Kyro - A.G. Wilde Page 0,63

down, Evren stared at the top of his bald dome and waited, the tension and anxiety within her finally building to a level where she was starting to hear her pulse in her ears.

Waiting, she stared at him, her eyes roving over what she could see of his body. But he had gone silent. So silent, he wasn’t even moving.

“Kyro?” Mild panic set in. “Kyro, are you all right?”

His head moved in a slow nod but still he didn’t raise his gaze to hers.

“Are you changing?” she whispered. She still couldn’t see any changes.

Eyes focused on the dome of his head, she let her gaze wander down his spine towards the waist of his trousers.

Nope. No changes.

She was just about to call his name again when he lifted his head and looked at her.

She almost didn’t see it at first, but it was there. The skin all over his face was...shimmering? Yes, definitely. It was almost as if it was filled with small bioluminescent stars, like a whole galaxy was distributed in his skin cells. It was a dull shimmer, but it was there nonetheless and as her mouth fell open in an ‘O’, she realized that the shimmer was extending over his entire body.

Slowly, and it was almost as if she was imagining it happening, his head began to change. Instead of being mostly smooth on top, the bones of his cranium became slightly more pronounced, the frontal bone becoming more outlined.

Kyro’s throat moved as he watched her, and she could only look up at him with awe at just that one change.

“Continue?” he asked, a note of hesitation still there.

She realized then that he was doing it slowly for her benefit. He was scared of frightening her. But watching the change happen slowly like this was attracting her to him even more.

Swallowing hard, her wide eyes scoured his face looking for more changes as she nodded and answered a soft “yes.”

Kyro’s throat moved again.

As she stared at him, she saw the bridge of his nose begin to move. Instead of his bone straight nose, his bridge grew wider than it was before and by the sides of his head, his ears became pointier.

When that didn’t have her running through the door, he rose to kneel over her, just as his jawline became sharper and more pronounced. His skin now was also taking on a green tint, like the color of seaweed and there was a faint pattern all over him too. A pattern of swirls like an intricate tattoo underneath his skin.

Gray, slanted eyes now looked back at her as he paused, wariness in his gaze.

“Go on,” she whispered.

Down his chest, ridges formed around his muscles, only making them more pronounced.

Holding up one of his hands, he looked at it and drew her attention as his fingers morphed from five to three, a thumb and two large forefingers.

He stopped then, his hand falling to his side as he looked at her, his skin still shimmering.

“Is this you?” she whispered, raising herself on her elbows to look at him.

He was more handsome than she’d expected him to be. Even more handsome than his gray form. She wanted to touch him, feel him, but it was obvious he was still battling with his own emotions. “Is this the real you?”

Kyro nodded. “All that’s left of me,” he said. Turning the back of his hand, he ran a finger from his wrist down to his elbow. “My chets used to be here.”

“Chets? What are those?” She couldn’t believe she was speaking so normally because in her head it was like a bomb had just gone off. Even though her voice was so calm, she knew she was gaping at him, her mouth open, her eyes wide.

It’s that feeling when you become so shocked, it is too much for your mind to comprehend and you are stunned to calmness.

He seemed to be thinking of a way to describe what he’d referred to because his eyes grew distant for a minute. “Like blades, sharpened bone. For protection. Defense.”

“Ah.” She nodded. “Why are they not there anymore?”

He didn’t answer immediately, and it seemed as if he wasn’t going to. “Vorti remove their chets when hiding, to not give ourselves away. Chets tend to rise on their own when we are provoked. It is a distinct characteristic that would make anyone know we are not whatever we assimilate to be.”

“You had to mutilate yourself?” She couldn’t help the horror that reflected in her eyes. It