The transformation process could not be stopped. Power flooded through my body like wildfire, remaking every cell, every thought, every memory. I felt myself expanding beyond flesh, becoming something vast and incomprehensible.

But through it all, I could feel Isadora's corruption spreading through the memory-flower like poison through veins.

"Fight it," Prince Kael shouted, but his voice sounded distant, as if coming from another lifetime.

"How?" I gasped, my own voice echoing across ...