“What—” My teeth were sticky, and talking was difficult. I tried to swallow and immediately retched.
“It takes some getting used to.”
“You think?” I gasped out and doubled over, my knees cracking against the floor. I curled my toes under and braced myself. “You didn’t tell me this would feel like hell.”
“Only for a moment. Try not to panic.” Noor’s calm voice floated over me, and surprisingly quieted my thumping heart.
My limbs felt light and heavy at the same time. My legs became loose, and I didn’t have enough strength to stand. There was still a trickling sensation as the oil-like liquid spread to the rest of my body.
“What am I supposed to do now?” I said to the floorboards, myhands flat to the ground as I tried not to cry out at the twisting sensation slithering through me. I didn’t want to attract attention and screaming the place down wasn’t exactly subtle.
“Try and visualize what you want,” Noor said, her voice louder this time, and I realized she was down on the floor with me, her knees close to my head. “Remember, I blend the seeds, but the power is in your hands once you consume it. I give you the specific dose that you need and after that the world is yours.”
The world is yours.
Revenge is mine.
I curled my fingers into the floor and pushed myself up, looking into the mirror before me. My bloodshot eyes looked wild and my skin dirty from the dust of the road. But as soon as I concentrated on the power flooding inside my body, I felt it answer.
“I want to change the way I look,” I said to Noor, who nodded.
“Transfiguration. One of the more difficult powers of the zoraat, but possible with the right blending. Think through how you want to change the way you look. Focus on a feature. The magic will manipulate your body as if a djinn fire could melt the skin like water softening clay.”
I closed my eyes and listened to Noor, thinking about my nose, elongating it and making it slightly wider. Then I opened my eyes.
My breath died in my chest.
Noor smiled. “You look different already.” Then her face took on a serious cast.
“Change as much as you like, but there is a limit if you want to keep who you are. There needs to be one thing you keep wholly the same, one physical aspect of yourself that you can’t alter.”
“My hands,” I said without a second thought. My hands knew the balance of a blade, knew how to maneuver the hilt of a dagger to send it flying through the air before I even thought about hitting a target. If there was anything I would keep, it would be them.
“Then focus on a different feature of yourself and work on that.Don’t do too much—tweaking just a small part of yourself works to make you different enough.”
I worked on my eyes, drawing them out, making them narrower, sharper. I kept my skin the same shade but made the undertones warmer, giving my cheeks a rosy flush. Then I stretched my cheekbones, the bones crunching as they moved, pain splintering through my body as my face took on the life of someone else.
Until finally I was done.
The girl who stared back at me wasn’t the one who had just fought off prison guards or found out her father was murdered.
This girl was soft, pretty, pampered. Someone who hadn’t known hardship.
Noor whistled. “Mazin won’t know who you are at all.”
“Good,” I whispered, thinking of all I would do to him with this face. “That’s what I want.”
“Who will you be instead of Dania?”
I reached my fingers up and traced my lips, the edges of my eyes.
“Sanaya,” I said finally. “Sanaya Khara. Daughter of a wealthy northern chief.” I knew the northern tribes well from my mother and grandmother. It was a lie rooted in the truth and something I could convincingly embody. But I couldn’t stop staring at the new face looking back at me through different eyes. “This is remarkable.”
“Yes, but it doesn’t last, so we must be careful.”
I faced her, my new eyes wide. “What do you mean?”
“This is temporary. Once the zoraat leaves your system, you’ll start turning back to yourself. You must keep consuming zoraat in order to maintain the facade. And you shouldn’t consume too much of this blend for long, even if we had an unlimited supply of seeds. I’ve seen some assassins turn… dark from having too much.”
