Page 46 of Speak No Evil
RYKER
With the shop owner, Veruca, safely tucked into one of our guest beds, Thorne and I decide the best way to deal with her shop is by phone.
Mostly because neither one of us wants to give up our true form yet, and showing up like a naked horned god in the middle of a witch shop might cause trouble.
Thorne handles it while I sit vigil over our mate’s friend.
It’s far more boring than when it was Jade.
Every breath, every movement Jade made, had the three of us on the edge of our seats.
But I have no such compunction with this woman. So from boredom, and with the detachment that comes from ambivalence, I study her features.
A crown of wild red hair fans out around her head. Her skin is pale and clear with a few freckles. Her form? Entirely hidden by the swaths of garishly colored fabric she wears.
All in all, I’d say she’s attractive and not at all in the way I appreciate.
“Brother,” Thorne, still clinging to his impressive blue-green true form, whispers from the door, beckoning me outside.
I follow him to the adjoining room.
“Did you take care of the shop?”
He nods, incredible horns dipping as he does.
Thorne notices the attention I’m paying his new accoutrements. “You like?” he asks, with a mock coquettish intonation.
“They are wondrous,” I answer honestly.
Thorne grins. “What do they look like?”
“You haven’t looked?”
He shrugs. “A lot’s happened.”
“They’re tall and winding, like theubrecktsof our realm.”
Thorne’s eyes go misty as he recalls the majestic herbivores that once roamed our plains.
“What about my face? Do I still look like me?”
I study him dispassionately. “Yes, and no. The structure remains, but it’s wider, bigger.”
Thorne touches his cheek, and then reaches for mine. I pull away and Thorne also pulls away.
“Apologies, I thought—”
“Sorry, habit.”
Thorne smiles again and leans forward. “I must know, brother. What’s changed? Is it simply our true form that’s broken you free of your former... inhibitions?”
I laugh. Thorne’s words are too kind for the amount of snubbing and sulking I did over the centuries.
“It’s not the true form. Remember, I approached you in Vrahs’s office before we changed.”
“Ah, you’re right.”
“Though I am very partial to it.”