Shapeshifters can only shift with clothes if the clothes are made from the bodies of other shapeshifters. That wild bit of lore inspired this story… and I think you can guess the content warnings now!
This story features Keller and Rashel as twins, a retcon I have mixed feelings about, and strong canon romance plus subtle threesome romance because I am so on board with Keller/Galen/Iliana but this is not a story about shipping.
Please be kind in the comments.
Keller took a deep breath of the clear afternoon air. At last! The meeting had gone on for hours. Of course it had to—it was too dangerous to get everyone who was important to Circle Daybreak together too often so they had to cover as much as possible. But at last Lord Thierry had decreed a break and Keller could get out and run.
She launched herself off the back veranda of the mansion and changed in the air, her body becoming unbound, flowing from the form of a teenage girl into a sleek black panther. She hit the ground on four paws, shook herself to settle her new skin, and kneaded her claws into the ground for a moment as she thought how to spend her break. A run, of course, perhaps a check of the boundaries. There were always werewolves on patrol but—werewolves. They weren't always the smartest.
Though yesterday Lupe Acevedo had managed to pin her with a move she hadn't seen coming. What Keller really wanted was a rematch, but Lupe's scent was nowhere in the bouquet of smells that reached Keller's nose so she must still be indoors.
Keller let her wild mind take over and ran into the forest, pouncing on blowing leaves and clawing her way up trees for the joy of it.
Lord Thierry had purchased the estate with miles of untouched forest just for this, to give shapeshifters a place to be wild. Keller was a girl, a soldier, a sister, the consort of the prince of the shapeshifters Galen Drache, and protector of Iliana the Witch Child, and she was also a wild creature. And she loved all of it, loved all the things she was. After so long thinking of herself as abandoned, worth so little her own parents hadn't wanted her, she'd found her place.
She hunted nothing but blowing leaves now after seeing Iliana cry over a dead rabbit, but the urge was blunted since Circle Daybreak's money paid for enough meat to keep the shapeshifters content. Sometimes Iliana used her witch magic to make a leaf blow along, dancing and dodging so Keller could chase it and pounce. Keller had made her swear never to mention this game to anyone else, even Galen. Keller also suspected Iliana and Galen also played the game and Galen had also sworn Iliana to secrecy.
Keller realized where she was and got up from rolling in a pile of leaves. She was at the bottom of a low hill and near the top a spear of rock jutted out. It was the perfect spot to catch the sun and most days an old panther shifter lounged there.
She was there today and looked down at Keller. Even from this distance the sharp glint of her yellow eyes made Keller want to roll on her back in submission. So she did. She'd never met this shapeshifter, who never seemed to take human form or talk to anybody.
You. Come here.
Keller rolled to her feet. The old panther had spoken to her? She never spoke to anyone! Keller padded cautiously up the hill and hopped up onto the rock.
The other panther was truly ancient. Her muzzle and ears were gray and even the rest of her coat was dotted with white hairs like stars. She looked Keller up and down with yellow eyes and leaned forward to sniff her. Keller sniffed back and smelled sunlight and animal blood and the human undertones of a shapeshifter. And old age. This panther was close to the end of her life.
Turn human. I want to talk to you.
Keller shifted back. She brushed her black hair out of her face and resettled her vest and shorts.
The panther shifted back and she was naked. Her human body's hair was thinning and snow white and her skin fell in wrinkles. She turned and fumbled for a faded sheet that she wrapped around herself, grumbling about silly human concerns. Once she was covered she asked, "What are you wearing?"
That was not the question Keller had expected. "Uh. Werewolf hair."
Shapeshifters could shift their bodies, but the only way to shift with clothing was to make that clothing from the bodies of other shapeshifters. Mostly the werewolves would shave themselves and the fur was spun into thread and made into clothing.
"You're Keller, Lady Iliana's guardian. She told me about you."
"You know Iliana?"
"She comes out and talks to me."
Of course she did. Iliana always knew when someone who looked like a terrifying person wanted a friend.
"And you're Galen's partner, the prince of the Draches. You're soulmates?"
"What? Um. Yes." That was even more of a surprise. Lots of older Night People didn't even believe in the soulmate principle. Sure, this woman was with Circle Daybreak but—still. "Who are you?"
"My name is Kitty."
Keller coughed down a laugh.
