Chapter 13

THIRTEEN

COLLINS

“So, like saving the world? No pressure, bro.” Tallulah picked up a cream-colored sun goddess statue off the small wooden table and examined it closely. “But Stone Keeper is a sick title.”

My stomach was in knots over this whole thing. How was I supposed to save a whole realm of people from destruction? I didn’t even think I had powers, or if I did, I sure as hell didn’t know what they were.

I groaned. “So much pressure.”

My only comfort was the magic of Peggy Bow’s shop. It was everything anyone could hope for and more. Calm, soothing music drifted through the room, and the warm, musky smell of sage filled my senses. Even the lighting was dim and warm, with flickering candles that hovered above our heads and sat on tables. The room itself was filled with dark, wooden tables and shelves that were pushed up against the walls. They were littered with all kinds of mage things: crystals, pendants, athames, statues, bottles, and even animal bones.

Vines hung from the rafters and wound down around the shelving. Flowers opened and closed on them like they just bloomed every few minutes.

“So, you’re going to start magic training soon.” Tallulah rounded the end of the bookshelf and started down the next aisle. Once I caught up, she narrowed her green eyes on me. “What exactly do you think that means? Like, what does that entail?”

“I have no idea.” My mind had been running circles all night about that one question. “Because I don’t even know what kind of fae magic have . . . I mean, there are mages too, and I don’t know what they can do either. Like, what’s the difference? What can I do?”

“Well, what can normal fae do?”

I threw my hands up and gestured around us. “Look at this place. This is a mage shop. Is there a fae shop? I just have a million questions and no answers. Mom said we’d start training but not today. She wants me to settle in today—to relax, as if that’s even possible after all this information. How am I supposed to sight see and be a tourist on this magical island when I know the fate of an entire realm rests on my shoulders. What am I supposed to do?”

“Shit, man. That’s so much—” She gasped. Her eyes widened. She reached forward and plucked a blue vial off the shelf in front of her. There was a twinkle in her eyes that set me on edge. She glanced sideways at me and arched one eyebrow. “Wanna be me?”

I frowned. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t have answers for you.” She held the blue vial up in between us. “Unless you’d like to be me for a while.”

I leaned forward to read the label. “Does that say Freaky Friday ?”

“Sure as hell does.” She spun the bottle around to show me the back. “It says, and I quote, Dare to dream a different day, for in her shoes a walk to slay. Just take a sip, no words to say, two friends to switch, six hours to play. ”

My jaw dropped.

Tallulah cocked her head to the side. “Would you say I’m Lindsay Lohan or Jamie Lee Curtis?”

I shook my head. “We both know damn well I’m the Jamie Lee Curtis one and you’re Lindsay Lohan.”

“That’s true. You’re the one who gets the most unusual attention from guys.” She uncorked the lid and took a sniff. “I mean, I so could see some teenage boy falling for you and professing his love.”

“Tallulah, what are you doing?”

“What?”

“You opened the bottle.”

She grinned. “Yeah . . . oh, c’mon, don’t you wanna try it?”

“Try switching bodies for six hours?” I shook my head. “How will that help me?”

“It won’t. Nothing will. So, you ought to let loose and do something wild.” She gestured around the shop. “Philip said Peggy is the strongest mage in First Realm, and this is her shop. That means that not only will this potion work, but it’s also safe. And if something goes whack, we’re sleeping in her guest house.”

I sighed. She made good points. A huge part of me wanted to try it. “Tallulah . . . I don’t know.”

“You’ve always wanted to trade titties.” She wagged her eyebrows. “Bottoms up?”

I gasped. “ Tallulah. ”

She giggled and cupped her chest. “You keep saying how lucky I am to be born top heavy?—”

“ Tallulah, ” I hissed and glanced around the shop, but no one was looking at us.

“Am I wrong?”

I looked down at my own chest and sighed. We both had thick wool sweaters on, yet I could have been a teenage boy with the way I looked. Meanwhile, Tallulah could still walk a lingerie fashion show. I’d always wondered what it would be like to be built the way society says a woman should be—and that was what Tallulah had: long legs, an hourglass figure, and a proportionate cup size.

“I can see you considering it.” She held the open vial in front of me. “It lasts six hours. Let’s have some fun.”

“Screw it. Why not?” I grabbed the vial and took a sip. The flavor was deliciously sweet, like a pink starburst candy. I licked my lips and handed the vial back to her. “See you on the other side.”

She grinned like the damn Cheshire Cat and tossed the potion back like it was a shot of tequila. I watched her swallow it and then put the cap back on the vial. My pulse quickened. My entire body warmed and tingled, like I’d been sitting in one position too long and everything had gone numb. Tallulah held her arms out to her sides and bounced on her toes.

“Does it say how it works?”

She pursed her lips. “I probably should have read that— OH— ” She giggled like a maniac.

I frowned. “What—” Ohhhh.

I didn’t have words for the feeling inside of me. It was bubbly and electric. Every nerve ending in my body buzzed. It felt like someone was blowing warm breath on my neck. Light flashed in the corners of my eyes. My vision tunneled. I threw my hand out and my fingers smacked into Tallulah’s. I sucked in a deep breath to steady myself. We held on to each other as the world vanished around us.

When the light finally faded away, I was left staring down at myself.

Wait. DOWN. I’m looking DOWN.

The petite person in front of me stood a mere five-foot-two and her chestnut brown hair fell in loose waves all the way down to her hips. My brain immediately wondered if that hair was heavy, which was silly considering that was me. Those were my pale aquamarine eyes. That was my face, though I’d never realized just how sharply angled my features were. For the first time, I saw the fae in my face. I glanced to my ears. I knew that tucked under all that brown hair my ears were not pointed, but I also knew I wore silver diamond studded earrings all the way around my ears. I wondered if that was some subconscious move on my part.

