Anathema (The Eating Woods, #1)

by Keri Lake

How tragic that a woman’s worth equated to the depth of a man’s pockets.

Except, my nose didn’t feel like my nose. It was bigger, rounder and rougher. My face also had a rough texture, and when I lifted a lock of my hair, it was no longer black, but gray. Gasping, I looked back at her, as lowering her palm from her face revealed an entirely different person–a woman with dark brown hair coiffed at the top of her head, and hazel eyes. Her nose was thinner, her face gaunter than before. The sight of her was so ridiculously not Rykaia, that I blurted a laugh.

“We’re doomed, Maevyth. The fun governor has arrived, and he is not happy.”

Nothing mattered in this place where death loomed beyond the walls. We were sketching an illusion of normalcy in a world too dark to imagine. A place that longed to devour us. Here, in this little hovel, with our bodies entwined and our hearts beating in sync, we transcended death, existing on our own plane.

“I want you. I want you so desperately that I’d kill anything with a pulse just to have you for one night. This insatiable craving I feel …” A muscle in his jaw twitched with the tension in his words and he squeezed my hand. “I can’t fucking breathe. I ache for you, Maevyth. Believe me when I say this.”