Page 22 of Lust & Lollipops

“The appearance of our wings is determined by the type of our magic,” he said. “Mental fae have translucent wings like mine. Elemental fae have opaque, and the different styles correspond to their elements.”

So Cam had told me the truth.

“What about the horns?”

“They grow in like hair. All of us have them in our fae forms, and they don’t signify anything.”

Another guy joined us by the fire.

He sat uncomfortably close to me, so I was pretty sure it was Kyle even before I looked over.

Yep.

Kyle.

“What are we talking about?” His voice was bleary, but loud enough that he’d probably woken up everyone who was still sleeping.

“Magic,” Reid said, still talking quietly.

“You didn’t tell her about the shifting, did you?” Kyle asked, loud once again.

The other guy sighed.

The sigh was answer enough.

He hadn’t wanted me to know about the shifting, whatever that meant.

So, I obviously needed to know what it was.

Two more guys sat down beside us. One was Oren, who still gave me the creeps. The other was Chris, with the white feathery wings.

“What shifting?” I asked.

“We shift between human and fae forms,” Kyle said quickly.

That was true, but he was clearly trying to conceal the full truth from me.

I glared at him and scooted multiple inches away. “Don’t bullshit me.”

Chris chuckled. “Elemental fae have three forms. Human, fae, and beast.”

“Beast?” My voice rose slightly.

I’d seen videos of dragons and a few other kinds of magical creatures, so I’d figured that was coming.

But still, it was a big deal.

“We can shift into animals,” he agreed. “Air fae become griffins. Water become dragons. Earth become perytons. Fire become phoenixes.”

I couldn’t remember what a griffin was, exactly. And I didn’t think I’d ever heard of a peryton before.

“It takes a shit-ton of energy,” Kyle interrupted. “We rarely shift into beast form. Usually wrecks us for a few days afterward.”

His green scaly wings told me he must’ve been a water fae, which was a dragon.

Cameron had to be a phoenix, but I’d never seen him wrecked before. Did that mean he hadn’t shifted into his beast form since he started guarding me? I’d have to ask.

“Does it take a lot of energy to shift between human and fae?” I wondered.

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