Add Magic to Taste by Nina Waters

Author:Nina Waters [Multiple]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Duck Prints Press LLC
Published: 2021-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

Confluence

By Puck Malamud

Tags: altered mental state, animal transformation, bipoc character, character is a murderer, chinese mythology, cultivation, daoist character, fox shifter, harm to animals, interspecies romance, magic user, mentions of death of a child, mentions of drowning, nature spirits, off-screen death of a sibling, past tense, pov alternating third person limited, reunion, rusalka, russia, slavic mythology, western europe, wlw

*

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”

Alisa Rusakova groaned at the coffee stain sinking into her blouse, turning the embroidered pink-and-green flowers beige. She lifted her head, mouth opening to reply, then froze.

In front of her was one of the most beautiful women Alisa had ever seen. She was about Alisa’s height, wearing a soft-looking purple sweater; the front-most tresses of her long black hair, sleek and shining in the café’s overhead lights, were pulled back into a mal’vina hairstyle. Her thick brows were drawn down in concern, warm brown eyes darting between her half-empty coffee cup and the plastic lid on the floor between them.

Alisa caught herself staring and swallowed. “It’s fine,” she said, ducking her head. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

When the silence went on too long, Alisa looked back up only to be caught by the woman’s stricken gaze. Then, Alisa watched that beautiful face transform, eyes and mouth forming arcs of open delight.

“It’s you!” she exclaimed. “You’re alive!” Her free hand lifted towards Alisa’s face and faltered. “But I thought you were human.”

“Wh—” Alisa spluttered. She grabbed the other woman’s hand where it had frozen centimetres from her face and dragged her out of the way of the other customers. “Keep your voice down,” she hissed. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Oh, uh, Liran,” she said. Her accent was Russian but not her name. Chinese, if Alisa ventured a guess. “Liran Yan. I’m— You saved my life! It was, well, it was a hundred years ago, and I look pretty different now, but—”

She must. Alisa would definitely remember saving the life of a girl this gorgeous, even with a hundred-years distance.

Liran was still talking, words pouring over themselves with the kind of nervous energy Alisa most associated with the youngest rusalki—the ones who lived in young mountain springs, deer-swift and hungry. Alisa had once had many sisters quite as beautiful as Liran, the better to lure landfolk into the river.

“Look,” she said, cutting Liran off. It was too late to deny anything, her reaction too compromising, but she could still do damage control. “We can’t talk about this here. Why don’t I buy us some coffees, and we can start over?”

“Oh!” Liran exclaimed. “I can’t let you do that. I ruined your pretty blouse. Let me at least buy your drink.”

Alisa pursed her lips. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. “How about I replace your coffee, and in exchange you clean my shirt?” Luckily, she always kept spare clothes in her messenger bag, just in case. “I’m Alisa, by the way.”

“Alisa,” Liran repeated, brightening. “Sure, sounds great.”

*

Liran watched Alisa head to the washroom, pulling a blue T-shirt out of her bag as she went.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.