"Really. Katerina Koshkin is my name. I met Thierry while I was helping shapeshifters in Europe escape from—well, take your pick. There were so many things. Now I'm here and I can't fight anymore. I can't protect anybody. And neither can you if a werewolf can pin you!"
Keller bristled. Her hair stirred as the fur she didn't have tried to stand on end. "Lupe surprised me! She's a good fighter." she admitted reluctantly. The Night World had its own prejudices, and a big one was that werewolves were dumb animals. It wasn't true. Werewolves were individuals just like any other shapeshifter. Everyone in Circle Daybreak knew that, but learning the truth didn't make old mistaken beliefs just disappear from people's minds. Keller had been raised in Circle Daybreak and she still found prejudice in herself sometimes.
Katerina made a noise of disgust. "Change back and I'll show you how to get out of that hold."
"I can't fight you! You're—you're not—" Keller couldn't say 'too old to fight' but she also couldn't fight Katerina. The old woman would certainly get hurt!
"Fragile?" Katerina scowled. "Of course I am! But I'm going to make good use of the time I have left!" She changed, shook off the sheet and snarled at Keller.
"Ok ok! I follow orders—Thierry's gonna be mad if you get hurt!"
Another snarl.
Keller flowed into her panther shape and snarled back. She leaped down from the rock and to her relief Katerina walked down. She moved like all her joints hurt and took a long time stretching. Then she leaped on Keller.
She she was fierce. Keller was stronger and faster but Katerina had so much more experience and knew so many more dirty tricks that they were evenly matched. Keller had to put everything she had into the fight.
And she loved it.
There were plenty of people happy to practice two-legged fighting, but when it came to four-legged… well, Galen was a jaguar but he hated fighting. Rashel was still learning to be a panther and prefered to fight in human form, and Lupe loved to practice but she was a wolf. Solid-bodied and strong, but a dog just couldn't have the dexterity of a cat. Katerina flowed like very angry water. Every time Keller thought she had a target Katerina seemed to turn around in her own skin and suddenly Keller would be facing nothing but claws.
At last Keller collapsed in defeat, going human and rolling to the ground with a broad smile on her face. "That's—how did you—show me that neck grip!"
The old panther was panting too but didn't shift. Tomorrow. Think about it. And she walked slowly into the trees.
As Keller got her breath back her human thoughts returned. That had been a great fight, but was Katerina really all right? She wasn't injured, but…
Keller hurried back to the house. She found Iliana and Thea in the greenhouse because of course Thierry's giant house had a greenhouse. The two girls were bent over a flowerpot, Thea's golden head and Iliana's silvery pale one bent together. As Keller came in she heard Iliana's musical giggle.
Iliana looked up and smiled and Keller's heart stuttered. She loved Iliana. Not the way she loved Galen of the way she was coming to love her newfound sister, she loved Iliana in a way there didn't seem to be a word for.
But now she needed to talk to both of them. "Iliana, Thea—the old panther shifter, Katerina? She just challenged me to sparring. We had a fight. I'm fine but she…"
She didn't need to say any more. Thea said, "I'll make up a wound cream and the tea Gran used to drink for her joints. She doesn't like me but I bet she'll take them from you, Iliana." She got up and started pulling out bowls and things on the workbench.
Iliana gave Keller a stern look. "Miss Katerina is in no state to be rolling around fighting!"
"I told her that! She was very determined."
"I suppose she is that. I wonder why she wanted to have a fight with you. She hardly even talks to anybody else." Iliana chewed her lip a little, thoughtfully.
"She talks to you. Who is she?"
"I think she's a great hero." Iliana said seriously. "You should ask Thierry. He told me but there was a lot and I don't remember it all. Thea, show me how to make that!"
"It's gross." Thea warned her, waving a spoon covered in something slimy. It was part of making an ointment but it looked icky at this stage. Iliana joined her cousin at the workbench, with Thea reassuring her that the medicines were quick to make and they would go check on Katerina soon.
Keller didn't think she should bother Thierry, who was back in a meeting with the heads of a number of witch families. So, in search of a snack, Keller headed for the kitchen.
There she found Lord Thierry's wife Hannah up to her elbows in soapy water. "These visitors use too many dishes! I swear we have a hundred plates and they're all dirty! At least I can listen to my anthropology course while I do it. Want a sandwich? Want to help?"
"Yes and yes." Keller said. She opened one of the several refrigerators, carved off a fat slice of beef liver, and put it on a slice of bread.
