“Hey, kitten.”
His voice. I had no memory of it. There were no home movies or any other recordings of my brief time with my parents. His voice was rich and had the slightest Japanese accent.
“I realize you can’t talk in your kitsune form, and we have little time. Haru has filled me in. Youcando this. For your first time, it’s easier if you are holding the other person’s hand or a piece of their hair or something like that.”
Tears leaked from my eyes. I had a dad, alive, and he was talking to me now as if we hadn’t spent the last twenty-five years apart. I forced myself to get it together. I’d have plenty of time to freak out about my dad later—I hoped.
“Look him over for a good minute before you begin,” he was saying. “Try to register everything so you can remember it later with your eyes closed. Notice the shape of his nose, the color of his hair, the shape of his lips, and so on. It’s easier with someone you’re close with.”
A clicking sounded on the line and my father sighed. “I have to go. I’m so proud of you, kitten. I love you so much. Your mom—”
The call dropped.
Fuck. My. Life.
“There’s no more time!” Tianna yelled from outside as wind blew the door and slammed it against the wall with a crash that made me jump.
With a giant swallow, I shoved down every emotion that wanted to come to the surface and pushed away the call with my dad—all but his advice. I definitely needed to follow his instructions. One day I’d allow myself to have a much needed nervous breakdown, but that wasn’t today.
I worked to calm my nerves as I settled beside Nathan’s quickly cooling body. I needed to get this done before his essence entirely disassociated from the body it was leaving behind. As I lay down, a huge surge of power filled me up, making my body tremble for a moment.
Brock.
‘You can do this,ma petite renarde,’he said.
I nodded at my lover, trying not to let him see that I was barely holding it together, and then nestled between Nathan’s arm and torso. Peering at his face for several long moments, I tried to catalog everything. The way his eyebrows were kind of bushy and his nose a little crooked. His face was squarish and his lips wide.
The wind picked up outside and I heard Willemena tell the storm to fuck off. Ordinarily I would’ve laughed at the outburst from the old witch. Not now. I wasn’t even a little bit amused, not at anything. Shit was as serious as a heart attack.
‘Just breathe,’Cass said.
And that’s what I did. I lay my muzzle on Nathan’s arm, closed my eyes, and silently thanked him for his sacrifice. A deep breath in, Brock’s alpha power surged through me. A breath out, and my nerves fled and I harnessed more control.
I pictured myself—slender and fit, with long, silky black hair and almond-shaped, violet eyes. I even remembered to include the small birthmark I had on the back of my right thigh. And then I pushed that image onto Nathan, while also calling up my magic, like I would when shifting. I imagined it encompassing him as light. Just as Tianna had taught me to create a dome of protection over myself, I placed a dome of Evie Black over Nathan. I pushed my brain to hold the image and hoped like all hell that it was working.
Before I thought I’d finished, Molly breathed, “Holy fuck,” and one of my eyes popped open.
Nathan looked … wow. Super fucking ugly, like an inhuman alien. He had my almond-shaped eyes and petite nose … along with his strong jaw and beard scruff.
Oh God. I was totally going to die. This wouldn’t fool the spell.
“Keep going,” Brock yelled from his place on the couch. Power flooded into me as Brock gave me all he had.
As the storm crackled outside, I focused all of my newly unearthed power into this image of myself that I was spreading over Nathan. His features needed to be sharper, but most importantly, my energy needed to saturate him so that this spell would believe I was dead and that balance was served.
Brock’s alpha power pumped into me, making my adrenaline rush and more and more magic fly out of me, like tangible waves of electricity that left my body to wrap around Nathan.
When I’d given it my very best shot, I opened my eyes.
Holy fuck. Nathan was … me.
A whole lot like me at least. It was pretty damn believable.
“Shift,” Willemena hissed, now hovering beside me. “Hurry!”
I snapped my eyelids closed and recalled the edges of Nathan’s face, trying to remember every feature and imagine my own face in such a manner, while also trying to keep the Evie dome over Nathan’s dead body. My brain squeezed from the amount of concentration it all required.
‘Breathe,’Cass reminded me.
