Page 178 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
My body starts contorting, stretching, and tearing through my clothes. Bones break and fleshes rip. I feel every sharpened tooth that punches out from my mouth, every spike that sprouts from my body, every claw as it elongates from my hand.
I’ve shifted into my favorite killing form again.
Wendy.
A tense silence falls over the knights and folks in the camp. Their faces are pale and horrified as they gaze upon a nightmare coming to life. Wrath fuels the rhythm of my heart, pumping chaos and fire into my veins. I give in to that hunger.
My power rumbles, begging to be unleashed on my enemies. Their deaths will not be swift. I will enjoy this. I want to carve their faces, pull on their veins one by one, flay them skin to skin, mince them into fucking pieces—
Something tugs my hand.
I turn around with a grimace, snarling at whoever—at Rhianelle.
The girl covers her sensitive elven ears from my bloodcurdling roar. I stagger several steps back.
Guilt strums in my veins for showing this hideous part of me to her again. She almost fell off her horse yesterday when she saw me in this form.
I see my reflection in her eyes, dark and ugly.
A goddamn monster.
I don’t mean for her to see me like this. The shame is almost overwhelming. I want to dig a grave and fucking bury myself there. I’m beyond surprised when I find her staring back at me with wide eyes.
Rhianelle blinks, bold and fearless.
Every nerve, every muscle in me is locked as I stare at her.
“You said that I can trust you,” she says, her lilac eyes blazing with emotions.
I nod.You can.
My heart thumps like a wild animal in its cage, violent in its revolt. I lower my head, hating every minute she’s looking at me as in this monstrous form.
She raises a hand to touch Wendy’s skull.
Wait, wait—don’t, little fawn.
I feel her soft fingertips tracing the outline of his horn. For a deformed monster who was shunned by the world since he was born, the kindness she offers with that small touch is larger than the ocean itself.
She brushes my jaw, tilting my gaze up to meet hers.
“Stay with me, Svenn,” she calls to me, her voice silky soft, soothing. My need for violence evaporates at the cool feel of her fingers.
She tucks a tuft of silver hair behind her ear, her cheeks blushing just like anytime I look at her in my mortal form.
What the fuck is this?
The girl sees that I’m a walking carnage and she still wants me?
This elven queen truly doesn’t know what she’s doing to me and my demons. She’s unravelling us piece by piece. The ancient beast’s thirst for bloodshed quells at the touch and my body gradually morphs.
I give the Grimsbanes one last look in this horrid form to stoke the fear in their hearts. This is not done. When I find the six fuckers who hurt my little fawn, they’ll wish they were never born. Smoke rises from my heated body, the flowing blood in my veins cooling slowly. I’ve return to my mortal form, kneeling buck naked in front of her. Nothing survives that shift.
Fuck.
The girl drapes the heavy coat she wears back on my shoulders. I look up to her and slowly rise to my feet.
Rhianelle curls her arm around me, her breath warm against my neck. The girl isn’t just embracing me physically, she’s holding every broken, ill, damaged part of me, piecing it all together.