Hannah wrinkled her nose but that was probably at the lack of lettuce and tomato.
Shapeshifters needed to eat hearts and livers to fuel their shifting. They didn't have to eat them every day, but they did crave those organs. So the snack that wasn't appetizing to Hannah looked delicious to Keller and she practically inhaled her sandwich. Well, she was also in a hurry to help Lady Hannah with the dishes.
As they scrubbed she told Hannah about her afternoon. Emphasizing that Katerina really wanted to practice fighting, and that the witches were going to make sure she was all right. Lady Hannah 'hmm'ed and nodded and went quietly thoughtful for a minute as she scrubbed the pot that they'd made last night's stew in.
"I don't know Katerina well. I think she kind of got over people before she came here. She has a Russian name and I know she did a lot for the people of the Night World caught up in, well, everything that happened in that part of the world since forever. All Thierry told me was that several times when people were getting hauled off to someplace that would've been really bad for the shapeshifters who lived among them, Katerina helped them get away."
"So she's a hero." Keller said.
"Yes. That's why Thierry invited her to live here when they met again a few years ago, even though she's not really Circle Daybreak. She's just really disillusioned with everything else."
Keller considered this, imagining a young Katerina in one of those spy movies Keller had seen as a kid growing up in a Circle Daybreak foster home. Katerina the stealthy panther must have been a spy.
The next day Keller went out earlier with a picnic basket of cooked meats. She could eat them raw, even in her human shape, but she'd never gotten used to it, especially not raw and cold. Gross.
The old panther was dozing in a hollow under her sunning rock. It wasn't quite a cave, but a dip in the ground that someone had furnished with canvas pillows and a dish with a bottle attached so Katerina wouldn't have to go to the stream to get a drink. Keller was pretty sure the bottle setup was designed for pet dogs but the attached dish was porcelain and beautifully painted and the pillows had a leafy pattern. Keller detected Iliana's hand in the whole setup, making sure Katerina was comfortable even if she didn't want to live indoors. As Keller came up the old woman was in human form, wearing a long ratty sweater against the morning's chill and combing her hair.
"I brought bacon." Keller said as a greeting, figuring that would work on just about anybody.
"Sit down. Tell me about the dragon."
So Keller did. Everything she could remember, concentrating on the fight and describing the dragon's powers while they shared the large breakfast she'd brought. It took a while and as the food ran out and Keller ran out of details Katerina said something unexpected.
"I fought a dragon."
Keller had done a lot of sputtering in shock yesterday. This time she just looked back at the old woman, wide-eyed and silent.
"It rose form Lake Baikal. It was very sick from the pollution in the lake, we thought the sickness woke it. It only had one horn. The leader of the werewolf pack near the lake called for help but the dragon rose during the white nights when the sun barely sets so the vampires refused to help. So to bring this monster down was a pack of mostly useless werewolves, a couple of hedgewitches, and me. We managed in the end. Close your mouth. I will tell you about it. Then we'll practice."
And she described the battle in detail. The dragon a huge clumsy legless thing, its skin covered in weeping sores from the chemicals dumped into its lake. This dragon couldn't breathe fire but it did spit toxic sludge. The witches used their strongest curses, and Katerina and the werewolves tore the monster's body apart. Its poisonous flesh made all of them sick but only one of the wolves died crushed under the dragon's bulk.
"We were months recovering. We couldn't eat without bringing the food back up. If it wasn't for a witch who was also a doctor none of us would have made it."
"But if the dragon had gotten free…" Keller's imagination presented images of something wormlike and foul spreading destruction across a land that had already been through a lot.
"That's enough." Katerina pulled off her sweater and Keller looked away politely.
"You could have some clothes." Keller said, though she wasn't sure it was true. There was never enough clothing for shifters. Not all shifters had fur that could be turned into fabric, and some of those who did didn't want to sell their hair. Shapeshifter leather was even more rare because shapeshifters who lived among humans mostly didn't like the idea of being skinned after they died. And not pressuring shifters to donate was one of the few things the leaders of Circle Daybreak and the Night World joint council agreed on.
Katerina did not reply, just stretched in preparation for what was sure to be a tough sparring session. Keller shifted and did the same.
It was late afternoon by the time she staggered back to the house, pleasantly exhausted. Galen was waiting on the veranda, which was a veranda not just a porch because it was big and made of stone and had pillars and things.
