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His calm façade didn’t hide the fury, just as the lack of wind in the eye of the storm didn’t fool an experienced sailor. I’d been traversing these seas long enough to know the force that might be unleashed at any moment.
But I wasn’t trying to merely stay alive anymore. I had a purpose, and if I didn’t fulfill it, I didn’t care what became of me.
I got to my feet. “I’m not undoing anything until Herrick is dead. I’m going to need every ounce of power I can use against him.”
“I’ll be back in a few hours. Be ready,” he said, as if I’d agreed to his plans.
“Did you hear me?” I asked as he headed out the door.
He paused for a second to say, “You’ll have to figure out something else.”
“I won’t…”
I would’ve kept arguing, but I’d have to tackle him to the ground to make him stay and listen.
Chapter Two
Cookie cracked my door open, peeked in, and then swung it shut quickly. She jumped onto my bed, a half-eaten croissant in hand.
“What the hell is going on? I could practically feel the anger pouring out of that room with you two.” Her eyes were like saucers as she waited for an answer.
“I transitioned completely.” It was unlike Cookie to not already know. She was pretty crafty at eating the details on what was going down, whatever way she had to.
I didn’t think her eyes could go wider, but they did. She swallowed her last bite with a struggle and sat there speechless for a split second. Then she stabbed the air with her finger. “The second I saw you, Iknewyour hair looked a little shinier.” She continued her examination, searching for other signs of the change. “Your eyes might look a little brighter, too. Still green, but closer to spring grass now.”
“He’s furious with me for doing it without telling him first.” I slumped back against the headboard.
“Yeah, it was pretty obvious neither of you were happy.” She pulled another croissant out of her sweatshirt pocket and went back to eating with a resiliency that only Cookie could display. “I’m not sure why. You’d think he’d be happy.” She shrugged and continued to eat, as if it weren’t a big deal in her book.
I started picking at my cuticles. I hadn’t done that since I was a kid. If my grandmother was here, she would…
I crossed my arms, trying to leave my fingers alone.
“Do you think it was wrong?” I asked, fiddling with my cuticles again as I waited to hear what she’d say. We were friends, but she’d known Kaden so much longer…
“Me? I think it’s great. The Kradix have been dying for centuries. This is the first sign that the race might make a comeback.”
“I wish he felt that way too,” I said.
“Kaden never likes anything out of his control. You have to imagine there’s going to be an adjustment phase.”
Adjustment? We might not need to adjust to anything.
I got up, pacing to the window and back, debating on what was smart to say, and what I was even ready to talk about. Then I spewed it all out anyway. “He says he’s going to get it undone. He wants to go somewhere this afternoon, in fact.”
“Go where?” She dropped back onto the bed. “There’s nowhere you can go to make that happen. He can’t just snap his fingers and get this undone, not from what I know, anyway. It’s not like you got a bad dye job and you can hop into another salon to fix it.”
“What do you know about how this works?” I walked closer, gripping the bedpost while I stared at her reclined form, completely at ease.
“I’m not a Kradix, and even I know it’s impossible.” She finally sat up, took a look at my hands, and waved hers. “Don’t worry. There’s many things in life you think youcan’tundo, but can. This is not one of them. As hard as it is to get someone to fully transition, which hasn’t happened in my lifetime, I’ve never even heard of it being undone. You can’t un-ring that bell. It would be like becoming a virgin again. I’m guessing if you took that last step to finish it, you don’twantit undone.”
Did I? If it only involved me, that answer would’ve been much easier. “I have things to accomplish, and this will only help me.”
But I’d never intended to make anyone get stuck with me.
“You mean people to kill?” she asked.
I nodded, waiting for the list of reasons why I was crazy.
