Page 95 of By the Orchid and the Owl
I shrieked and tried to shake it off me, but it just flapped in place.
“At least make it a full finger!” I cried.
“I’m trying!”
Lander was concentrating so hard now, he had trails of sweat leading from his forehead down to his chin. A slight tingling shot up my wrist as he lengthened my nub into a full digit. “There. Happy?”
“I can’t say I’m overjoyed, but this is better.” I wiggled the extra finger, awe-struck. “Wow. I never knew it would be so hard to shift something other than yourself. But then again, I didn’t realize it’d be so hard to talk to maggots, either.”
A bitter taste still loitered in my mouth from that last test.
Lander wiped his sweat on a sleeve and pressed his mouth together.
“All of this is so much harder than I ever thought it would be. Changing myself comes naturally, but changing others…” He looked away.
I rested a hand on his shoulder, trying to ignore the six fingers. “Maybe you’re not supposed to try to change others.” I softened my voice. “You couldn’t control how Quinn treated you, Lander. But youcancontrol how you treat Emelle. And the fact is, she only started kissing some other guy when you walked away from her with your ex. That’s how you treated her, so that’s how she treated you back.”
“Alright,” the instructor called from up front, “now freestyle it!”
Lander didn’t move. He was still staring off toward the nearest tangle of mountainside.
“Do you think Emelle would be willing to talk to me again?” he asked quietly.
“Yes.” Finally, he was catching on—Emelle hadn’t said so, but I knew she’d be ecstatic if Lander chose to hang out with us again. Withheragain.
He seemed to shake himself from some kind of trance and refocused on my appearance. With another tingle, that extra finger shrunk back into my skin.
“Okay, Rayna, it’s your choice now. What do you want me to change about you? Momentarily, of course. Bangs? A tattoo? I could try to give you a beauty mark.”
I laughed—actually threw my head back andlaughed—at the thought of meeting Coen for our date tonight with a sudden mole above my upper lip.
“How about… straight hair.” I’d always secretly wondered what I might look like, how long my hair might be, if the wild curls flattened into a glossy cascade.
“I can try.” Lander chewed on his lip, closed one eye, and squinted at me as if his life depended on it. A moment later, his eyes flew open. “Holy shit, I did it!”
Indeed, when I strung my fingers through my hair, it didn’t feel like my hair at all. Each strand was silky-smooth, flowing down to my waist like fluid sunlight.
I reined in a gasp. “How long will it last?”
“Just a few hours.” Lander gave his work an appraising smile. “I’m not strong enough to hold it for long, but some of the fifth-years can maintain someone else’s shifted appearance fordays, so maybe someday I’ll get there.”
Days. I’d always assumed Dyonisia Reeve was a Shape Shifter—that that’s how she preserved her eternally youthful body—but what if she wasn’t? What if someone else on the Good Council, a hyper-advanced Shape Shifter, did it for her?
Lander didn’t seem to notice the way my fingers had stopped their seamless trek through my new hair, suddenly cold.
He only smiled at me and said, “Go get your prince, Rayna. I think I’m going to go after my queen.”
CHAPTER
35
Coen didn’t whistle when he saw me. He gaped.
“What—?”
“Lander,” I said by explanation, approaching the marble steps leading up to his house. “He straightened my hair.”
After a few more seconds of gaping, Coen trotted down the steps to cradle my face in his hands. I thought he was going to kiss me, but he just said, “Did he alter anything else about you?”
