“It hurts!” he moans. “It burns!”
“What is it? What did you do to him?” Kellis shouts at me.
“I don’t know!” I shout back. “But look—he’s got breasts!”
And so he does. The Head Healer is now sporting a pair of the largest breasts I’ve ever seen—I mean, they’re even larger than mine and that’s saying something. They push out the front of his robe, making him look unmistakably feminine. His face has changed too—his features are still recognizable, but they’re softer now—rounder.
Suddenly I understand what my magic did to him. But it is Kellis who speaks it out loud.
“He’s a woman!” he exclaims, his face filled with horror. “By the One Goddess—you’ve turned him into a woman, Irena!”
The Head Healer’s face fills with disbelief.
“No, it’s a lie! It cannot be!” he moans in his new, higher voice. He feels his face. “My beard!” he moans.
“Forget your beard, man—you’ve got tits now!” Kellis exclaims.
“I can’t. I…” The Healer explores his own chest with shaking hands. His face registers disbelief…disgust…and finally terror. “No…no!” he shrieks. “What have you done to me?” he demands, turning to me. “What have you done?”
I know what the magic has done—I understand it now. It’s turned him into what he loathes and fears the most—it’s made him into the kind of person he’s spent his life denigrating and ignoring.
It’s turned him into a woman.
Good for my magic, I think and wish I could bring it out again—to get me free of the manacles. Unfortunately, my thoughts are beginning to feel a bit scrambled. The potion, I think. The potion he gave me—how much got down my throat?
Enough to have an effect…though I don’t yet know if it will be lethal. I can feel my thoughts slowing down and a bitter taste is growing in the back of my throat.
But a moment later, I’m awake again because Kellis is advancing on me.
“You little bitch!” he snarls, hatred twisting his face. “You think you can use your magic against me? You think you can stop me? Well, think again!”
And he draws his dagger.
I have only a fraction of a moment to see the shine of silver in the torchlight before there’s a flurry of motion in the shadows. A huge hand wraps around my brother’s raised wrist, stopping the blow, and another wraps around his throat.
“Touch her and die,” a deep, familiar voice growls.
Fiery eyes flash in the torchlight and there, standing behind my brother, is Valen, looking like an avenging god.
79
VALEN
I grip his neck harder, pulling him away from her. He tries to fight me, but it’s not even close to an even match.
“Let…me…go!” he chokes out.
I spin him around to face me and squeeze his wrist so hard I feel the bones grind together.
With a cry, he drops his dagger. It tumbles to the ground and clangs against the flagstones.
“You tried to hurt my mate…” My voice comes out double—the voice of my Drake overlapping my own as we speak as one.
“What…who…how?” he sputters. His eyes widen as he recognizes me. “The beast!” he exclaims. “You’re the beast I captured!”
That’s right—I have a bone to pick with him beyond what he tried to do to Irena.
“How does it feel, Prince Kellis?” I growl, shoving my face into his. “To face me when I’m not drugged or chained? How does it feel to face me in a fair fight?”
