“Human, what the hell happened to you?” Grim exclaimed the moment she walked through the door of Ramshackle.

  “Wow, Grim. You sure know how to make a girl feel special,” said Yuu—at least, that’s what she wanted to say. What actually came out sounded more like she was gargling gravel.

  “Well?” Grim prompted, hopping up on a chair to see her better. He peered up into her tired face with the closest thing he could probably come to concern.

  “What, did you get in a fight without me?” he groaned. “I knew it wasn’t just gonna be speeches! You shoulda let me come! Anyway, did you lose or somethin’? Your eyes are all puffy, and that cut…. Wherever it is… looks like a gnarly one. Why’re you so wet?”

  “It’s not as bad as it looks,” she lied, wanting to dissuade as many of Grim’s questions as possible. She loved the little demon, but he wasn’t exactly closed-lipped about secrets. “Where are Ace and Deuce? Weren’t they here playing games?”

  “Nyah! Yeah! I beat ‘em!” Grim announced, looking proud of himself. “Looks like one of us won our battles tonight! They’re passed out in the common room. Want me to go get ‘em?”

  She tried to smile. She really did, but it got stuck somewhere between her mouth and her cheeks, coming out more like a grimace.

  “No, Grim, thanks. I… I really just wanna lay down, actually. Um. Pancakes tomorrow morning?”

  “Now you’re speakin’ my language!” Grim leapt down from the chair and did a circle around her ankles, swishing his tail. Yuu could only hope that the thought of good food would be enough to make him forget what she’d come in looking like, and she escaped to her own room as quickly as Grim stopped making himself a tripping hazard.

  As soon as she was in her room, she threw her purse down on a chair, and a little red puff escaped the zipper.

  “That’s it!” she cried to noone. “That’s it! You’re going in storage! In a ZIplock! In a fire! Yeah, fire is better….”

  But then, recalling the explosive nature of Mallory’s experiments, she decided against it. What if it made things worse? For now, she threw a blanket over the whole chair, purse and all, determined to leave it be for as long as possible.

  Her dress was ruined, not that she’d minded in the moment, but now that her clarity—her REAL clarity—was returning to her, she regretted the loss of the lovely gown. She would probably never wear it again, now that the memories were attached, but still. It had done its job well…too well?

  “Eurgh!” she said, stripping the wet fabric off of herself, and throwing it in the trash.

  Then, she put herself under the hottest shower that Ramshackle could manage. Her shoulder stung in the heat, but she didn’t care. If a shower came with the bonus of cauterizing the jaw-shaped wound, then more the better.

  Now that the blood had washed off, she got a better look at the bite mark. It wasn’t deep, but it did sting, and parts of it were leaking purple goo.

  “Great. Exotic colors are always a good sign in the medical field,” she grumbled, pumping soap over herself, and hoping it would be enough. Eventually, she was satisfied that the wound was no longer bleeding, leaking, or looking like anything other than it was…an imprint of Azul’s merman-transformed jaw on her shoulder—two rows of pointy, serrated teeth etched into her skin.

  “Really, Azul?” she huffed, staring at the marks. “Really? What were you thinking?”

  But, she knew distantly, that he hadn’t been thinking clearly, and neither had she—and that had been partially her fault, and partially Mallory’s, and Azul… Azul had stayed with her, helped her, and even tried to protect her in that hazy stupor. She admired him for it. She shivered at the feelings it had evoked. But she was still angry and confused.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  What had Madame Ashengrotto said? That the venom in this bite would eat her alive? If she didn’t…consummate the contract?

  That had better not mean what she thought it did. But if she didn’t do…whatever that meant, then she died?

  She’d known Azul for years, but they weren’t close.

  Lies! Chanted a voice in her head. Absolute lies. Didn’t you just tell him that you were friends? Didn’t you insist on getting close?

  Yes. Yes she had. Idiot.

  But there had been that moment when they had felt close. With the dastardly red dust removing her doubts and inhibitions, she’d felt free to, well, feel.

  Was there anyone else on campus that she’d felt so free with?

  Nope! the voice in her head gloated gleefully.

  After all, she’d spent the last three days teasing Azul, and even relying on him, despite the wildly busy days he’d lead.

  But he didn’t choose this! she argued back to herself, viciously. He was literally drugged! Or magicked—something. He was under the influence. Azul—the real Azul—would never choose this. The real Azul would never even choose to be in his merman form. He’d said so himself. He would be content to live a life as a human forever. He hadn’t wanted to transform—the magic had forced that on him, and despite him handling it with aplomb, she’d made it worse, and worse, until she’d kissed him, and overridden any of himself really left.

  That was the realization that brought the first sob to the surface.

  Yuu was not one to cry—not ever. However, in this, hot water beginning to run out as the tears spilled over.

  For one shining, perfect moment the malicious drug had convinced her that she’d found something—well, something that felt dangerously close to ‘home.’ Azul’s scent when he was transformed—when he was him—had struck as familiar as a childhood song. Like the flavor of something she’d known long ago, and almost, almost remembered.

  Maybe you just know someone in the other world like him, she told herself.

  As if there would be anyone else in any world like that, the voice in her head argued back, but she ignored it. Nothing it had said tonight had been of any help, and had apparently only gotten her into trouble.

  But, it was more than just familiarity, she knew. In those moments kissing Azul, every nerve in her body had lit up like a livewire, like they wanted to knot themselves in proportional places to the nerves in himself. She was certain that no amount of magic or time could make herself forget something like that.

  In any case, Yuu was having an impossible time rationalizing that Azul, her friend, the suave and canny businessman, was the same creature at all as the decisive, protective one she’d kissed tonight. It was like he’d been an entirely different person, for just a few moments, and just for her.

  It made you feel so very special, didn’t it? she scolded herself.

  But, one could only wallow in self-loathing so long before the shower water of the old, creaky building that one lived in, went cold and ironically dusty. Yuu squeaked the water off, dressed, and taped a tissue over her now-slower-bleeding shoulder. It would have to do.

  Fatigued and bruised in so many ways, she dragged herself into bed, trying very hard not to think that the worst was still to come. She had a venomous bite in her shoulder that she didn’t know how to heal. She had a profoundly awkward conversation coming soon with Azul about said venom, and the cause thereof, and worst of all, an heart that ached in a way that it had no business doing over a first kiss. She was beginning to wonder if the dust, and not the venom, were still affecting her, and if so… for how long?

  Oh, she was going to wring Mallory’s neck when she saw her next!

  And, focusing on that merry promise to herself, Yuu managed to distract herself from the fact that she had no idea what to do or say, when inevitably, she saw Azul Ashengrotto again.