A Sea of Pearls & Leaves by Rosalyn Briar EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author:Rosalyn Briar
- Language: English
- Genre: Fairy Tales
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
INGRID
It visits in murky waters. It visits in mirrors. It visits in
windows. Storm clouds. Shadows. Even polished silverware. This
time, though, is different.
I slink out of bed and tiptoe my way up the spiral stairs of the west
tower. With a turn of the glass handle, I enter Lilura’s cluttered room.
Moonlight spills through the sheer pink curtains, dusting plants, vials, and
books in a rosy glow. Shadows hang along the walls and crawl across the
floor, but I narrow my focus and step toward Lilura’s bed.
“It’s back,” I say.
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A startled movement of limbs shifts under Lilura’s silky sheets.
“Again? Come here, my love.” Lilura yawns and opens her arms, letting
me fall into them. “Are you well?”
“I am now.” I spoon my body against hers. Safe at last. “It appeared in a
dream this time.”
“That’s never happened before.” She squeezes me tight. “Tell me
more.”
“She—the thing that looks like me—was swimming toward me. Her
eyes were milky, and her skin was translucent. I could see dark veins
underneath. Barnacles encrusted her forehead, chest, and arms. Her tangled,
white hair drifted all around. When she swam away, she had a tail.”
“A tail? That’s new.”
“Yes, a fishtail or something.” I roll to gaze into her amber eyes. “What
does it mean?”
Lilura swings her legs over the opposite side of the bed and pats her
back, my cue. I knead and caress her muscles while she closes her eyes to
meditate. Lilura’s short pink hair rises and falls like curled waves against
her head, and her brown skin nearly shimmers in the moonlight. Her beauty
could make Freyska, the goddess of love, jealous. I adjust the clasp on her
chain, which holds a golden locket engraved with wings. She never takes it
off.
Lilura wrings her hands together, fingers black and sooty from one
experiment or other. “Sorcery takes a toll,” she always says. She’s often
burnt, covered in a layer of salt, or, worse, the crystal splinters. I always
make her soak in a hot bath before using needles and tweezers to extract
them. Not to mention her perpetually aching back. I circle my thumbs down
her spine, praying she’ll learn to be careful.
A few moments later, Lilura stands to pace the small, round room.
“The doppelgänger taking the form of a mermaid could mean the waters
are dangerous. So, we will keep you away from the shore.” Lilura steps
toward a large glass tank to stroke Obsidian and Opal, her snakes. She turns
to me with a trembling jaw. “It could also be an omen of death. So, we will
adorn you with pearls to hide from Dehel.”
The god of death. According to mythology, Dehel lives below the sea,
returning souls to the shore as pearls.
Lilura clutches her locket and bites at her lower lip as she sinks into the
mattress.
“What else?” I ask, shaking her shoulder. “What is it?”
Her round, doll-like eyes droop. “Your birthday is near, is it not?”
“LiLi. I know you’ve had premonitions about that day, but I’m not
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