Galen held out his arms and Keller nestled against him. He smelled like tea and tedium and a whole day spent in jaguar form snoozing at Iliana's feet. Some of the witches didn't accept that their legendary Witch Child was a teenager who could, to be honest, be mistaken for an absolute featherbrain if you didn't know her. Having the prince of the shapeshifters as her bodyguard did wonders for impressing people.
After they came up from the first long kiss Galen said, "I have orders. From Iliana. She wants us to go have a human date, in town. She printed out the movie schedule."
She really had. Keller hadn't heard of any of the movies playing. The humans had been on a strange kick lately: they made a lot of fantasy movies with knights slaying dragons. Even humans who couldn't possibly know the apocalypse was coming were making movies about dragons.
That was not what Keller wanted to watch during her time off.
Or Galen either. "Maybe the one about car racing or the one about cartoon polar bears?"
"Do we have to?" Keller asked. She knew they were going to drive into town and see the movie and eat at a diner and have a great time, but she had to keep up appearances.
Galen smiled, his golden-green eyes going warm with amusement. "Iliana asked when we last did anything not related to the end of the world and I couldn't remember."
Neither could Keller. "Let's watch the car racing one. It's a later showing so I'll have time for a shower."
Galen ran his fingers through her long black hair and pulled out a leaf, and chuckled.
The movie and dinner kept them busy until night fell, and the next day the other half of Keller's team returned from their scouting mission.
"Someone was setting up something. Stones, candlewax, chalk. They cleared it away so I don't know exactly what they were doing but we can guess." Winnie reported.
"The local vampires said somebody had been there but they all stayes away. Something spooked them." Nissa added. The tall, slender lamia threw herself down in a chair. "Sorry boss, whatever happened was over before we arrived. At least it doesn't appear to have worked."
"On to the next!" Winnie chirped and Nissa frowned at her.
"I want to sleep in my own bed once before we go out again! Where's Iliana?"
Keller answered, "Doing witch things, last I saw her. I'll tell Lord Thierry what you found."
The pair had written reports, and since there wasn't any real news there was no reason to interrupt the leaders of Circle Daybreak.
They'd been trying to find the resting places of the dragons for a few years, since the signs of the apocalypse began. Everyone knew the dragons were underground, cursed into eternal sleep, and when they woke the world would end. Maybe if circle Daybreak found the dragons first they could stop whatever wanted to wake them. Or whoever. The first time Keller and her team had gone to a site they'd found signs of sacrifices, rituals that even the oldest witches didn't recognize. Keller had scented it herself, not a shapeshifter smell but she wasn't sure what it was. Maybe a witch, maybe a human. Maybe even a newly made vampire. She didn't know—and it wasn't like she could always tell what people were by their scent. So her report had been useless, but so had everyone else's. Whoever was trying to awaken the dragons knew how to hide from all kinds of senses.
But they kept trying. Thea knew a spell that involved hanging a crystal on a chain and moving it slowly over a map until the crystal started to shiver where it hung. They'd found thirty dragon lairs just in the United States. There were supposed to be hundreds of dragons so they must lair together, tangled and melting together in their own slime. Keller assumed there was slime.
She was troubled when she went out to check on Katerina. Lady Hannah had asked her to. "She talks to you more than she talks to anyone else, and I'm worried about her."
So Keller had another picnic basket with food and more remedies. Thea and her husband were in veterinary school and studying as fast as they could to be able to save animals after the apocalypse. If the end came, it wouldn't just come for the Night World and the human world.
"Miss Katerina?"
The old panther was still in bed, curled near-circular on her bed of cushions. Her tail twitched and she slowly uncurled and shook her head. There was a sour smell about her.
"Miss Katerina? I brought food and some joint cream, Thea says her Grandmother swore by it." Keller started unpacking quite a lot of food including a bowl of stew made from chicken and rabbit hearts. Katerina descended on that and had the dish licked clean before shifting to human to rub the ointment into her knuckles. Her fingers couldn't bend properly, maybe that was why she spent so much time in panther shape.
Keller told her about the search for the dragons, how it wasn't getting anywhere useful. "We know where some of them are but we can't dig down to them and kill them, even if Thierry hired a human mining company or something. Which he could probably do. The dragons are buried too deep. We're forced to wait on them, fight on their terms! I hate it!" And then quietly, not realizing she was saying it aloud, "I want to keep living in the world."
