Sealed Fate: Paranormal Dating Agency (Otherworld Shifters Book 5) Read online

  Pavel looked down at the basket in his lap and deemed it finished. He wanted to go inside but didn’t want to be alone in the house with Teall. Annika was still anxious about him snooping around.

  Pavel searched for something to say, perhaps to encourage Teall to simply return later, but a blue cloud of smoke drifting in their direction stole his thoughts. “Do you see that?”

  Teall grumbled. “Sprite.”

  “What?”

  The cloud burst into silver and blue flower petals that drifted over Pavel. He jumped to his feet and backed away from the spot, and after a few blinks realized a small woman had also appeared. Her skin and hair were shades of dusty rose, and she stood at least two feet shorter than Pavel.

  She curtsied, holding her shimmery black skirt aside, and peered at Pavel with large gray eyes. “Pavel, correct?”

  “That’s him,” Teall answered.

  “Wonderful.” Her voice was low and sultry, not high and bright as one would expect from such a tiny fae. The woman’s gaze traveled over Pavel in a slow manner. “Just wonderful. My name is Aria.”

  Pavel remained a safe distance, even though the training of his childhood demanded he walk forward and offer her a polite handshake. “How do you do?”

  “I’m doing well enough.” She cleared her throat. “On behalf of the highest court, the Virtuous seat of King Regin and Queen Valfreja, you are invited to pledge your loyalty.”

  Teall chuckled. “Subtle.”

  “I’m invited to pledge my loyalty?” Pavel asked. “I haven’t even met you before.”

  Aria smiled. Tension lined her lips as if she were doing everything against her will. “I’m sure you’ve heard that you must choose a court and be claimed. I thought as a strong and independent human, it would sound more appealing for you to offer your allegiance, rather than having us ‘claim’ you. Was I misinformed?”

  “A cage is still a cage, whether I walk in or someone tosses me in. But I see your point. Which is why I’m not choosing anyone until I know where I belong.”

  “I mean… if cages are your kink, the Virtuous court is best suited for you.”

  Teall snickered and Pavel rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I meant by a cage. What does your court have to offer?”

  “What don’t we offer? We are the true power. We care for our citizens sincerely and do all we can to ensure happiness and prosperity. Not to mention, we uphold the finest standards of what it means to be fae and embrace the true intents of the aspects. There are more reasons, of course, which you could see for yourself if you’d return with me to the castle.”

  Pavel glanced to Teall. “How honest is she?”

  Teall looked Aria over with unveiled suspicion. “Neither court has any true power, as a war would destroy them both. They may care for their citizens, but that’s not something to be rewarded as it should be a given. And they do believe in lofty standards for the fae, which is why they have rarely welcomed humans into their court before—and only do so now because they want a gift.”

  “That’s not true,” Aria murmured unconvincingly. Her smile had gradually died as he spoke and was now a frustrated pout.

  “Which part?” Pavel asked.

  Aria straightened her shoulders. “The selkie is not unbiased here. Neutral is their political alignment, not their temperament. But on that same note, he cannot fairly speak for what being a member of the court entails or what we offer.”

  “And what is this about a gift?”

  “When humans bond with Prism, the court that claims them receives a magical boon. Not something they choose, just something that happens,” Teall explained. “Pure wild magic.”

  “The gift goes both ways,” Aria added. “You obtain the long life befitting a Prism inhabitant, which will likely have side benefits. Strength. Stamina,” she said with a wink.

  “And you get a mysterious magical power?”

  Teall crossed his arms. “It’s not power, exactly.”

  “The last two humans to join our world brought amazing gifts. A healing flower and a fertile season. But both of those humans chose the Pure court. It would be fair if the Virtuous citizens would have such luck.”

  “I don’t see how fairness is involved,” Teall muttered.

  “Nor do I,” Pavel said. “I don’t know enough about you to simply pledge loyalty. How do I know what you’d ask of me in the future?”

  Aria arched a brow. “We don’t ask anything. Joining a court is a formality.”

