Page 32 of A Touch of Poison
Still deadly, but with new pieces and new rules, none of which I knew beyond Bastian’s warnings.
“Bastian asked me to help train you,” Rose said as we turned onto a wide road full of shops with large, curved windows that seemed impossible to make from something as fragile as glass.
I eyed the paired long knives at her side. “To fight?”
She glanced around, then ducked closer. “To use your magic.”
Use it? There didn’t seem much point, since I didn’t intend to have it for long. Elthea had said she was confident she’d find a cure. Fingers crossed, that was why she’d arranged this appointment.
Still, it was a good excuse to prya littleabout Rose’s “mostly” human status. I tugged the cuffs of my gloves. “You have… something similar?”
“No, but I was a human without magic, and now I have it and have learned to control it. He thought that might mean I could help you.”
I raised my eyebrows in question when she met my gaze.
“Oh, you want to know what I am?” She chuckled, then shrugged. “Faolán’s a shapechanger—a fae who can shift into another form.”
A man passing wrinkled his nose like she’d just said Faolán ate shit.
“And he was able to turn me.” She showed me her forearm where an arc of teeth marks showed pale against her freckles. “I’m a werewolf.”
I stared at the scar. “You mean… werewolves are real?”
“Oh, yes. Very real.” She flipped her arm over, revealing another set of marks, as if that proved it.
Another fae stiffened and hurried across the road.
“Don’t worry,” Rose called after them, “you’re safe. It isn’t a full moon. Or—wait—is it? Oh no!” Her back arched and she clawed the air.
I stopped mid-step. Was I meant to get help? I glanced up the hill—I could find my way back to the palace and fetch Faolán.
But… no. Her eyes weren’t wide in fear.
“I can feel myself losing control, I’m going to—”
She howled.
Fae scattered.
I was torn between concern about the attention she’d drawn and relief that it kept people at a distance, so I didn’t need to worry so much about poisoning them.
Pulling her sleeve down, she rolled her eyes. “Fucking hypocrites.”
I raised my eyebrows at her performance. “So… fae don’t like werewolves?”
“Or shapechangers.Even though,” she added in a voice that filled the street, “the first Day King was one. In case you’d all forgotten that side of yourbelovedhero.”
The few remaining fae bowed their heads and hurried past. One clicked their tongue and muttered, “Exactly what I’d expect from suchanimals.”
Rose huffed a long breath out. “I’m sorry, it just really…” She gritted her teeth and shook her head. “Most shapechangers try to keep what they are secret so they don’t upset other fae. But I say screw them.”
“So I see.”
She frowned ahead. “Some think it’s just name-calling and being the last served at a bar, but in some villages they’ll attack you the moment they get a whiff of something animalistic.”
“You don’t need to apologise to me.” I went to touch her arm, but the sight of my gloves reminded me why that could be risky. I clasped my hands together. “I can get behind a bit of anger.”
Truth be told, I envied her. From the way Faolán had kissed her cheek and called her “little flower” so casually to the way she didn’t hide her feelings—I envied her.
