Filed To Story: The Saltwater Curse Book PDF Free
Or, fuck, maybe it was nothing at all. I had on a pair of cherry-tinted glasses, and my first serious boyfriend could do no wrong in my eyes. Narcissists are manipulative. I got played, and I fell for it, simple as that.
I never learned how to survive until I lost my safety net. I had to gouge it out to find my backbone. Now, I’m surviving again, but it…it’s different. It’s not like with Tommy.
Ordus and I are working together, like the rainwater drums. I thought up the saucer; he came up with the filter. The chickens were his idea, but the coop was mine. He wanted to keep fish closer so he doesn’t need to go hunting as often, so I drew up a cage with what we had on the island.
And the crops I’m trying to grow. He made a garden box; I designed the system. I come up with the natural electricity plans; he’ll execute them. I wash laundry; he built a clothesline.
When was the last time I demanded Ordus return me to the mainland? A week? Two?
Ordus stops pacing, his back to me as he motions to the treasure, ignoring what I said. “It is yours to do with as you please.” There’s finality in his voice. It echoes against the cave walls and weighs a hundred tons.
I shake my head. “What? No, I can’t accept it.”
“All I have is yours.” He looks at me over his shoulders, and it almost knocks me off my feet. It’s not just adoration. It’s…hopelessness. He’s a man at the edge of his rope, and he doesn’t know what to do anymore.
But it’s not mine. It’s too much. I don’t deserve it. They’re his memories. His treasures. I’ve done nothing to earn them.
Yet, all that comes out is, “I can’t accept it, Ordus.”
He grunts, and just like that, we’re one step forward and two steps back.
24
Vasz
Sand sprays across the beach with each wag of my tail. I sigh, staring up at the big, white, forbidden coconut in the sky.
She’s so beautiful.
“Goddess?” I whisper, pausing my movements to wait for a response.
Sometimes, she talks back. By talk, I mean scream. The trees usually bend when she does, and I almost fly away. When the bright coconut in the sky is hidden behind—I don’t know what she’s behind—and it’s all wet, loud, gross, and cold, the world goes bright and the Goddess roars.
Tonight, the Sacred Coconut bathes my surroundings in black, grey, more grey, and light grey. It’s the only time I get to see her, when Cindi is getting ready to sleep and Ordus is watching her, and my stomach tells me I won’t be fed for a long, long, long time—until I wake Cindi up, usually, so I like to do that nice and early.
Chuffing, I try again. “Shark-doggopus Goddess.” My tail slaps the ground once. “I’m talking to you.”
Nothing.
“Please? I’ve been a good boy.” My ears drop, and I lower my head to my paws, swishing my tail behind me as I stare at the Sacred Coconut longingly. “Goddess, I… You may know me as a warrior, a valiant protector. I have faced many fearsome battles—as you are aware—and I return the stick to my queen every time she throws it.”
Why must everyone ignore me? I am perfect. I have never done anything wrong in my entire life.
“I ask—and I don’t ever ask of you—but I want this one thing. It’s small. Not a big ask. Easy for you to do because you’re a Goddess.” Flattery will get me far. “If you could fill this entire island with coconuts… I know,
I know. Ordus would be angry, but he doesn’t worship you like I do. What matters is that I, your humble servant, am repaid for my service.”
The bushy thing drifts over the Sacred Coconut. A silent answer.
The Goddess does not think I am a good boy.
25
Ordus
It’s worse than I thought.
The last parcel of land left untouched by the Curse is nearly as small as my island. Though rich in game, it is rapidly shrinking with each passing week.
Once it’s gone, there’s no telling if the Curse can still be broken.
At this rate, we may never know. She will never agree to marry me, and I have no intention of coercing her into it.
I can either be a bad king or a bad mate. Already, I am monumentally failing at both. If it is a decision between killing the people who wish me dead or doing what’s right for the female the Goddess chose for me, I pick the latter.
I’ve been unsettled since I left Cindi alone in our den this morning. The feeling worsens when a kraken female swims out from behind a stone archway. Like the others I’ve passed on the way here, her skin is stretched over bone in a sickly hue. If she came closer, I’d be able to count every one of her ribs.
The kraken female freezes when her rounded gaze lands on me, and then she dashes away. The four other krakens I came across did much of the same, running away the moment they saw me. One dared glare at me over their shoulder as they jetted off in the opposite direction.
It enrages me every time it happens. I must suffer the cost of existence, pay the price for the blood thrumming through my veins. I have defied nature, and the consequences must be reaped.
Cindi claims I am attractive, but it cannot be true. How can she say I am not an abomination when my own kind is repulsed by the sight of me?
Her question has been replaying in my mind for the past two days. She has barely spoken since. At night, she doesn’t relax in my hold. I’m frightened this will continue as a result of my outburst.
It’s my fault. My decision to distance myself has upset her. I have to make it right. I must say something, do something, to make her look at me. Words have never been my strong suit. If I open my mouth, I will make it worse.
You are one of the most attractive men I have ever met, but you are far from poisonous.
I want so badly for Cindi’s words to be true, that she might not hate me. I might not be the monster everyone makes me out to be.
Only her opinion matters, but she doesn’t get it. They’ve made me hate my own reflection, but what is there to like?
The hairband around my wrist grows heavy. Cindi likes my hair, does she not?
The last time she braided it, she tied it off then came to stand in front of me. There was a soft smile on her lips and a gleam in her eyes that stopped my breath. She tucked a loose strand behind my ear, then said, “There. Now I can see your face clearly.”
I spent the entire day worried I’d burst from happiness. I could hardly contain it. She doesn’t want me hidden.
The currents shift.
A new scent taints the water. Another kraken.
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.