Casually Cursed Read Online Free Page A

I shivered.
    “What’s surprised you?” Kismet asked, rising from the crouch in a fluid movement, as if her spine were made of rubber and silk. Crux had that same grace.
    “It’s the way you have for getting down from a tree. People can’t really do that . . . most can’t. I think when I was little I could. I think . . . I felt you. Like we shared a connection back then where I could see through your eyes and learned things from you when you did them. The way I’ve been able to see and feel you lately.”
    When she passed by me, her pinkie caught mine and curled around it. My own pinkie curled too without my even thinking about it. Clasping her finger was like shaking hands or hugging: When the other person does it, you just automatically do it back.
    For a couple months I’d had the feeling something was missing—until Kismet arrived. When her pinkie linked mine now, I felt like a missing piece of my soul returned to me. Joy rippled through my whole body, making me want to laugh and dance. Since I didn’t want to startle Kismet, I just grinned at her.
    She returned my smile and winked. “I’ll teach you for real,” she said. “To climb trees and to flip out of ’em and how to get them to lower a branch to swing you up. In return, you teach me to make biscuits and cakes.”
    “Deal!”
    I didn’t hear Crux approach, but I knew he was behind me by the change in her expression. The sunshine of her smile disappeared. Her head didn’t turn. Only her eyes moved, and they were a cool, deadly green. She might look like me, but in the moments when she faced Crux, she reminded me of Mercutio, a natural-born hunter who would fight whatever needed fighting, no matter how big or how deadly. My sister was not intimidated by the famous Seelie knight, but she was wary of him. She moved between us, shielding me from him.
    “You’d best go,” she said to him in a low voice. “I won’t be taken back alive. And you know that to kill me is no easy thing.”
    “Of course I do.” He smiled at her over the top of his glass.
    “I don’t think she’s kidding about being ready to have an all-out fight. My cat gets that exact same look, and when it comes to fighting, Merc doesn’t play,” I said, letting go of Kismet’s pinkie so I could turn to face Crux.
    “I remember,” Crux said before he chugged the last of his shake.
    “That’s right. Mercutio took a bite out of your neck that one time.”
    “It’s a wonder he didn’t retch his stomach out at the taste,” Kismet said with a little smirk.
    Crux’s smile never faltered. “I don’t know why you say it’s a wonder. You’ve tasted my blood. It didn’t make you sick.”
    Her smile faded till it was gone. “I may yet, you know.” She paused. “Kill you.”
    He shrugged. To me, he said, “If she planned to kill me, she’d have done it.”
    “I can change my mind. Free will,” she said.
    His smile finally disappeared. “You’d have to answer for it. You’re Seelie fae. Inside the Never and out of it.”
    Kismet replied, “I don’t bow to the queen’s will anymore. And never shall again.”
    He sighed. “You’re born of the blood. She’ll always be your queen.”
    The oven timer rang. “Come on,” I said. “Don’t argue.”
    “My sister’s a peacekeeper. She cares for people. Be glad her goodwill leaks all over me when I’m around her, or I might have challenged you to a death match.”
    She’d said it so casually, it was kind of unreal. I blinked, then swallowed.
    “Um, well, death matches are illegal in the state of Texas, which is where we’re standing. In fact, fighting to the death is illegal all over the United States. Canada, too, and probably Mexico. In the Old West, there were gunfights in the streets to settle disagreements and all, but that hasn’t been allowed for a long time. At least a hundred years.”
    Crux cocked a brow. “A hundred years is a long time?”
    “Yep. In human years that’s a real long time. So