My eyes flickered between the guards posted in the room and that man—Graham.My skin was screaming, my senses sharpened to full attention, warning me that something wasn’t right.
I looked at Ben again. He felt it, too.
Tammy reached up, wiping her cheeks. Tears spilled freely despite her best efforts. “I just—” She stopped, voice choking. “I just want you to know Ihad to.”
“Had to?” Cliff gave her a strange look.
“My son—my youngest, Conner—he’s sick. We’ve been to a dozen doctors, and no one can help him, while it just grows more aggressive. I didn’t know what else to do, but I never meant—”
“Slow down,” Cliff started. His eyes flicked up to the gunman still watching them.
“Cliff,” I ground out. “He’s not human.”
Stillness penetrated the room like a thick fog. Every eye turned to Graham. Zia and Rowan were plastered against the glass wall of their enclosure as far as they could from him, their faces stricken with terror. Rowan had pushed Zia behind him again, his arms spread protectively while she peered over his shoulder.
Graham smiled slowly, still looking like he couldn’t decide whether to be annoyed or amused with everything unfolding before him. “My preferred form,” he said, gesturing at his face—a square jaw peppered with a day’s worth of beard growth, wavy bark-brown hair, and deep brown eyes that seemed to pierce any target of their intense focus. He glanced toward me, smile sharpening. “You little ones always seem to loathe it no matter what face I wear.”
“Leave them out of this,” Delilah snapped.
His smile only widened. “Why? You practically hand-delivered them here, didn’t you?” Coldness writhed inside his stare as he regarded me and Ben. “Isn’t it strange that shapeshifters are labeled as monsters when fairy glamour is just as deceitful?”
Cliff scoffed. “The difference being that shapeshifters have the funny habit of murdering their targets to make the identity theft cleaner. Just can’t help yourself, can you?”
“I don’talwaysneed to kill,” Graham chuckled. “Sometimes I only need a face temporarily—just long enough to enjoy it. Or, when the need arises— to find a man’s breaking point.”
The shift happened from one instant to the next. I blinked, and suddenly I was looking atJonin the shapeshifter’s place. The clothing shivered and darkened into a deeper shade like scales unraveling—an approximation of the tuxedo he’d been wearing.
A strangled noise escaped me, and Cliff staggered back from Tammy—pure, reflexive horror. I flitted past Delilah to hover over Cliff’s shoulder.
“Do you think he’s been captured?” I whispered. “Or—or is he…”
“Doesn’t mean he’s dead,” Cliff ground out in a low voice, stare unwavering on the doppelganger. “But it means he got a good look at him.”
“Why the long faces?” Graham asked, his voice chillingly similar to Jon’s. “I thought this one would suit you. Hang on—I’m sure I can find the right fit. Have to make sure you’re comfortable, after all. Eros insists you’re at ease.”
He shifted several times in quick succession, pausing briefly on a beautiful woman from the gala. A lavender gown swirled down her body.
“This one is particularlysoft.”It was a husky female voice now. The shifter flashed a grin as she ran her hands down her hips, manicured nails dragging down the skintight fabric. The plunging neckline was sinful and lined with gold threading that glittered like a waterfall. “Would you like to touch and see for yourself, Mr. Everett?”
“Leave him alone,” I growled. There was something so viciously personal about this assault on Cliff—I couldn’t help myself.
The shapeshifter’s eyes suddenly snapped up to me and narrowed, wickedness flooding the slant of her lips. “Or maybethisis more your type.”
The gown faded into an icy blue threaded with crystals. In the blink of an eye, the shapeshifter stole my face and form. I balked at the reflection of myself—human-sized and dressed as elegantly as any attending guest tonight. The swirls of my traitor mark were slightly off, and I knew I had never worn such a cruel smile, but the resemblance made me sick all the same.
Graham couldn’t possibly have any idea this humanized image drove a blade through my heart, but the widening grin on that stolen face made me wonder.
The shifter took a few steps closer, batting eyes at Cliff while she twirled a lock of cropped red hair around a finger. I felt a nauseating surge of possessiveness—my face,my hair, my body.
“What do you think?” the shapeshifter crooned in my voice, cocking her head at Cliff. “Struck speechless?”
I glanced at Cliff, catching how his eyes were wide, his body rigid like the shock of the sight before him had rendered him immobile.
“Gether faceout of your hands,” he said in a low, dangerous voice.
“What would make you feel more at home? Say the word.” The shapeshifter even stole the playfulness of my voice. “I just thought you two seemed cozy together. Thought you might like a spin with her fitting a little better. Am I off?”
“Enough, Graham,” Tammy said. “I wouldn’t toy with the man who could be giving your next order.”