  “I don’t believe that,” Pavel responded. “I’m in no hurry to align myself with either court.”

  “Well, there is no time limit on your decision, but you do realize that each day that passes here, you’re aging? Getting closer to dying?” Aria asked.

  “That’s how time works.”

  “Time on Earth passes differently than on Prism. Here, some days are longer, and some are shorter. You wouldn’t even notice, but your body does. For all we know, you’ve already aged a year,” Aria said pointedly.

  Pavel looked to Teall for confirmation and got a nod. Premature aging put a damper on things, but it’s not like he’d gone gray overnight. He still felt his usual age, as far as he could tell. “You can’t scare me into making this decision.”

  Aria smiled again, and it looked positively vicious. “Fine. I’ll relay your message but expect to see me again.”

  She vanished with no smoke or fanfare, but unless he imagined things, the air had a sour note to it.

  “Fascinating,” Pavel breathed.

  “Indeed.” Teall frowned and scratched at his cheek. “I have to admit, I’m almost impressed.”

  “With her? I would think the poofing in and out of thin air would be a typical fae trick.”

  “For sprites, yes, but that’s not what I meant. You could have just accepted the offer. It’s probably as she says, that they don’t expect anything of you.”

  “Right.” Pavel laughed drily. “They want a token human. And if they don’t get a gift they like, I bet they could make my life hell, couldn’t they? I don’t want to owe an entire kingdom of strangers anything.”

  “And that’s why I’m almost impressed. I don’t think the last few humans that joined Prism gave it much consideration.”

  Pavel shrugged. “I can guess the appeal. The average person would see it for the once in a lifetime opportunity that it is and get caught up in the notion of the magic and wonder. Me? I hate the idea of blind allegiance, and I’ve spent my life avoiding politics.”

  Unexpected approval crossed Teall’s face, but he looked away. Pavel averted his eyes as well. They’d come close to having some sort of moment, and neither wanted it.

  “I have to be honest,” Pavel said and stood, brushing the sand from his pants. “With everything I’ve learned about selkies and their culture, I can understand why you wanted me out of the picture.”

  Teall gave a light grunt.

  “You could have given Annika a moment to talk, though. Instead of thinking that murder was the answer.”

  “You know my reasons.”

  “Yeah, I just said I… but just because you were jealous and concerned didn’t mean you had to kill me.” Pavel grabbed the two baskets he’d managed to repair. “If you don’t want to feel remorse, I can’t make you. I think somewhere in that brain of yours you realize it was fucked up. But even if you can’t feel bad about what you did to me, don’t you care about what you did to her?”

  “I didn’t mean for her to be upset. I thought she didn’t have a choice.”

  Pavel exhaled in disbelief and rolled his eyes. He’d played back the day in his head again and again and come to understand that Teall had reacted with just as much jealousy as he had concern. He’d likely seen more than just the kiss. He’d seen Annika having a good time, and that was too much. After all, the selkies didn’t seem to get jealous over much, and he’d shared Annika with others long before Pavel came around. Seeing her enjoying herself without him was the tipping point, but Teall c
learly wasn’t ready to admit it.

  “My point, though, is that I remember you pulling me down and I remember her coming with me. She could have drowned, couldn’t she? She didn’t have her seal skin. She was on Earth. At that moment, she was practically a human, wasn’t she?”

  Teall stared sharply at him. “I wasn’t trying to hurt her.”

  “Your actions nearly killed her though, didn’t they?”

  Teall turned and took a few steps away.

  Time ticked by and nothing but the breeze and gentle lapping water made sound. Pavel headed inside. It didn’t surprise him that Teall had ignored that part of the day. Denial had to make it easier for him to stand by his decision to “save” Annika. That level of selfish recklessness wasn’t healthy, nor was it safe.

  It wasn’t Pavel’s place to make the decision, but if it were, he’d have Annika never speak to Teall again.

  After dropping the baskets off in Cam’s room, Pavel threw himself onto the couch and pulled out his new pipes. Cam had brought them back from his last trip selling pearls. It was nice to no longer be using Teall’s instrument, and these pipes had a subtly richer sound that he enjoyed.

