m running from, or even my real name. A name carries weight. The moment I say his name, Thomas Gallagher, people will start connecting the dots.
But who would a kraken know? Yes, he’s a king, but he had no idea what a scrunchie was. He thought my skincare products were potions, that humans drink seawater.
I could scream my ex-husband’s name, list every single person in his family, mention every company they own, and Ordus still wouldn’t know who the hell they are, because this is another universe. I’m on Earth, but in another realm entirely.
“Tommy Gallagher.” I haven’t spoken his name out loud in over a year. It tastes bitter and liberating. I stop myself from mentioning pirates, because that probably has a different meaning to him.
Ocean blues turn stormy as a vein in his temple ticks. “Did he harm you?”
I flinch at the memory of my marriage. Ordus knows the answer. I think he figured it out long before I uttered my demon’s name.
“I will kill him,” he snarls, teeth bared, incisors on show.
It’s…touching. I forgot what it’s like to have someone in my corner. The only person to slay my demons has been me.
“Too late. I beat you to it.” I don’t mean to sound sad, but it’s the first time I’ve confessed my sins out loud, and it’s like this great big weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can finally breathe again, release a hand off the reins and let someone else grip them for dear life with me.
It’s a premature feeling, but it’s there all the same.
“My mate is deadly.” Ordus dips his head in appreciation. Our gazes clash, and the glint of pride in his eyes makes me want to crawl into a ball and cry. “You will not need to kill again—not unless you enjoy it, in which case I will bring you many bodies.”
I blanch. Right, I forgot we both have a different set of morals and ethics. “You aren’t meant to condone murder, let alone enable it.”
No, the giddy feeling in my chest isn’t because his declaration of bloodshed is kind of romantic. If I’m swooning, it’s from the heat and the many near-death experiences I’ve had as of late.
“I would kill every male alive for you—monster and human. It makes no difference to me whether you take their last breath or I do.” I inhale sharply and still when he trails a finger down my jaw. “Ask, and I will make it so.”
“You—” I shift in my seat and clear my throat. He lowers his hand back to his side, disappointed. “You don’t need to kill anyone for me.”
Kill all the Gallaghers for me, and make it hurt, is what I want to say.
“I have done it many times before. There is no version of existence where I wouldn’t do it all again for you.” His voice is a deep rumble that sends a dark thrill through me.
Tommy killed in my name before, but it was never for me. The wounds he left behind have scraped and reopened a hundred times. They’ve been infected, inflamed, bloodied, and bruised, but they never healed. The best is a moderate itch begging to be scratched.
Because I lied when I said I’d sleep peacefully after killing Tommy. I haven’t known a moment of peace since I shoved that knife into his neck. I’m afraid it’ll never get better.
“How do you sleep with all the blood on your hands?” I whisper, staring at my plate. I’ve lost my appetite.
“Alone.” Ordus’ face betrays nothing. It’s only the tightening of his tentacle that tells me our words have any impact. I watch him soften when he looks back down at the braid, and my tummy does a low whoop despite the somber shift in atmosphere. “Sometimes, I rest still feeling their blood on my skin.”
My fingers twitch, remembering how it felt to pierce skin and sinew, how the warmth of his blood felt splattered on my face.
“Sometimes,” I start, thinking of the nights I’ve spent staring at my hand and the two-and-a-half-inch scar on my wrist. “Sometimes, it’s a blanket that warms you to the core.”
“Other times, it leaves you cold,” he finishes for me. My injured arm prickles under the heat of his attention. His hand covers mine, engulfing the scar and each of my sore fingers in his protective embrace. “But you are not alone anymore. You have no need to fear.”
Inhaling deeply, I explain. “His family will not rest until they’ve captured me.”
“No one will find you here.”
I know that. More than anything, I know that in my very soul. John and the rest of the Gallaghers won’t, but Tommy’s ghost will follow me wherever I go.
The second I think it, a knife twists in my stomach. It’s like a premonition. I’m setting myself up for failure. I want so badly to not see Tommy in every man I encounter, to stop running and hiding.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.