Page 1 of Make Me
Chapter 1
KASHA
Agold coin spins within my palm, the decider of my fate, the perfect symbol of just how far I’ve fallen. I snort to myself. I really have gone crazy because this isn’t who I’msupposedto be. Yet, I’m desperate enough for guidance that this ridiculous ritual somehow makes sense.
Skulls, and I’m headed back to the fae in Avalon.
Full moon, and I’ll stick it out here in Crossroads.
Simple.Right?
I flick the token into the air, the metal flashing between my fingers like a falling star, then catch it between both hands. The enchanted medallion feels like it burns against my skin, heavier than it has any right to be.
This next choice weighs on my shoulders, but I don’t know what else to do. While I’ve made a life here with friends I adore, there’s a restlessness within me that they can’t soothe. Not in the way I know I need.
My heart pounds as I lift my right hand, but I slam my eyes shut before I can see the result.
Fuck!Why is this so hard?
Maybe because, as much as I pretend to be, I’m not just any fae.
And apparently, I’m also a complete idiot for letting a hunk of charmed metal decide the trajectory of my life.
Still, I haven’t been able to come up with a better solution.
Well, there is a third option, but it just might be the least appealing. I could always stay on Earth, merely leaving the confines of Crossroads to wander amongst the chaos of No Man’s Land. Except that doesn’t exactly screambetter. Yet, staying here—waiting, hoping—feels like I’m bleeding out one heartbeat at a time.
Maybe what I need isn’t here. Maybe it’s nowhere I’ll ever find, no matter which choice I make.
Because maybe it’s the one thing I’ve spent my whole life pretending I’m not.
The thought makes my chest constrict.
While I did everything I could when I was younger to bury my beastly side, there’s no denying what I am: half fae and half wolf shifter.
She might stay quiet thanks to the meddling I did as a child, but my wolf is still there, somewhere deep within me.
At least I think so.
For years, I’ve ignored that part of myself, pretended the animal within didn’t exist, because to acknowledge her was to acknowledge all the things I couldn’t control. All the ways I neverfit.
All the ways I waswrong.
Maybe that’s why I’m too damn scared to look at the coin in my hand. Not because I care what side it lands on. But because some tiny, fragile part of me already knows…
I’m tired of running from myself.
With a frustrated sigh, I fling the coin across the room. It clatters against the far wall and thuds onto the wooden floor, rolling behind a vase before falling silent. Good riddance.
“I’m in charge of my destiny,” I mutter. “Not anyone or anything else.”
Squaring my shoulders, I push away from the kitchen counter and head for the front door of my newly rebuilt cottage.
I have a lunch date to keep, and if I’m late, Spencer will storm my house and drag me out by my hair.
While I already know what she’s going to say, I haven’t had the heart to ruin her excitement any of the ten times she’s texted me this morning to make sure I’m still coming over.
I open the door and a black envelope with a gold seal falls to the floor. Interesting. I pick it up and turn it over to open the flap, but my phone pings with another urgent, and colorfully worded, text. Odd mail is going to have to wait. Spencer has run out of patience.
