I grimaced. I actually loved my coloring. Silvery hair and lilac eyes were a startling—and somewhat rare—combination, and I liked the attention they sometimes gave me.
"Black hair and lilac eyes would be no less startling," he commented. "And as your skin is not pale, it would look very suitable on you."
"Suitable?" I said, amused. "God, Azriel, surely even you can come up with a better compliment than that."
He raised his eyebrows at me. "Why is ‘suitable' not an adequate compliment?"
I studied him for a moment, not sure if he was teasing me or not. "Because I guess it sounds so… average."
"Which you are obviously not." His expression was still totally serious and yet, if he'd had an affair with a human woman, he surely couldn't be as obtuse about human—or non-human—vanity as he was making out. "So, would the word ‘stunning' be considered more appropriate?"
I rolled my eyes. Why was I even bothering to fish for compliments from him? "This conversation is insane. Let's just forget about it."
"As you wish. You have not, however, answered my original question."
It took me a couple of seconds to actually remember his original question. "I've never actually held either a full or a partial change for any great length of time. I could probably hold a hair color change for three or four days if it's continuous, but it'll wear me out physically. If I simply revert back to my natural color once I'm home, it might be a little more sustainable."
"Then do it."
"What? Now?"
"There are no cameras in this immediate area, and no one nearby. And it is infinitely better to be safe than sorry."
I nodded a little reluctantly. Face-shifting wasn't as easy as shifting into an alternate form. From what I'd been told, donning your wolf form—or whatever other form of animal you might be—involved little more than reaching into that place inside where the beast roamed and releasing the shackles that bound her. Face-shifting was a little more complicated. Not only did you have to fully imagine all the minute details of the face you wanted to copy, but you had to hold it firm in your thoughts while the magic swirled around and through your body. Easier said than done when the magic was designed to sweep away sensation and thought.
Of course, I was only changing my hair color, but given how little I face-shifted, even that wasn't a walk in the park.
I flexed my fingers, then closed my eyes and pictured my own face—from the lilac of my eyes, the slight up tilt of my nose, and my defined cheekbones, to the fullness of my lips. But instead of shoulder-length silver hair, I imagined it black and with a pixie cut. A black so rich that it shone dark purple in the sunlight.