In a flash of nightmarish déjà vu, I watched as her hair lightened to a golden blonde and grew like Play-Doh out of her skull and down her back. My assistant’s rounded cheeks sharpened, and the skin of her face pulled tight over high cheekbones, her nose thinning and elongating. She arched her back and the extra weight Emily carried disappeared like an illusion, to reveal the tall, athletic frame of a twenty-something woman.Not a woman, a witch.With a quick flick of her wrist, the drab gray dress Emily had worn transformed into a blood-red silk gown, the exact shade of the jewels in my crown — the one she now wore. The very crown she’d designed for me.No. Not for me, for her. I’d counted Emily among my friends. I clenched my hands into fists as the betrayal washed over me.Addie ran her hands down the smooth material hugging her hips. “Ah, much better.”Her brilliant violet eyes focused on me, and the unnatural light there dropped my stomach to the floor. Her lips tilted as she touched the damaged luckenbooth hanging around her neck.
