Shapeshifted (Edie Spence 3)

“Is he okay?”

“Yeah. He didn’t die. And he didn’t know anyone that did. He thinks we won. ”

Asher’s eyes narrowed, and his gaze focused on me. “Did we?”

“As much as we ever do,” I said, and then I walked over to him. “I’m not used to your hair. ” I stepped up to him and reached out for his hair, pulling down shaggy brown-blond bangs. They almost reached his eyes—he could be an emo guitarist if he tried, or with a little gel clean up to be a youthful accountant. He had the kind of face that would look better with glasses. He was still taller than me, but not very much more so, not too much to be comfortable to reach up and hold.

“What were we doing out there?” I asked the man who didn’t look anything like my friend.

“We were doing what was right. What we thought was right at the time. ”

“But Ti’s dead—and I didn’t save my mom. Unless it turns out that Olympio can magic away cancer. ” I rolled my eyes.

Asher ducked his head, and his hair slipped through my fingers. “I should have asked to save her. I know you chose Olympio. ”

Save her—instead of himself? “That’s absurd, Asher—you’re a man, not a saint. ”

His eyes wouldn’t meet mine. I took a step closer, took his chin, and pulled it gently up. It was the first time I’d touched him since the events earlier this evening—and instead of the brown I was used to, his eyes were now blue. What must it feel like to always see the world through different eyes?

I stared at him wondering for so long, he gave me a questioning look. “I’m sorry, I’m just not used to this,” I apologized.

“Neither am I. ” He pulled away from me, and stood and shrugged with one shoulder. “Did you walk? Do you want a ride home?” He started walking for his door, and I followed him out.

I waited outside while he opened his garage and backed out a silver truck. He rolled down his window. “Get in. ”

He left his window down as he drove, and I rolled mine down too. It was summer outside and dawn air was rushing in. He didn’t merge with the highway but went a side route in the same direction as my place, and I didn’t complain. Anything I said would be pushed away by the wind, anyhow. Pieces of half-dry hair whipped my face; I held them back with one hand. I propped my feet up on his dashboard, and he took an unexpected right-hand turn.

“Hey—” I protested.

“You’ll see,” I saw him mouth as he shifted gears.

It was strange to sit beside him in the car when I wasn’t used to this version of him yet. I stared out the window and concentrated on the wind. We wove down roads I didn’t know until we were in the middle of nowhere, a dirt track overgrown with trees. He pulled in and put the car in park.

“Out. ”

“Where are we?”

He took his keys from the ignition. “Out. ”

I hopped out of the truck and walked around to wait for him. “Is this where I find out that you’re also a serial killer?”

He frowned at me. “Do you really think that?”

“No. ” I squirmed, feeling awkward. Nothing out here but trees and his stare. “I just have a smart-ass mout

h. Why’re we here?”

“Follow me. ” He walked past me and into the tree line. The trees thickened and then thinned out again, exposing a wide pasture with a small wooden building in the middle of it, not much bigger than a shack. “This is where I was born. Shapeshifters live far away from everyone else when they can. To protect them as long as possible from what they are. ”

“To stop them … from touching people?” I guessed.

“Precisely. ”

No one had lived in the building for a very long time. Ivy had grown up the walls, and the chimney’d started to break; there was a small pile of brick rubble beside it on the roof. Too many rough winters, and no one here to care.

“This place is special to me. ” He stared at the lone shack, lost in his memories. “Last night, I thought I was never going to see it again. ”

I smiled at him. “I’m glad you were wrong. ”

“Do you know how long it’s been since anyone’s tried to protect me?” he asked. I shook my head. “When I met you in my office without your badge, I touched your skin. I could see through you then. Your entire life. Everything. ”

I suddenly felt very naked and alone. “So?”

“I saw someone who always thinks other people’s lives are worth more than hers. ” He took a step toward me. “You’re wrong. ”

I made a face and rolled my eyes.

“I’m not kidding, Edie. Your brother, your mom. You’re so busy saving the world that you forget to ask who is saving you. ”

I inhaled to protest, but I wasn’t sure how to fight back.

“And then you there, last night,” he went on. “I knew what you were thinking, Edie. Every time you touched me. Every time I touched you. Last night—last night, I held on to you like a rope. Thinking about you, thinking like you, they were the only things that kept me from going insane. I was so close, I was on the edge—but I still knew you. ”