Katerina didn't reply, just poured tea from a thermos and sipped daintily from the delicate porcelain teacup Thea had packed. After a minute she said, "Tell me about the people here. Who made this ointment?"
"Thea Harman. She's a witch, obviously, and she and her husband are in veterinary school. They'll be medics when the dragons wake up."
"And the human who sends me food?"
Keller gave the old woman a look. "Lady Hannah. You could talk to her, she's really nice. She's the queen—she'd laugh if anyone called her that but Thierry and Hannah are our leaders and strategists. They've seen so much."
Katerina stretched and changed, and lay down with her heavy furred head on Keller's lap. Keller rested her hand on the panther's sunwarmed black fur and felt her feline enjoyment of the heat and pleasure of a full belly. She still wanted to know about people though; an image of a girl with wild red hair flickered in Keller's mind.
"That's Jez, one of the Wild Powers. She's a fighter, you probably saw us sparring before she went to help her uncle take over an enclave in Canada. Poppy and James went with them. Poppy's the other one with red hair. They're soldiers too. Scary-strong telepaths."
Another flicker of an image. Katerina wasn't a strong telepath, but this was certainly a quicker way of asking about people than by describing them in words.
"That's Thea's cousin Gillian. She lives in a witch enclave with her family, I think. She's got a gift for seeing restless spirits so she and her boyfriend are intelligence, they're trying to find clues to the apocalypse by talking to the dead."
Another series of faces and feeling of vague questioning.
"I don't know how you even remember Mary-Lynette, she hasn't been here since last summer. I don't know why she's bothering with human college when the world's about to end but I'm not her boss. I'm Winnie and Nissa's boss, they're my team. We grew up together in Circle Daybreak enclaves. Winne's mom tried to be a mom to me and Nissa too. Nissa adores her but I—still couldn't imagine a mom wanting me."
A comforting purr started under Keller's hand.
"Well I had this note—I thought my mother threw me away. Turns out it was more complicated. You seriously want to hear about my life? It's not a great story."
The purring continued. Keller could feel it in her lap where Katerina's furry chin rested.
"Fine, if you're sure. But I'm a grunt. I'm boring. And I only know part of it. It seems that I have a twin. When we were born Rashel came out human and I came out furry. So our parents… well, who knows? But Rashel ended up with our mom and I ended up found in a cardboard box in a parking lot. Our mom was killed by vampires a few years later and our dad never turned up so we'll never know. But Rashel grew up to be a vampire hunter and I grew up like this. We only just found out and we hardly know each other and Rashel and Quinn are always off tracking the vampire leaders and culling vamps who go savage after they change. And I'm here for Galen and Iliana. Important stuff." Keller smiled ironically. "If we survive the apocalypse maybe we can do the sisters thing."
Katerina was still so long Keller wondered if she'd fallen asleep, but after a minute the old panther rolled to her feet, shook herself, and took her human form. "I will die soon. When I do, I want you to have my body—my skin. Don't look so shocked, if you'd grown up among your own kind you would know it's an honor. There is a ritual. The prince of the First House will know it."
"I…" Keller had never heard of this, but how many older shapeshifters had she talked to? None close enough to tell her about such an intimate tradition of the shapeshifters. She'd been raised mostly by humans and witches, so her first reaction was to be horrified. But her second, deeper reaction… "I've never heard of that, but I can feel what an honor it is. But why me? Why not Galen?"
"You're a fighter, you're a dragonslayer. You love your friends but you think of them as an army. The prince is a diplomat, what would he do with a warrior's clothing?"
Keller managed a questioning look.
"Tradition says it's easier to change wearing the skin of someone who shared the same animal shape. Tradition also says skills can be passed down with a strong skin, but I'm not sure that's true. Now promise you'll do it, then we'll practice."
"If you think you're close to death you should be seeing a doctor not fighting!" Keller protested.
Katerina made an annoyed huff. "Doctors don't know how I've lived this long, there's nothing else they can do at my age. Promise and don't be squeamish. It won't be me, just this left over."
She wasn't going to let it go. Keller had seen a lot of violence, she'd done a lot of violence, but the idea of slowly cutting skin from flesh made her stomach turn. But what did this mean for Katerina? It was such a personal thing she was offering, Keller couldn't refuse it. "...I promise. Thank you for thinking I'm worthy. But please don't give up the rest of your time for me too. You can just tell me what you want to teach me."
