Only afterward did I realize that I had the image wrong. Following Molly and Cass’ shocked looks, I peered down at my tail.
I’d conjured not one tail, but two.
What the ever living fuck?
14Stage Five Clinger
“What is that?”Cass screeched, pointing at my two bushy tails.
Molly’s mouth was pressed into a frown. That definitely wasn’t a good sign coming from our all-things-supernatural expert.
‘Oh God, I fucked up the shift!’I mind-screamed to Cass.
My bestie plopped onto the bed and edged close to me.‘Do you feel okay?’ His voice was gentler this time as it entered my mind.
My heart jackknifed in my chest, my skin burned from the shift, and I was terrified to find out that I had two tails. Other than that, I was fine. I lifted my right paw and wiggled it back and forth; it was sore but there was none of the sharp pain that’d been there before.
A sudden purple light shot from my chest to wrap around my injured paw. I scurried backwards, deeper into the pillows, trying to get away from it.
“What the hell is that?” Cass asked Molly. We assumed the girl had all the answers.
The violet light was soft and cloud-like as it floated around my paw, and then slinked up my leg to encase my rib cage. A warm tingle settled into my body, and when I tweaked my wrist again, it didn’t hurt at all.
Molly finally found her voice. “No way.”
I looked down frantically to see where the light had gone, but it appeared to have dissolved.
‘Did it hurt you?’Cass now had a small dagger in his hand, ready to attack the purple light, I presumed.
My little fox head shook.‘I … I think it healed me.’
Molly grinned ear to ear, as she reached out and stroked my tails. “I know what you are.”
I didn’t want to stay in this form any longer. It was freaking me out, and the way Molly was looking at me added fuel to my freaked-out fire.
As if my body knew my intent, the snapping of bones signaled that I’d started to shift back to my human form. It was less painful than before, but only marginally. Good thing I’d always had a high pain tolerance.
Within two minutes I was returned to my human self again, lying naked on top of the covers. Molly threw me my dress and looked away. Cass didn’t bother averting his eyes. He’d seen me naked hundreds of times, but he kept his gaze eye level.
“That was some crazy shit,” he admitted. “Are you a healer witch?”
Shrugging into my dress, not bothering with underwear, I hugged my knees, letting the long dress billow out and cover me so that only my toes peeked out. “I donno. Maybe. I feel better, like totally better.”
Molly shook her purple hair. “Nope. She’s not a healer witch. She’s a kitsune.”
My eyes widened and Cass actually burst into laughter. “Kitsune? That’s Japanese folklore. I agree being a fox would make one think of that, but—”
“She is!” Molly cut him off then. “Kitsune have multiple tails, healing powers, and a bunch of other shit. She’s totally a kitsune. They’re real, or at least they used to be. I’ve read about them in my supernatural origins book.”
Gooseflesh broke out on my arms at her confidence. My father was Japanese…
“Cass…” I was about to tell my bestie my thoughts when a fist banged on the door like an angry policeman’s.
“Evie!” Brock roared.
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s table this discussion for now. We can do research tomorrow, okay? Don’t say anything. I can’t deal with him knowing about this yet.”
Brock finding out I was some freaking mythical healing kitsune, would land me in his basement—or his bed—for the rest of this pregnancy, and I needed to find that damn siren and bring her in first.