  He closed his eyes and let a song come to him. Nothing original as he wasn’t altogether that creative, but a tune he’d learned long ago on his violin. It was easy to mimic the melody on the pipes.

  There was a knock on the door and Teall entered without waiting for permission. He closed the door behind him and met Pavel’s eyes.

  “I didn’t think she’d hold on to you,” Teall said. “I didn’t see that she was, at first. Somehow, I thought you’d pulled her in and that she’d get free in time. My mind couldn’t fathom her jumping in with the intention of saving you.”

  “Why did you stop when you saw, though?”

  “It was too late. When I saw her becoming still, I panicked. She was screaming in the water as if she could speak, and I didn’t know what to do. She was hurting herself for you, and everything in me just… froze.” Teall’s expression grew distant as if remembering that day. “Afterwards, the moment sort of vanished from my memory. Iona brought us here and Annika and I fought, it’s like she didn’t remember herself being that close to dying. I was conflicted with too many emotions and I didn’t know how to handle them, so I just didn’t.”

  Pavel traced the wooden reeds with his thumb. “I don’t think Annika has thought of it, in all honesty.”

  “She was too concerned with you.”

  “Yeah. Not that I want it to be like that. It still surprises me. We’d just met. Not that you want to hear that.”

  Teall scoffed. “It doesn’t matter. That’s just how she is. She doesn’t hold back on caring.”

  In a way, her endearing insistence of putting others first was as dangerous as anything else. Pavel had aimed for Teall to open up and admit to his blame in things, but at the same time, he’d inadvertently revealed his own pangs of guilt. Even if it wasn’t intentional, even if he couldn’t have predicted or controlled his actions, he hated that Annika had tried to save him at the expense of her own safety.

  “What have you got there?” Teall stepped further into the room and motioned to Pavel’s hands.

  Pavel held up the instrument. “Sea pipes. A bit different from yours.”

  “I thought I was hearing things, but I guess that was you playing just before.”

  “I try.”

  Teall glanced across the house. “Did Annika throw away my things?”

  “Nah. It’s all in that room, still.”

  Teall headed towards the room and Pavel twisted on the couch to watch and make sure he didn’t wander. After a few minutes, Teall returned with his pipes. He eyed the couch a moment before sitting in a worn chair across from Pavel.

  “If I teach you how to breathe properly, would you teach me the melody you were attempting before I came in?”

  The hard edge of Teall’s abrasive manner seemed to have melted away. There was no sarcasm or detectable annoyance in his voice, either.

  “Sounds like a fair deal,” Pavel replied.

  * * * *

  Annika finished lining up the tiny jars of various spices and herbs she already owned and the ones Teall had bought when visiting the village a few days earlier. Pavel grabbed the first in the row and lifted the clay lid to sniff the contents.

  “Maybe we should arrange them by flavor profiles,” he suggested.

  “What’s a flavor profile?” she asked.

  Cam dipped his finger into a jar and licked the deep green dust from his finger. “This one tastes like salty kelp.”

  “Probably because that’s exactly what it is,” Annika said.

  “A flavor profile is just a way to classify food by taste. There are five basic characteristics: Salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami. The last one is like… earthy or savory,” Pavel explained. “Though with these spices, we’ll probably need to just form groups as we see fit.”

  Cam slid two of the jars toward himself. “Like these, then. They’re both peppery.”

  Annika shook one that sounded like tiny seeds then offered it to Pavel. “Maybe you should try them all and see which ones taste familiar. That way we can start cooking with them.”

  “Eh…” Pavel eyed the twenty or so containers. “I think if I tasted every single one in a row my tongue would fall off, or I’d lose my sense of taste entirely.”

  “Then which are going on dinner?” Cam asked. “Maybe we could just go by color. All the red ones would probably go well together.” He started removing each lid and sliding certain ones toward Annika.

