Page 32 of Violet

His eyes widen, his jaw drops, and it finally hits me... I just shifted in the middle of the hallway!

“Oh shit,” I cry and quickly shift back. Old age settles around me like a heavy blanket, while my eyes dart around wildly, making sure there’s no one around.

Cash just stands there the whole time, unmoving.

I know he’ll snap out of it at any minute—and probably start freaking out—and I do not want to be out here when that happens. I shove him aside, grab my purse, and pull out my keys. My hands shake as I unlock the front door, but the moment it’s open I yank my walker—and the blood mage—inside.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Cash says, sounding a bit dazed.

“Keep your voice down,” I hiss, locking the door behind us. Not that it’ll do much good if they find me. Magic could take down a lock like this in seconds... Hell, it could take down the whole door.

I feel like I’m about to start crying—or have a nervous breakdown. I’ve been so careful this past year, never once shifting outside the safety of my apartment. And now all that is ruined, and for what? A kiss that never even happened?

I know there was no one out there, but what if someone saw us? A bird shifter could have flown by the small hallway window that faces the street, or a dragon shifter, or a witch on a broom. Not that witches normally fly on brooms—but one could have been especially bored.

Deep breaths, Violet. Now you’re just being paranoid.

“Was that the real you?” Cash asks softly. “Back there in the hallway?”

I nod.

“Can I look at you again? Please?”

The weird thing is, he doesn’t seem confused, or upset that I pretended to be an old woman. Shouldn’t he care that I tricked him? And that he had to carry me up four flights of stairs when I could have easily walked? Apparently not, if the hopeful smile on his face is anything to go by.

With a sigh, I shift back. Because why bother keeping up this form when Cash already saw me shift once?

His eyes darken and slowly caress every inch of me, while I try not to cringe. Because I may be a whole lot younger now, but it’s not a pretty sight.

I haven’t bothered with an ounce of makeup, and my hair’s tied back in a frizzy, unkempt mess. Why bother looking good when no one sees me, anyway? I have kept up with exercise—kick-boxing videos, mostly—but it’s not like Cash can tell. Not when I’m wearing baggy clothes—Violet’s clothes. Because even as the real me, I’m still dressed in a red, velvet cardigan, baggy black dress pants, and these bulky, khaki orthopedic shoes. The exact same outfit Violet has on today, in the exact same size.

Okay, yeah, I know that sounds weird, but we have a good reason. And no, not because we’re those crazy bffs who wear matching outfits for kicks. When I first started shifting into Violet, keeping up my magic all day was a struggle, and we’d needed a failsafe. Just in case my magic took a page out of my sister’s book and messed up my clothes, too. It was that or risking the town’s eighty-year-old librarian suddenly ending up in a crop top, high rise jeans, and Birkenstock knockoffs. Matching outfits suddenly seemed to make a whole lot of sense.

Cash gives me a slow once over, but instead of judgment, his eyes fill with heat. “You’re so beautiful, little furry,” he murmurs, moving toward me, almost like he’s in a trance.

“What? Huh? What’s going on?” Violet suddenly grunts.

I spin around to find her in the exact same spot I left her in this morning, wrapped tightly in a purple throw. Is she sick? Did she stay in that one spot the entire day?

Except, no, there are empty dishes on the coffee table. And she doesn’t look sick—just confused—like maybe we’d startled her awake.

“Who is that with you?” she asks as she squints at Cash. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

Her glasses are on the coffee table, and I know from personal experience that she can’t see well without them. Cash probably looks like a blur, yet she doesn’t seem the least bit worried that there’s a strange man in our apartment. Just like Cash doesn’t seem upset that there are two Violets, and the one he tried to seduce turned out to be someone else.

“Violet, this is Cash,” I tell her. I mean, what else am I supposed to do? Pretend she’s not here? That he’s not here? That none of this is happening?

“Violet?” Cash looks taken aback for a split second before breaking into a grin. “That is absolutely brilliant!”

“What’s brilliant?” I frown.

I’m seriously starting to wonder if Cash is all there. First, he spent yesterday afternoon and tonight hitting on who he thought was an old lady. He literally tried to kiss me while I looked eighty! Now, he finds out it was all a lie, but instead of asking questions or being all confused, he seems seriously excited over being duped.

“This! It’s absolutely, positively brilliant.” Cash gestures between Violet and me. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. If I had, I’d be a billionaire!”

“Aren’t you already a billionaire?” I frown, suddenly feeling a lot less trusting than I did earlier. If I could lie about who I was, why couldn’t he? He’s probably not even a mobile app developer, let alone the inventor of Screech.

“Good point.” Cash shoots me a sheepish grin. “So you did know who I was?”