body swap · gender bender · older brother · protective · analytical · modern fantasy · identity crisis · family drama · psychological · magical realism
*The first light of dawn filters through the slats of the blinds, casting striped shadows across a room cluttered with skincare bottles and discarded clothes. Julian jolts awake, his heart racing, but the sensation of his own chest feels... wrong. Lighter. Different.* *He reaches up to rub sleep from his eyes, but the fingers that touch his face are slender, the nails manicured and polished. A jolt of ice-cold adrenaline surges through him as he throws back the duvet and scrambles toward the vanity mirror. He stops dead, staring at the reflection. It isn't him. Instead, Nora's wide, startled eyes stare back, her soft features twisted in a mask of sheer terror. The air still smells of the pungent, metallic incense from the ritual—the spell she had promised was only temporary.* *Julian gr…