Page 86 of A Storm of Fire and Ash
Zayn said he would teach me how to glamour myself and others. But something inside me already knew how.
I closed my eyes, took a steady breath. My magic shifted. It didn’t explode or burn. Itmelted—like warm wax dripping down my spine, like a heavy cloak falling from my shoulders. The air changed, thickened. I couldfeelit before I even looked.
And then—I opened my eyes.
I gasped.
The girl—no woman—staring back at me wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. She had my bones, my shape—but everything else wasmore.
My mismatched eyes—one icy blue, the other a rich, embered hazel—glowed with a depth I’d never seen before. Fire and Ice, just like Mother told me Iridessa always said.They shimmered as if lit from within. My skin had a softness to it, but it was radiant, like moonlight filtered through honey. Not human, not anymore.
And my ears—delicately pointed, peeking through the wet waves of my hair—were elegant, not overly long, but just enough to mark me. Fae. Royal Fae. Perhaps more.
I stepped closer, my heart hammered in my chest. I felt taller, straighter, like the very air bent differently around me now. Slowly, I loosened my robe and let it fall open.
My breath caught.
Well, holy shit.
My body was stronger, every inch of me honed like a blade. My muscles, once soft, were lean and defined now, coiled with strength and power. My collarbones were sharper, my legs stronger, my waist more sculpted. I was built like someone who could both dance in moonlightandwalk through fire.
I wasn’t just beautiful.
I wasotherworldly.
And for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to shrink. I didn’t want to hide. I touched the edge of the mirror, my fingers trembling. This is who I was meant to be.
Not human. Not broken.
Fae.
Whole.
Suddenly, I had a rush of emotions swirl through me. I placed my hand against the stone wall to stay upright, and electricity shot through me. It was as if my body were calling me to whatever lay on the other side.
My body pulsed, hummed with electricity like it did the first time I saw the prince… the first time I saw Zayn. Memories flashed to my first date with Fintan in the wildflower field, and I remember feeling the electric buzz then too, but then, Zayn was there.
My eyes went wide. I knew Fintan wasn’t my mate. The goddes’s words repeated in my head.“He'll wear a guise, though not as he seems, together they'll rise, fulfilling their dreams, for she is the Queen and the prophecy's light, with him by her side, they'll restore the night.”
Fintan never wore a guise… he was always the prince. But his guard…
Oh. My. Suns.
The electricity felt more powerful now. It begged me to take what I needed. What I yearned for. I had the urge to run out of the bathroom and drop my robe again and pounce on Zayn. Push him up against the wall.
But when I finally emerged, the room was empty.
He was gone.
I glamoured myself again, back into my human form, feeling disappointed—heavy. I felt my magic still, but not as intensely as I did in my Fae form. I sighed; my shoulders slumped for the first time that night and I crawled into bed.
Hisbed.
And for the first time in days, I slept without feeling the giant hole in my chest.
Not because I was safe.
But because I was becoming something no one could ever hurt again.
