by Emma Slate
“Vampires, sure. I wonder if there will be a time when I stop being surprised at your revelations.”
“Give it a few hundred years,” he said with a laugh.
I sobered.
“Come on, Poppy. Let’s teach you to shift.”
Chapter 34
By dawn, I still hadn’t been able to fully transform. I’d manage to get one or two legs, and then I’d look down, spaz, and then turn back into my human form.
I collapsed onto the sand, breathing heavily. The hat from my spiders had been given back to me, along with the sunglasses, but I still squinted from the powerful sun’s rays.
“I suck at this,” I said.
“No, it just takes time,” Thane said. He loomed over me. “Like anything else, you have to practice.”
“So magical powers don’t just come easily? How long did it take you to learn to shift?”
Thane grinned smugly. “I picked it up rather quickly, actually.”
“Bite me.”
Thane dropped to the ground and grasped my leg. With a roguish smile, he lifted it to his face and gently bit my ankle.
Despite my annoyance, I laughed.
He released my leg and then sat back on his haunches. “Think about the spider silk, or calling your spiders. You used to only be able to do that in times of extreme emotion—fear or anger.”
I nodded in recollection.
“It’s the same thing with shifting. It’s about tapping into that place, but not becoming angry or afraid. And that just takes time. So you practice. We should’ve been practicing this all along.”
“Why haven’t we been?” I asked.
“Well, frankly, we had more important things to worry about. Now that we’re here, we can devote time to teaching you the skill. So”—he rose and then held out a hand to me—“get up. Let’s try it again.”
I sighed but stood. He dropped my hand and then stepped back a few feet. “Try something for me. Close your eyes.”
I did.
“Wow, not even a snarky comment from you about which eyes to close.”
Snorting out a laugh, I kept my eyes firmly shut.
“Just breathe. And explore the connections inside of you.”
He fell silent.
And then it was just me.
I couldn’t rely on my sight, so I dug deeper, pulling at the strands that tethered me to him, to my spiders, to Purgatory itself.
Each thread beat with a different energy. I recognized the variances. My spiders were subservient. Their energy was devotion.
Thane’s cord was steel. Its grip on me unyielding, and yet we were equals, because my hold on him was just as strong. His was full of challenge, pushing me to be whom I was always supposed to be. Our thread was fate. Our thread was unbreakable.
And then there was my connection to Purgatory, the new realm I hoped to call home. It was made up of millions of energy cells, pulsing, flickering. Births, deaths, cries of jubilation, yells of anguish. I was connected to every being that lived in Purgatory—and I hadn’t even been aware of it.
You belong here. You belong with me. With us. Accept it. Accept yourself.
I accept.
After a pause, Thane said, “Open your eyes, Poppy.”
I towered over him because I was now a beast.
I walked on eight legs, gliding across the sand with ease. The sun warmed my back, but it wasn’t blistering.
You are stunning.
My many eyes saw the world from a different vantage point, and I felt the low vibrations of the land, which I couldn’t sense when I was human.
I’m so much more in tune with everything.
Yes. We miss things in our human bodies.
Some things are pretty good in our human bodies.
You do realize you can’t smile as a spider? Right now, all you’re showing me are your massive fangs.
Jealous?
Thane morphed. His arms and legs elongated, an extra pair of appendages sprouted out of the sides of his chest, and then he grew.
And grew and grew and grew.
Now he was the one looming over me.
He was beautiful and sleek, black shiny body, the same black eyes.
You were saying?
Arrogance makes your fangs look small.
I heard a rumble across our connection.
It’s weird, though. Trying to reconcile this form, with my mental faculties.
It will come more easily the more you do it.
Practice, practice, practice.
We walked side by side. I only came up to the middle of his thorax, but we were both black.
You have a mark on your back.
What kind of mark?
It’s black, the same color as your body, but it shimmers. It has a sheen. So when it catches the light, it glows.
I glow! Do you glow?
No. Only females glow.
We eclipsed the sand. Our shadows were terrifying, and I had to remind myself not to be afraid of myself. Dunes shifted as we walked, and yet, it didn’t faze me.
Okay, that’s enough.
Thane changed and once again was in his human form.
I’m not ready to come back.
Poppy, you must.
Why?
Because when you’re a young shifter, you lose track of time in your other form. You need to become human again. It will be harder to turn back the longer you wait.
I tried to shift and found his words to be true. My spider self wanted to cling to its form, the inside of me felt like it was wrapped in sticky silk, trapping me in this body.
Don’t panic. Take a breath. Try again.
I mentally snipped the silky strands containing me and felt myself slip out of my spider body and into my human one. It took a few seconds for my eight legs to become two, and then I was myself again.
“How do you feel?” Thane asked, taking a step toward me.
I blinked and then ran my hands down my arms. “I think I’m okay. I feel weird, though.”
He smiled. “You did great.”
“When can we do it again?”
Thane laughed, but then his smile fell. His eyes drifted from my gaze to land on something over my shoulder. Whatever he saw made him pale. I turned, afraid for my life.
