Page 61 of Changeling
I wrench my head around to catch a glimpse of them myself. Oh. My. Stars.
My wings are lined in sleek ebony from the tip, each vein dark against the nearly transparent tissue that sparkles like quartz over granite. They’re more than beautiful. They’re perfect. They’re mine. I give them an experimental flutter to feel all the new sensations at once. Pure magic.
Though they’ll never allow me to fly, not in this realm anyway, I’m in love with them just the same. What would it be like to live in Luminia, where flight is possible? Though I may never know, dreaming of it is impossible to resist.
Tallula stretches out a hand, waiting for my blessing, which I give with a smile.
Her delicate fingers are warm against the light length of my wing. So strange to feel touch where previously nothing had been there at all. I shiver, and she pulls her hand back.
“No, it was nice,” I reassure her. “Go ahead. I liked it.”
She pets me again, giggling. I join her, my laughter ringing with the same musicality of hers.
“Your skin,” says Remy. “Does it feel different?”
Now that he mentions it, it does. Everything is different. “Yes. It’s as if the energy I’ve always felt at my fingertips is everywhere. A bit like the tingling feeling when the small hairs bristle at your neck, but not unpleasant. It’s warm and”—I roll my shoulders, my wings dancing with the movement—“full of potential.”
“Yes, that’s an accurate way to put it,” says Remy. “Potential is how my magic feels as well.”
Tallula springs to her feet and extends her hands to me. “Come, let’s see you spread them wide.”
Her enthusiasm matches mine. Joy blooms in my chest, speeding my heart and bringing a grin to my lips. I let her pull me up.
Remy rises too. “Let’s see them in all their glory.”
I don’t know how they move yet, but I’m eager to try. Using new—or perhaps they’re just recently unshackled—muscles, I thrust them out wide, unfurling and stretching them all at once. A sense of freedom, warm and exuberant, expands in my chest and dances through my mind.
To my surprise, spreading my wings comes naturally.
CHAPTER17
Dominus
“What are you doing here?”I glare at Ivaz from beneath a pile of covers. Naked and in bed isn’t my preferred way to greet visitors.
Ivaz hovers at the door, fully dressed in his long silk robes, red with gold brocade. He glowers at me from dark eyes, his thick black brows furrowed in judgment, his arms crossed in front of his broad chest. “Word on the street is you’re mopey and wallowing in self-pity. I came to see for myself.”
I yank my blankets up to my chin. No need for him to see me bare. “Who let you into my bedroom?”
“Rizpah, of course, and I dare you to admonish her for it,” he says with a hint of a chuckle. He knows me too well.
I wouldn’t dare cross Rizpah, but I’m surprised nonetheless. This private suite is my sanctuary. For her to let Ivaz in unannounced is unusual. But I suppose my self-imposed isolation is remarkable as well. If I were better at pretending everything’s all right, this probably wouldn’t have happened.
Ivaz strolls forward. “What are you doing sleeping the night away? The Twig is hopping busy just down the hall. Don’t you want to partake?”
I’m in no mood for an interrogation, but I’m also a prisoner beneath these sheets unless I fling them off and walk around buck naked. “Annais is doing fine on his own. The others know how to conduct themselves. They don’t need me.”
Ivaz cocks his head. “That’s not what I asked.” He looms over me.
It’s not often I’m in a position to look up to someone. I don’t like it.
“Why are you in bed at this hour?”
I don’t know what time it is, but it certainly feels like the middle of the night. “Most people are in bed at this hour, vampire.”
He grins, fangs on display. “You aren’t most people. And if you aren’t going to admit this behavior is odd, fine, you don’t have to. But talk to me. Your staff is worried.”
They must be for word to have traveled to Ivaz and for him to have made this trip. It’s my fault. I’ve let myself grow weak and weary when I should have gone on, business as usual. I’m just so…tired of it all.