The old woman relaxed and sat back, comfortable now. "You think I want more time? Everything hurts these days and there's someone waiting for me on the other side. That's how I know my time is coming, I keep hearing him. And I want to teach you. So, how are you at holding between forms?"
Keller sighed and shifted to her in-between form, human shaped but furred with a cat's muscles for jumps and landings.
"Very good. Can you look human but with claws? That's very useful.'
Keller couldn't. She guessed she was about to learn.
They didn't speak of death again, except for the death of dragons. The next few days Keller visited Katerina every day. Lord Thierry insisted this was more important than everything else Keller needed to be doing. Because Keller was learning a lot and, Keller suspected, because Thierry wanted his old friend to have what she wanted in her last days. He said Katerina had already told Keller more about her past than she'd ever shared with anyone else.
Every day the old shapeshifter ate and talked about battles against rogue werewolves, savage vampires, and humans with guns. Then she picked on something Keller could be better at and inflicted education. And at Keller's insistence, Katerina had started talking to Thea and taking medicine.
"But all I can really do is give her pain relief." Thea confessed. "Shapeshifters live a long time but there's a point when things just fall apart."
And then one morning Keller was packing the picnic basket when Hannah came into the kitchen and Keller knew what had happened. Hannah said Katerina had died in her sleep, curled on her cushions. Peacefully.
Keller felt the world slow down as she understood that Katerina was no longer in it. The loss felt like weight and Keller felt her body go still and her hands droop, and Hannah hugged her though Keller didn't hug back. She'd only known the old panther for a few weeks. Her last few weeks.
Then Galen was there and wrapping his arms around Keller too. She said something about how she was all right and they didn't have to, but the truth was that the warmth felt good.
Galen called his family to handle things, set up a shapeshifter funeral. Or rather, the ritual to harvest her skin. There was a lot to it, the skin had to be removed with a special knife and put into a big cauldron of bark and leaves from certain trees that would change it into soft leather that could be shaped into clothing.
It was very important that the person the skin was gifted to be the bone to hold the knife. Galen's mother gave her the knife and a scroll with ancient images that made Keller's stomach turn but showed her where to make the cuts. The ritual also had to be done quickly, before the natural processes of death could begin to break down the body.
So Keller had to do it today.
She wasn't sure she'd be able to do it at all.
Galen offered, "I'll get my family to go somewhere else. It'll just be the two of us."
That helped. The whole thing would be awful enough without worrying about looking foolish in front of Galen's family. So Keller took the scroll and she and Galen went out to Katerina's little den.
The old panther's body had been laid out on a low altar built of wood to be burned after, with bouquets of black foxglove around her and a single candle burning by her head.
"A candle helps spirits find their way." Said another voice. Iliana was waiting for them, looking pale but resolute.
"Oh no, you do not have to see this!" Keller began.
"I may turn my back." Iliana said with dignity.
Because these were the two people she trusted most in the world Keller admitted, "I'm not sure I can do this. It's… but it's what she wanted."
Iliana said, "Katerina thought you were like her and she chose to give you this gift." and in a smaller voice, "This really gross gift."
Keller hesitated another moment then knelt beside the body. She closed her eyes and tried to send her thanks to Katerina's spirit, wherever it had gone. Then she put the knife's edge against the black fur.
It took a long time. It was horrible, and Keller had to send her mind away from what she was doing. Instead she imagined the younger Katerina slaying her dragon. When Keller got tired and her hands cramped holding the knife, Galen took it from her and finished things. He picked up the strips of black fur and packed them into the liquid-filled cauldron, packing bits of plant matter between the pieces.
Iliana did turn away. But she didn't leave.
And in the afternoon light, it was finally over. The skin was soaking in its strange potion, Keller and Galen were exhausted and bloody, and on the altar lay something red and terrible to look at. Keller was so tired she wanted to cry.
"Is it done?" Iliana asked. "I'm not looking, I'm not looking!" She turned back around, her eyes squished tightly closed, and held out her hands.
A wash of pale fire flowed out from her. It fizzed over Keller's skin, burning the blood off her. And when she looked down Katerina lay on the altar in her human form, whole and at peace. Galen covered her with a sheet and lifted the candle away.
Iliana asked, "You want me to..?"
Keller nodded.
Iliana reached out then hesitated, felt in her pockets, and pulled out a little folding knife. Even after everything Iliana made a face at having to make a tiny cut on her arm so she could use the legendary blue fire to send Katerina on her way.