Chapter 35
The desert began to transform. Sand grains rocked and bounced like someone was panning for gold. As taupe dunes sifted through rising cracks, the ground soon became bone-white stone dotted with fine opaque crystals.
It resembled salt flats.
There was a rumble, and then the land gurgled and split. Massive black roots sprang up, and a black tree trunk sprouted from the stone, twining and twirling as it rose high into the sky. It was massive, gnarled, and blocked out the sun.
Its branches coiled and extended. The tree looked like it was dancing and then finally the rumbling stopped, and the tree was still.
There were no green leaves shaking on limbs. The tree was devoid of life yet looked ancient. Like it had survived flood and fire.
“Is it sentient?” I asked Thane.
The air rippled with my question, and I expected the tree to move—like the trees in the magical forest where we’d met Virbius. But the barren black tree stood resolutely stationary, and my question went unanswered.
“I don’t know,” Thane murmured.
“So what do we do now?” I was unable to take my eyes off the black tree. It was smooth and flat, and I wasn’t even sure if the tree had bark.
“I don’t know that either.”
We waited for a few minutes, but when it was clear that nothing else was occurring—no darkening of the sky, no ominous looming intent, it became obvious that the magical ball was really in our court.
I took a step toward the tree.
A fissure appeared at the base and then drifted up the trunk in an arch. Silver light peered through the tiny crack, pulsing, radiating.
Thane and I looked at each other.
“Let me go
first.” Thane moved to stand in front of me, and then we crept toward the barren tree.
“It looks like a door. Like in Alice in Wonderland.”
Thane’s mouth curled up in humor. “You don’t really think it was all the drugs that caused his vivid imagination.”
I blinked. “Lewis Carroll wasn’t tripping?”
“Oh, no he was. But he had a little help from…our magic mushrooms.” Thane gestured to the land. “He was here. Once.”
“Wow.”
The flickering silver light was mesmerizing.
“Poppy, wait a second.” Thane turned to me and cradled my cheeks in his palms. “I don’t know what will happen when I touch that door. And I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to say this, so let me say it now.”
My hands went to his wrists. “Don’t. Please. Whatever it is. If you say it, it will sound like a goodbye and I can’t—”
His mouth covered mine. Thane’s lips tasted sweet, and they were firm, uncompromising.
I held onto him, needing more, needing him.
Thane ripped his mouth from mine. “I love you, Poppy. That’s all I was going to say.”
“I love you, too.”
His lips curled up in a grin. “I distinctly remember you saying that you would never love me.”
My smile mirrored his. “Shut up, Thane.”
He kissed me briefly one last time, and then he let me go. Thane rushed to the door in the trunk and touched his hand to the bark. The tree screeched and the door opened, like someone had punched through the wood, and it was now nothing but a swirling cloud of silver light.
Thane looked at me over his shoulder, his eyes mournful. “I’m sorry.”
A streak of white light blasted through the silvery cloud and hit Thane in the chest. The force of it propelled him backward. He hit the ground hard—hard enough that I could hear bones snapping—and then he didn’t move.
I ran to his side and crouched down. He was on his back; his eyes were open, and so was his mouth, in a state of surprise.
My hand skated over his body. He was hard to the touch. Pulsing black veins crawled up his neck, turning his golden skin dark like a shadow was radiating from inside him. Every inch of him that wasn’t covered in clothing turned black. His skin looked like the bark of the barren tree.
I’ve been petrified.
Did you know? What was going to happen when we opened the door in the tree?
Yes. This is Xan’s work.
Why didn’t you let me take the magic blast? Why did you step in front of me?
You chose me. That moment on the altar. Even though you believed I’d never die for you, never sacrifice myself for you.
So you did this to set my mind at ease?
I did this so you have a chance at succeeding. It was always supposed to be you, Poppy. You’re the key. You’re the one in the prophecy who is supposed to stop the war.
How am I supposed to do this without you?
You must.
Will you be like this…forever?
He paused. There’s always a price. You will just have to decide if it’s worth it.
Price? What price?
But Thane didn’t say anymore.
I felt his hair. Hard. I placed my lips on his. Cold. Tears gathered in my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. I didn’t bother trying to stop them.
The stagnant air began to stir. Wind rushed at my face, drying my tears. My hat blew off and soared up into the sky like it had been caught in a tornado. It disappeared from my sight. My braid whipped against my neck, lashing my skin. I kept my hand on Thane’s chest as I watched water pour from the opening in the tree. Big cascading waves that covered the stone ground.
But unlike Alice, I didn’t have a bottle to escape into.
Thane’s petrified body was now a few feet under water. I held onto him, but the force of the water and the bottoming out of the ground ripped him away from me.
Down, down, down, he sank, vanishing into the dark, murky depths.
Before I knew it, I was completely submerged in the water, too.
The desert had become an ocean.
The barren tree’s roots stretched for miles below.
I was immortal, but I didn’t have gills.
