Shadow (Touched by the Fae 2)

Holy shit. Carolina wasn’t kidding.

What the—

Last time I looked in a mirror—and who knows how long that’s been?—the top of my ear was rounded. Just like hers. Just like a regular human’s.

Now, though?

The top of my ear extends about a half-inch higher than it used to, with the absolute tip coming to a point.

I push away from the car door, hissing out an angry breath right before I straighten up. My hand reaches for my ear again, as if it’s changed shape in the last few seconds. Nope. Same size. Same shape. No doubt about it, either.

I have fae ears.

Why the fuck do I have fae ears?

The panic is swift and terrible.

Unlike the other times I’ve had attacks, this doesn’t have anything to do with a touch. It’s worse, though. So much worse.

My chest hurts. I feel like I’m being squeezed, the whole world collapsing in on me as a girl I barely know watches me with horror on her face. I can’t get enough air into my lungs. I choke as I gasp, my head spinning, my heart racing.

What happened to my ears? They look just like Nine’s. Just like Rys’s. They’re fae ears.

But what are they doing attached to my head?

How did this happen to me?

I walk away from the car, as if by leaving the mirror behind me, I’m somehow making my ears normal again.

How?

I just… how?

It hits me like a brick to the back of my skull when I’m halfway back to where I left Carolina. I stagger, then suck in another breath that does little to help me calm down.

And I curse. “It was the fucking peach.”

She hears me. Her head jerks in my direction, a strange expression crossing her face in a flash. “Peach? Did you just say peach? Riley, what did you do?”

The way her voice goes high-pitched like that, the worry in her tone… she sounds as scared and worried as I am—except I’m all that plus super freaking pissed.

Effects... I thought the way I all but threw myself at Nine was what he was talking about when he said there might be effects from the peach. I remember the feel of the point beneath the thin leather.

Effects? Yeah. That’s an understatement.

Carolina is watching me closely. I can’t tell if she’s waiting for me to answer her, or she’s just hoping for another glimpse of my new weirdo ears.

Okay. First things first. If I don’t want her to ask any other questions—if I don’t want her to wonder if I need a return trip to Black Pine—I need to get myself under control.

It’s difficult. Really difficult. I keep remembering the way my ears looked in the mirror and it takes everything I have not to start to spiral again.

“It’s nothing. I just… I ate a peach I shouldn’t have, alright?” I stomp my foot against the pavement. It sends a jolt all the way up past my knee, my slipper doing nothing to cushion the blow. Panic gives way to absolute anger when I think of Rys’s demon peach again. “I can’t believe this shit. The stomachache was bad enough. Now I’ve got these weirdo ears? Oh, come on.”

“They’re fae ears,” murmurs Carolina. “You… you have fae ears.”

I immediately freeze.

Whoa.