Free Torn: Bound Trilogy Book Two by Kate Sparkes

not an average person.”
    It still made me smile when she called my eagle form by the name she gave it before she knew who I was. How things had changed since then. “It would make basic survival easier, too, but I can’t. Sorcerers who have animal forms and stay in them too long get strange in the head.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “They take on more animal characteristics, even when they return to their proper bodies. There are stories about Lyloch, a Sorcerer who lived in Luid during my grandmother’s time. He learned to change into a wolf-dog, and by all accounts he used his skill well in the queen’s service, spying for her, traveling through the winter and finding his way into enemies’ homes when compassionate servants let him in. They say he would go weeks at a time before changing back. He became vicious as a dog, and then mean as a human. He began to prefer the company of dogs, snarled at people who got in his way. Started to run with wolves.”
    “What happened to him?”
    “They caught him ripping a whore’s throat out with his teeth.”
    “You mean—”
    “In human form, yes.”
    She paled. “Okay, so don’t try that. But I’m still glad you have the option. Will you promise me one more thing?”
    “I might.”
    “Don’t be afraid to accept help.”
    “I’m not afraid.”
    Rowan rolled her eyes. “Fine. Don’t be stubborn about it, then. If Severn is causing trouble for people, you might find support out there. There must be people who want your father back.”
    I packed the single bag I’d be taking with me, rolling my clothing to fit, adding knives and food and other necessities. “So be cautious, but be trusting? Sounds perfectly logical.”
    She crossed her arms. “It worked for us on the way here.”
    True enough, but that had been when I had her faith in people to balance my skepticism and natural mistrust. I wasn’t sure I could manage the same on my own.
    “And you do have friends out there,” she added. “I’m not saying you’ll run into any merfolk while you’re crossing Tyrea—”
    “But it’s a big world, and stranger things have happened?” I offered a smile to soften the hard, disbelieving edge I heard in my voice. Her optimism was easier to stomach now than it had once been, but I couldn’t share it.
    She shrugged. “My point is that you made friends with them once. Maybe that was a different time, and you were a different person. But you did it. There have to be more people out there who won’t hate you on sight.”
    “You did.”
    “You changed my mind, though.” She slipped a hand into a pocket in her coat and pulled out a pair of vials. “Courtesy of Emalda. She said there’s not much she can do for you that you can’t do on your own with magic, but these will help you stay awake and aware if you find yourself in a situation where you need them. For emergency use, not for every night.” She produced another tiny flask. “And this will speed healing if you apply it directly to a wound.”
    I accepted the gifts and tucked them into an outside pocket of my bag. “Please tell her I said thank you.”
    “She’s warming to you.”
    I snorted. “You’re the second person who’s tried to tell me that today.”
    “It’s true. She doesn’t speak badly of you now, and she does want to see you succeed and survive. I don’t think she’s forgiven you for things that happened in the past, but she finds you useful, and I think she’s stopped worrying about you using certain talents.”
    I sighed. “That really doesn’t make me feel better. A young dragon is less fearsome if its fire is doused and its teeth pulled, too. I have no intention of becoming a lap-pet to her or anyone.”
    Rowan tilted her head. “You still have your claws, though.” She stood and pressed her body against mine, grinning in that way that drove me half-mad. I rested my hand on her hip and gripped the fabric of her coat. It slid without resistance against the smooth skin