“ Whoa, dude. ” I heard my voice come out of my body, but the tone was all Tallulah. “Bro, this is WILD.”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

Tallulah snorted, then burst into a fit of giggles. She spun in tight little circles, letting the long length of my hair twirl like a poofy skirt around her. “ Broooo. How do you not do this all the time?”

I looked down at my temporary body—my best friend’s body. The first thing I noticed was that I couldn’t see my feet because of my chest. That’s unexpected. And I was so tall. She was only five inches taller than me, but I couldn’t believe how weird it felt. Part of me wanted to put on a pair of six-inch heels just to see what that was like.

“Go ahead. You can do it.”

I looked up and found her watching me. The wild expression in her eyes was all Tallulah but seeing it on my face was unnerving. It made me wonder if I should start to be more like my best friend.

And then I realized she’d said something. “Wait, what?”

She reached up and palmed her breasts that were currently on me. “Go ahead. Squeeze ‘em.”

“ Tallulah! ” I giggled and swatted her away.

“You know you want to!”

I bit my bottom lip. She was right. Damn it. So I did. They were so heavy. “Oh my God.”

“I know.”

“No wonder your back hurts all the time.” I jumped up and down and hissed at the pain. “Nope. No. Definitely not. Damn, that hurts. Okay, no. Definitely not loving these.”

She bounced up and down the aisle. “Girl, these little biddies are perfect! I never want to hear you complain again.”

“Question . . .” I shimmied and then leaned over. “Have you ever suffocated a man with these? Like, these are weapons, Tally.”

She threw her head back and cackled like a movie villain.

“Hold on, hold on.” She dove into her pocket to where I always kept my iPhone and pulled it out. “We have to selfie this as each other.”

I snorted. But as I slid in beside her, I realized I didn’t know how to pose at this height. “Wait, do you usually duck?”

“How do you stretch your arm out so far to take it?”

I tried to squat down, but I looked like a broken flamingo, or like a drunk girl trying to pee in the bathroom of a dive bar or frat house.

“Bro, your face isn’t in the frame.”

“Bro, what do you do with these legs?”

“Just duck down a little.”

“You gotta hold your arm out straight but slightly high.”

I spread my legs wide, using the two shelves on either side of us to steady me. My face came down to her level and into the camera frame. Her arm was trembling from how hard she tried to stretch it out, and that made me giggle.

“Okay, okay, bro.” Tallulah snorted. “Okay, let’s make our usual poses but with each other’s bodies. ‘Kay?”

I schooled my face into its resting bitch face mode and arched my right eyebrow but gave a little crooked smirk. That was my selfie-face and it looked fierce as hell with Tallulah’s features. Her long, black eyelashes and bright-green eyes really popped. Tallulah always stuck her tongue out in some fashion, to varying degrees. Usually, she wrinkled her nose a little and gave a wicked glint with her eyes too. It was very Miley Cyrus-esque, and I could not handle it on my face.

She snapped the picture and we both burst into laughter.

“Okay—” she snorted and then tried to rein herself in. “Okay, I’m cool. I’m good. Now, let’s imitate each other?”

I nodded. “See if we can emulate? Do it.”

She pursed her lips just a little and arched her eyebrow. At the last second, she curved her lips into a little smirk. I braced myself on her —my— tiny shoulders, then threw my head back a little bit while sticking my tongue out. I narrowed my eyes playfully.

She snapped a few pictures, but by the fifth pose we absolutely lost it.

Everyone else in the store kept looking over at us but no one seemed mad. They smiled or chuckled, then turned back to what they were doing. We probably looked absolutely ridiculous, like immature middle school girls. None of them probably realized what we’d just done.

The bells on the front door jingled and then a gust of cold air rushed into the shop. I braced myself for the sting, except it never came. Tallulah didn’t get cold like I did. Actually, the cold air was a bit of a relief. Her red curls bounced around her shoulders. She didn’t need to wear it long enough to provide warmth like I did.

“Good morning! Welcome to Bow Ties!” the salesgirl yelled from somewhere near the front of the store. “Can I help you with anything, sir?”

“Okay, this is fun. You were right, bro.” I wiped under my eyes. “But I think I’m stuck. Do these long legs even bend?”

“Sir, are you looking for someone? Or something in particular?”

I couldn’t get my legs unwedged from the bookcases. Tallulah was trying to help me, but she was laughing too hard to be of assistance. She had tears running down her cheeks and kept bending over and holding her stomach.

“ Help me ,” I hissed through giggles. “I don’t wanna break your face!”

“Sir?”

The nervous tone in the salesgirl’s voice caught my attention, but maybe that was the big city girl coming out. I glanced up to see who she was speaking to—and did a double take.

My heart stopped.

My whole chest burned.

The rest of the world ceased to exist.

The man standing just inside the shop doors was six-and-a-half-feet tall, with pretty pale-blue hair that fell straight down to his shoulders and sharply pointed ears poking out. There were no wings in sight, but I knew their precise shade of pale-blue. I also knew he wore crystal necklaces and rings.

Prince Bastien.

He was here for me. I knew it with every fiber of my being.

And then those pale moonstone eyes swung towards us—and everything went black.

Tallulah screamed.

I sucked in a deep breath and dove forward, but my hands swatted air. My legs buckled and my knees slammed into the ground. I couldn’t hear anything but the heavy thud of my heart beating against my ribs.

“Tallulah?” I screamed. “Tallulah!”

My vision came rushing back so fast the brightness pierced my eyes. My balance faltered and I crashed forward on my hands. I looked up and choked on a scream.

Tallulah was gone.