She groaned, her eyes moving behind eyelids that wouldn’t open. She fought against their weight and blinked groggily.
She saw glowing yellow eyes and pointed teeth. She saw huge wings and a large, dark shape.
With a scream, she lurched back, snapping to wakefulness.
Mist was perched on the side of her bed, one clawed hand extended where he’d been shaking her awake. Still half stuck in the dream, she struggled to rejoin reality, but even then, she didn’t miss the way he flinched at her recoil.
He shifted to human form a moment later. The wings disappeared, his skin changed to bronze, and his eyes became amber. Oddly, his skin was lit with an unearthly light that made him glow.
“Mist—” What was he doing here? How had he gotten inside? She’d spent a good hour or two before bed scrubbing away Iris’s wards—and cleaning the blood and water in the hall, not to mention the disaster in the bathroom—so she supposed there’d been nothing keeping him out. Not that they would have done much good anyway.
“I woke you because I’m concerned about your current state. Is this normal?”
“What…?”
He pointed at her arm, and she lifted it to her face.
Shewas glowing, not him. He’d only appeared to be because the light from her body was reflecting off him.
“Oh, crap.” Her eyes widened and snapped to his. No one had ever seen her like this. No one knew her shameful secret. She couldn’t let him see. She had to hide this part of herself.
She leapt out of bed and raced down the hallway to the freezer, pulling out her precious bottle of whiskey and dumping it straight down her throat.
After two big swallows, she gagged, leaning over the sink as she coughed and gasped for air. She checked her arm. Still glowing.
Grimacing, she lifted the bottle to her lips—
Mist stopped her, pulling the whiskey out of her grip. His eyes were full of alarm. “What are you doing?”
“The alcohol makes it go away. I need it.” She reached for it, but he held it away.
“It makes you choke.”
“It doesn’t matter. It makes it go away. I need it to go away!”
“Why? Are you hurt?”
“No, but—”
“Are you in danger?”
“You don’t understand! I have to make it stop!”
“Why?” He searched her gaze almost frantically.
“Because— Because—” To her horror, tears filled her eyes. “Because I hate it. I hate it so much.”
“Why?”
She wanted to scream at him to stop asking her that, but she couldn’t be mad at his genuine concern. He just wanted to understand.
“Because…” She took a breath and let the panic bleed out. “It reminds me of what I am. And what I lost.”
“What did you lose?”
She looked away. “My parents.”
“Did your parents glow as well?”
