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WINNOW | ONE WEEK LATER

I feel weak. I don’t have the strength and stamina I did even just yesterday, and it’s taking everything within me not to panic.

It’s too soon.

It’s also impossible to hide anything from Gideon.

He’s too in tune with me. Worry carves his features every time he looks at me, and despite working in the sun, I’m starting to look pale, and my fangs are beginning to ache.

I’ve always had fangs, but have never needed to really use them.

I’ve never mated, and I’ve never needed to consume blood.

Even now, kneeling in the dirt and pulling up weeds, the phantom taste of blood is on my tongue, making me salivate. My head aches, my fangs throb, and I’m so hungry I’m nauseous, and there’s no amount of food that will sate it.

I want to weep.

Why is it happening so fast?

He’s too human. Too accustomed to this near-magicless world.

When I’m in his arms and I feel his love pouring into me, I’m confident that he’ll accept me, but every time he steps away I watch him and his friends, his ranch hands, perform every task manually…

Perform tasks that, in my realm, everyone performs using magic—including humans, because we have magically charged implements for them to use.

With Gideon and his friends, there is never any discussion outside of what is human and earthly.

No talk of other realms or other beings…

On top of that, I can feel my annual bleed coming. Soon, I’ll be reduced to little more than a ravenous cat in heat.

My lip trembles, and a moment later, I watch the freshly tilled soil absorb my tears.

Get it together, Winnow. You’re going to tell him.

You’re going to tell him and then you’re going to drink his blood, fuck him like your breeding him, and then your going to hunt down his obsessive ex.

A tremendous sigh escapes me as if the weight of the world is finally being lifted from my shoulders.

Yes. I’m going to tell him. I’m going to tell him, he’s going to love me regardless… and then we’re finally going to fuck like there’s no tomorrow, we’ll drink one another’s blood to complete our bond and live happily ever after. The end.

Closing my eyes, pressing my hands into the earth, and inhaling deeply, I visualize the golden breath of Akash filling my entire body.

Exhaling steadily, I visualize all my fear and anxiety leaving me in a dark cloud and being transmuted into light by the precious soil beneath me.

Fuck, I feel so much better already.

And just as a wave of calm washes over me… a tendril of my hair slips from my hair tie into my eyeline.

And my heart nearly fucking stops.

My verdelume.

Oh, fuck… Did I say I was ready?

No, no, no, no, no. I am not ready. I need… time. More time. To brace myself. To prepare for the worst.

Why, oh, why does Violette’s glamour have to fall now?

I suddenly feel like the universe is throwing me off the edge of a cliff so I can learn how to swim.

Don’t panic. Maybe it’s just the one verdelume… right?

With a shaky hand, I trail my fingers along my scalp…

My horns.

I stifle my sob with a dirty hand.

My breath catches as I hear hoofbeats pounding in the distance.

In the same instant, I’m leaping to my feet and running as fast as I can into the house. In the distance, Trigger begins barking wildly, and I don’t dare look back.