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CHAPTER TWENTY

ADOM

W ill they never learn, Mother?

I keep trying to tell them, my little spark. But I fear my rays don't reach that far any longer.

This one listened.

I'd never been one for dreams. Not even as a child. I heard all that was around me from the time I was in the womb. When I closed my eyes each night, I tried to shut the world out. I often succeeded.

Except for now.

In the dream, I felt the sun on my skin—not on fur, but on skin. I lifted my hand, shielding my eyes. My fingers filtered the light, and from the shade of my palm I saw smooth, clawless digits. First five of them. Then five more joined them as I raised my other hand.

I like that he fights for her.

You like that he defied Him.

There was giggling in my head. The light shimmered in time to the sound. The twin stars in the sky twinkled. No, not twins. One was brighter than the other. Just like the mother and daughter suns of Lunaterra.

You're all fixed now, fierce cat.

Fixed? I looked at my hands again. Then down at the rest of me. I was naked inside my mind. No fur in sight. My skin was a light brown, darker than my father's golden tan and lighter than my mother's earth-brown.

The curse. The curse was gone.

And so was my little sphinx. The skies started to dim. The suns began to set.

"Wait. Wait! Take it back."

The suns didn't pause in their descent.

She was right to let you catch her, fierce cat. If only the others would learn from you.

And with that, the brightest sun dipped below the horizon. Only the faint glow of the larger sun remained, but Solara was descending fast.

They want to capture my daughter's light. But my bright little spark has no interest in being caught.

"I'll keep the curse. I'll give up my kingdom. Just let me keep her."

Solara didn't answer. I tried to keep my eyes shut. Tried to stay in the dream to reason with the goddesses. But the sunrays on my face were too bright. They forced my eyes open.

The room was dim, the curtains drawn, but enough light filtered in to confirm what I’d already suspected. My body felt different—lighter, unburdened. I lifted my hands. No claws. Just hands. My skin was smooth, unmarred, the color of milk swirled into a rich coffee. I ran my hands over my face, feeling the contours of a jaw, a nose, lips—human features.

I was whole. But that wasn't true. I was only half a man—if I was even that much without her.

I staggered to my feet. With no claws to anchor into the wood, I almost tripped over them in my haste. A mirror stood across the room. I stared into it, hardly believing the image before me.

My hair was still wild, a mane of gold, bronze, and brown. It framed the face of a clean-shaven man. I traced the reflection with my fingers, still not quite fully believing my eyes.

The curse was broken.

A throat cleared behind me. I turned, expecting to see her, my lavender beauty, my little sphinx .

The woman who sat by the door wasn’t her. She was lavender-skinned, yes, but her eyes were a shade of cool blue, not verdant green. Her hair was an untidy mess, as though she'd struggled recently. She was dressed in a wedding gown— her wedding gown. But that wasn't the most interesting thing about her.

She toyed with a dagger, flipping it over her palm and between her fingers as she regarded me. The dagger was beautiful. Sharp with the dark, rusty red of blood along the edge.

“Hi. I’m Charlotte. Your wife.”

"I'm Adom. Your husband."

We awkwardly eyed each other. I sat heavily on the bed, running a hand through my wild mane. Charlotte hesitated, then joined me, her posture rigid as she sat down.

"Are you planning to use that?"

"It's beautiful, isn't it? Jorge made it for me for my twelfth birthday."

Jorge. The pieces were slowly putting themselves together in my mind. "He was planning to rescue you. Not her."

Charlotte—this Charlotte, not my Charlotte, nodded.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know."

I rose from the bed and stalked to the door. It was locked. I didn't even know my bedroom door could lock. I'd never had occasion to do so.

"We're under orders from the Skykeeper Mages to finish the marriage ritual before they'll let us out."

"Finish?"

"You know…" She motioned to the ruffled sheets where I'd slept alone dreaming of the two suns. "I didn't touch you while you were sleeping. Even though my consent was taken from me on the day I was born, I wasn't going to take yours from you."

"But you were going to give yourself to me, to this union?"

"No." She flipped the dagger again. "I wasn't planning to stay long."

"Jorge is waiting for you somewhere?"

She cocked her head, narrowing those blue eyes at me. "You didn't have him taken?"

"I have no idea where he went after he tried to steal her." I didn't even know her name.

The real Princess Charlotte began to pace. Though I suppose now that we were married, she was Queen Charlotte. "Then she must have him."

"Who?"

"She'll kill him this time." Charlotte kicked at the door. It shuddered but didn't budge open. She turned to me, her eyes wild. "If she has Jorge, she'll have Belle too."

"Who's…" But I knew who Belle was. The name suited her: round and soft.

"I ran from you at the Summer Castle, and Belle was forced by my mother to take my place. Belle and I traded places last night. She went to save Jorge in exchange for me taking my place and marrying you so that I could break the curse."

Her explanation was dizzying, but I caught on. A low rumble started in my chest. The lion who was a part of me had just woken up to find itself caged inside a man's body.

“Belle wanted to marry you. I think she actually loves you. But she knew she couldn’t break the curse. And I had to save Jorge. I love him with all of my heart, and I won't let her take him away from me again. He’s mine.”

I had been born a curse, a sacrifice to a bitter god. Belle had sacrificed herself for me. No one had ever done that for me.

Outside, the moon was still cloaked in the planet’s shadow. Avarix was held in check. Was the curse truly broken? Or was this just a cruel temporary reprieve? It didn’t matter. Curse or no curse, I would get Belle back.

My foot lashed out and into the heavy door. The impact sent a jolt through my body and through the door. It shuddered but didn’t come off its frame.

Of course it didn’t. These were the king’s rooms. Reinforced, designed to withstand sieges, invasions, and now, apparently, a man desperate to get to the one person who mattered. If I still had the strength of my lion, I could have torn it down in one blow. But the lion was trapped, caged inside me.

I was fixed now, they'd said. I wouldn't be fixed until she was back in my arms. A roar ripped from my throat as the beast clawed to get out.

And then I remembered; I was fixed. No longer trapped between two worlds. I was fixed. I was whole.

I'd seen shifters change forms every day of my life. I'd felt the envy in my gut. Every day, I'd wanted to shift fully into a man. For my very first change, I shifted fully into the other part of me. With one more blow that came from my two front paws, the door came crashing to the ground.