My lungs began to burn as I struggled to the surface, somehow knowing it was futile, somehow knowing there was not a speck of dry land left. And even if I could find a way to climb the barren tree, and sit among its dead branches, I knew there wouldn’t be anything for me there.
Nothing would save me.
So I stopped fighting and let myself sink.
Specks of silver light danced before my eyes.
Could an immortal drown? Would I come back to life only to drown again?
These were the thoughts swimming through my head as my eyes deceived me.
The specks of silver weren’t light at all, but scales covering a long, powerful, shimmering tail.
And my last thought right before I was about to drown was that Hunter wouldn’t let me die.
Chapter 36
Hunter opened his mouth like he was going to speak. He moved his lips and blew out his breath. He swirled his hands around the air bubbles, pushing them together to form one giant bubble. He cupped it in his palms and guided it toward me. It hovered over my head and then molded itself to my skull.
Once it covered my nose and mouth, I gasped.
And breathed in air.
He’d made me an oxygen mask.
I took a few deep breaths, filling my lungs. The fuzziness of my head cleared and I blinked, somehow able to see clearly underwater now. The oxygen mask doubled as a pair of goggles.
Hysteria battled its way through my mind, but I forced it down.
The ocean wasn’t nearly as dark as I’d thought. It was deep blue, and the farther down I looked, the darker it became. Right now, I could see everything in front of me.
There was no marine life. No colorful fish or curious crustaceans. No dolphin pods or sharks.
Only Hunter.
Who was now a merrow. Human face and upper body…and then a long fish tail instead of legs.
And looking at me like he knew me.
Why are you here? I asked in my head.
But there was no answer from him because we didn’t share a mental connection. I briefly thought of Thane, but knew if I dwelled on what had happened to him and where he was, I’d have a mental breakdown.
I focused on the merrow treading water. Hunter’s blond hair was no longer completely golden but streaked with silver and green, the color of algae. His skin had a silver sheen and his tail glinted.
Only his eyes were the same. Blue, open, guileless.
But he looked like he’d lived a lifetime since we’d been separated, when he was taken as payment for a mess I had caused.
Hunter was now betrothed to a merrow princess.
Thane said Hunter’s memories had been stripped from him, and he didn’t remember me.
But when his hand touched mine, I knew it for the lie it was.
Hunter remembered me.
I inhaled a shaky breath.
Had Thane lied about Hunter or had he genuinely thought Hunter wouldn’t know me?
Did it matter? I’d chosen Thane.
Hunter swam in a lazy circle around me before whipping his powerful tail, propelling him down. When I didn’t follow after him immediately, he came back, lightly smacked my butt with his glimmering appendage, and took off again.
I kicked and dove.
He was still visible, despite the water turning murkier until finally all the light from above disappeared completely. Tiny jellyfish-like creatures with wispy tentacles flashed in a display of neon colors, illuminating the depths of the ocean. Everything had a dark green hue.
Deeper and deeper we went until we reached a crevice that ran along the bottom of the ocean floor. Hunter slipped down into the rift and faded out of sight.
I stopped swimming and treaded water, but when it was clear H
unter wasn’t coming back for me, I kicked my legs and went after him.
The bottom of the ocean was a tropical paradise. Here, the waters were crystal blue, stocked full of bright schools of fish. They darted around me, releasing a stream of air bubbles. Sea anemones in fluorescent pinks and blues reached out to stroke my body suit.
When I tried to stop and take it all in, I was urged along by the water current. It was a gentle flow, and I didn’t fight it. I glided, Hunter’s tail sparkling in the distance, a beacon.
Without the struggle of having to breathe or swim, my mind drifted to Thane again.
He’d sacrificed himself for me. He wasn’t dead, but he was petrified, and our connection was silent. Was he lucid? Cognizant of his surroundings, yet trapped in his own mind without the ability to communicate?
I hoped he wasn’t aware, and he was in some sort of alternate sleep state. Thane had been confined before and suffered insanity for years.
Was he at the bottom of the sea floor? How long before he looked like a forgotten statue from a shipwreck, covered in algae?
Lost in my own thoughts, I hadn’t realized the current picked up speed. It was now forceful, ruthless, and wouldn’t let me go even as I fought against it.
There was a flash of Hunter’s tail, but then it winked out of existence. I was being shoved along course, and the crevice widened, revealing the bottoming out of the sea floor.
A huge drop was coming. There was a giant whirlpool, an underwater tornado, spinning and spinning.
Every few moments, I was able to see Hunter as he ricocheted around the powerful funnel until finally he was sucked into the middle. I couldn’t even detect the gleam of his silver scales anymore.
Fighting was useless. I let my arms and legs go limp. I felt like a ball in a slingshot. Thrust out of the current, I was caught by the swirling funnel.
I couldn’t tell up from down, so I closed my eyes, fighting the rebellion of my stomach. Finally, I blasted through the center of the whirlpool and launched upward. The moment my head broke free of the water, my air bubble disappeared.
The three moons illuminated the dark sky, and the stars glittered, looking close enough to touch.