  “I don’t think—”

  A loud knock on the front door made them all pause and glance back. It had to be Teall, and there were still mixed feelings when he came by. Cam called for him to enter and Pavel glanced to Annika to catch her expression, which was lately a blend of hope and sadness. They hadn’t talked about Teall recently, but she couldn’t let go of him, and eventually, the discussion would be necessary.

  Maybe initially she wanted Teall to apologize and grovel or whatever, but now it was clear she missed him. Pavel didn’t even blame her for it. Apparently, when Teall wasn’t trying to kill someone, he was an okay guy. Plus, they had a serious past. Pavel had taken years to get over exes before. How did a person get over someone after hundreds of years, though?

  Teall joined them at the counter and placed a box next to Pavel. “I found this.”

  Annika looked between the box and Teall. “You brought a gift?”

  “It’s not a gift. I just found it. It’s nothing.” Teall reached into his pocket and held out something small and wrapped in paper. “This is a gift though.”

  She took it with a delicate smile and unfolded the brown wrapping to reveal a hair comb. “It’s gorgeous,” she whispered. She held it up for Cam and Pavel to see. The comb itself appeared to be a dark wood, but beads that shifted colors in the light were wrapped around the top. She slid it into place over her right ear and turned her face toward Teall. “How does it look?”

  “Perfect, of course,” he replied. A sheepish look crossed his face. “I wanted to get you something when we weren’t fighting. It’s just because.”

  Her hands gripped the counter as if she were holding herself back, and her eyes fell to Pavel for a moment. “It’s lovely. Thank you.”

  An uncomfortable silence settled around them, and Pavel slid the quickly forgotten box front and center to shift the focus away from the gift-bearing elephant in the room. The box itself was more like a worn crate, and he lifted the lid with no guess as to the contents.

  Inside, beneath a pale blue strip of linen, he found a violin. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “When you spoke of your instrument, I thought of this. I guess the royals enjoy the sound, but I’d only heard one once, ages ago. A fiddle.”

  “Yeah,” Pavel breathed. He lifted the instrument and the accompanying bow from the box and inspected each piece. He was torn between the consideration Teall had
shown and beautifully bizarre Prism adaptation of the instrument. He smoothed his hand over the glossy blue wood and had no idea what to say.

  “That’s a gift,” Annika said proudly. “That’s far from nothing.”

  “This is like what you play?” Cam leaned in close. “I’ve seen these before.”

  “It’s not like what I play,” Pavel said, finding his voice. “It’s one and the same. The fiddle and violin are just different names for the same instrument. It’s based on the music played—it’s just… I can’t believe you got this for me.”

  Teall stared blankly at it. “I only got it because I noticed it. I didn’t go looking for it.”

  “Still… You have no idea how much it means to me.” It was a piece of home, in a way. “Thank you, sincerely.”

  Teall glanced away. “It’s nothing.”

  “Hmm. Right. I wonder if it has a similar sound. The wood type and quality can have an effect.”

  “My memory of this instrument isn’t pleasant,” Teall said. “I can’t say if that’s how it will be when you play, or if it’s supposed to sound that way. Scratchy, I think.”

  “Hopefully I’m not too rusty, but I think I can avoid scratchy. Pavel squinted at the bow. Most of the hairs were white, but there were orange and green fibers mixed in. “On Earth, the bows are horsehair.”

  The selkies leaned in to observe the hairs.

  “No idea,” Annika murmured. “It could be a horse, but even here our horses aren’t green.”

  Cam and Teall simply shook their heads.

  “It wouldn’t be… I mean, they can’t use kelpie, right?” Pavel asked, feeling a bit sick.

  “Kelpies are never white,” Teall said. “It could be unicorn.”

  “Oooh.” Annika ran a finger over one of the loose hairs at the tip of the bow. “That would make sense.”

  Pavel’s jaw dropped. “How would that make sense? Horsehair is gathered from the slaughterhouse.”

  “Unicorns shed hair constantly,” Cam answered. “And the white unicorns are so common, the hair is probably easier to get. Their tails are usually white with other colors sprinkled in. Whereas a more desirable one would have pure gold hair, and those are used in everything.”