ZION

My fingers sank into something thick. Coarse. Hairy. I scrambled out of bed, relieved Adrian was gone and stumbled toward the mirror.

“No. No, no, no, no!”

A beard. A full-grown beard. My entire face was covered in hair. Not peach fuzz. Not a little shadow. This was a wild, untamed, lumberjack-in-the-woods kind of beard. Like I had aged ten years and joined a mountain cult overnight.

I slapped both hands over my mouth to keep from screaming. Eza!

This ...