Page 20 of Wings of Ashes
“I’ll survive,” Nix said.
“Okay… Just remember the glamour can only do so much to make your body look like a cygnus shifter,” Elle whispered to her.
Nix paused right before opening her mouth for her first bite. That had sounded…rude. Right? Judgy. Nix couldn’t remember Elle ever saying something like that to her in the past.
“When was the last time I had my, uh, glamour?” Nix asked, trying to subtly understand how long it had been without raising suspicion with Elle that she could not recall. “It’s been a crazy day; it feels like I can’t remember anything important anymore.”
Elle’s eyebrows furrowed as she slightly frowned at Nix. “You’re right, it has almost been a week since your last dose. I’ll bring you a new vial of it tomorrow at lunch.”
“Great,” Nix said. Though she was worried about never figuring out what she was, she knew taking the cygnus shifter illusion elixir and maintaining a low profile was best. Randomly showing upnotas a swan shifter, after years of appearing as one to her community, would raise a big red flag.
Elle’s family had gotten her the glamour back in childhood; Nix did not fully rememberwhenshe started taking it. It was just always…there. In her memories.
Elle’s father told her the potion would lessen the bullying Nix experienced in the clan because she looked “different” from them. But most of what Nix remembered was when her friends stopped wanting to talk to her, other than Elle, and when everyone started calling her “Ugly Duckling.”
Once they became older teenagers, the nickname became even cruder and crueler.Ugly Fuckling.
If Nixstoppedusing the glamour in this new life, would much change? She would have red hair and a different face, but Elle would treat her the same, surely. Underneath the glamour, Elle knew Nix.
How many peopleknowme?Nix wondered as she looked at the mostly full, long, dark wood lunch table. Most of the other cygni knew Nix as Elle’s quiet, shy friend. The social pariah.
That’s not me anymore.
“Nix, is it true?” one of the other cygnus shifters, a girl named Sarasa, asked Nix from her seat on the other side of Elle.
It was odd for anyone to talk to Nix when Elle was around. After all, Elle was much more interesting and social. And talking to Nix always seemed like social suicide.Ugly Fuckling.
“What?” Elle asked.
“Nix got placed intotheProfessor Thierry’s history class. Gods, I would give anything to get to call him ‘sir’ and hear him talk every day. He is the dreamiest man in the whole academy.”
“He’s a bit rude,” Nix commented through a bite of food.
“That’s his studly yet stuffy vibe. Gods, he is hot,” Sarasa said.
“What is she talking about?” Elle asked Nix.
“I changed some of my classes in my schedule,” Nix mumbled with her mouth full. Gods, the lunch food tasted amazing today. Had it always been so amazing?
“What?” Elle asked. Her upset voice hiked up in pitch and volume. “Why would you change your classes? Is that why you missed our cooking and alpha psychology classes this morning?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Why wouldn’t you have told me that you were switching your schedule? And in the second semester?”
Nix shrugged uncomfortably, not prepared to lie to her best friend or tell her about her current time-traveling situation. “I don’t know. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”
“Youdon’t make spur-of-the-moment decisions.”
Nix fidgeted under Elle’s intense, analytic gaze.
“Elle, stop monopolizing Nix,” Sarasa whined. Elle’s shocked expression was warranted—no one had everwantedto hearfrom Nix before. “Nix, tell me all about Professor Thierry’s class. Doesn’t his accent just make you want to die?”
“No. It sounds nice. Why would it make me want to die?”
Sarasa sputtered at Nix.
“Actually, he had to, uh, dismiss class early,” Nix said.
