Cursed: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Thrice Cursed Mage Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

her nose even as relief spread across her face. “Unfortunately, yes.”
    “Then you know a shower is something I can’t refuse,” I said, and she smiled, and it was like someone turned on the sun. My heart leapt in my throat, cutting off the oxygen to my brain as I stared at her for almost as long as it would take for the moment to stretch into awkwardness. Even though she had a kid, I’d be lying if I didn’t briefly entertain an idyllic fantasy with a white picket fence.
    I pushed the thought away, suddenly embarrassed to be thinking about her like that and made my way into her cozy bathroom. With the door shut and locked behind me, I reached past the Transformers shower curtain and turned on the water so it could heat up while I stripped off my clothes. It was a little weird because I wasn’t sure where to put my dirty laundry. In the end, I opted for dropping it in a pile behind the door.
    As I stepped into the warm spray of the shower, a euphoric feeling overcame me. I’d never expected a shower to make me feel this much better, but then again, I couldn’t remember spending the night in a dumpster before. As I watched dirty brown water circle the drain and disappear, I tried to content myself with what little progress I’d made.
    It was hard to do. I was really no closer to finding out who I was despite an insatiable need welling up in me, demanding I do something. I just didn’t know what. It was possible the police would be able to help me, but I was reasonably sure things were going to get more complicated before they got better. My best case scenario was that someone had filed a missing person’s report for me, but I didn’t have especially high hopes.
    For all I knew, I’d only disappeared last night, and I was pretty sure the police didn’t begin looking for people until at least a day had passed. No, it was more likely, they would have no information about me whatsoever. It was even more frustrating because I had a niggling feeling in the back of my mind that time was of the essence.
    “What if I find out who I am, and it’s too late to use to do anything?” I whispered into the shower spray as I tried to scrub the blackness off my arm, but it was as stubborn as ever. I was starting to worry it was permanent, but that didn’t make any sense. Why would I have made my one arm as black as pitch on purpose? The tattoos I could sort of understand. People got tattoos all the time, but I’d never heard of anyone tattooing their arm to be black as coal.
    “Why can’t I remember why I have this stuff on my arm?” I growled in frustration a few minutes later. As I said the words, a sense that I was being watched filled me to nearly bursting. I spun in a slow circle, but seeing no one, I poked my head out of the shower. No one was in the bathroom either, so why did it feel like someone was boring holes in my back?
    “Hello?” I asked, somewhat louder, but no one responded. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. I ducked my head back inside the shower and grabbed a handful of shampoo with a name I couldn’t pronounce. The smell of lavender filled my nostrils. I worked it into my scalp as quickly as possible. Even if there was no one watching me, I was suddenly all showered out.
    I had just finished rinsing and was about to shut off the water when a knock on the door made me leap out of my skin. I crashed into the wall and stood there, chest heaving and heart hammering.
    “I’m going to leave the clothes for you by the door.” The brunette’s voice carried through the door surprisingly well, making me wonder how thin the door was.
    “Yeah,” I said, shutting the water off and snatching a towel of the rack.
    “I think there’s a spare toothbrush in the drawer.” Then, before I could thank her, the sound of her retreating footsteps filled my ears.
    “Thanks,” I called, trying to figure out what had happened, before deciding to shrug it off. I wrapped the towel around myself and stepped out