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Self-consciously, I reach around and drag the edge of one of my wings forward, the dark iridescent feathers shimmering.

Releasing my wing, I sigh. “Is that so hard for you to believe?”

“You and I both know you can’t come back to earth looking like you do. Don’t you want to come home? You have a whole life waiting for you.”

A lonely, empty life. That’s not to say I want to abandon it, but I don’t also want to have to change myself to return to that life.

I open my mouth to tell her this, but then I stop. I’m not going to defend myself to her. We’ve always had each other’s backs, and I want her to be okay with this.

I shake my head. “Forget about it.” I turn to leave.

“Wait.” She heads back over to me and catches my wrist. “Callie, you know I only care if you care.” Her warm brown eyes search mine. “It’s just that I know how much you didn’t want to be a werewolf when you were with Eli, and now after being with another guy for three point five seconds, you look like a fairy.”

I give her an exasperated look. “I haven’t been with him for ‘three point five’ seconds.”

She squeezes my hand a little tighter, reading my features. “Fine,” she says, making some judgment call, “you have a long and sordid history with him. I only needed to make sure this is truly what you want.”

It might not have originally been what I wanted, but—

“This is truly what Iam.” A siren. A creature who can beguile humans, one who is not quite human herself. Karnon might have manifested my scales, claws, and wings, but now I’m starting to embrace them. I’m now starting to embrace it all.

Temper looks at me, really looks at me, and I swear the air turns heavy. The two of us are having one of those moments that come up every so often in our friendship, when we cannot just joke our way out of the reality of what we are. She sees the raw, harsh truth of my supernatural ability, and her eyes soften.

“You are perfect, Callie,” she admits. “Just like this.”

My throat swells at her absolute acceptance, and I pull my hand out of her grip so I can give her a hug. “Thank you,” I whisper. “I love you, Temper.”

Her arms come around me a second later. “I know. How could you not? I blew up a portal for you.”

Right there, in the middle of the hug, I begin to laugh. “I still can’t believe you did that. And the look on that fairy’s face…” I say, referring to the fairy she held hostage. That dude probably needed a change of pants after the experience.

“You mean my guide?” she says. “That’s what he gets for overcharging me.”

Now the both of us crack up, and it’s so messed up, but the two of us can be like that.

Temper pulls away, her laughter trailing off. “Okay, now where do these fairies keep the liquor?” she asks, glancing around the room. “I’m going to need a drink or three if I’m to stay here in the freaking Otherworld.”

“I thought you were all about fairies,” I say, moving deeper into her room.

“Yeah, back when I wasseventeen. I was also all about orange lipstick then too.” She shudders at the memory, kneeling in front of a hutch pressed to the side of the room. “At least I’m now a whole world away from that odious Leonard Fortuna,” she mutters under her breath.

I make a face at the name. Leo, a sorcerer whose notoriety is widely known in supernatural circles, has been relentlessly pursuing my friend for years, despite Temper making it clear she wants nothing to do with him. Leonard, however, seems to see her lack of interest as more of a minor hiccup than a nonstarter.

Seriously, the dude is odious. But, like Temper said, she’s a world away, so he’s shit out of luck for now.

“Aha!” she says, interrupting my thoughts as she opens the hutch’s doors. “Here we are.” She grabs a bottle with shimmery lettering. Uncorking it, she sniffs.

She winces a little. “Ugh, smells like leprechaun piss, but it’ll do.”

Not even going to ask about the leprechaun comment.

She takes a swig straight from the bottle before offering it to me. I wave it away.

“So”—she plops down on an ornate side chair—“Mal-a-ki.” She stretches out his name, waggling her eyebrows.

I groan, falling onto her bed. “Nooo.”

“No, what?” she says.