Page 81 of Brody
My hand reached for Rozi’s without conscious thought, fingers intertwining with hers as if they belonged nowhere else.The contact sent electricity racing up my arm, the mate bond humming between us with increasing intensity as we approached the source of all shifter magic.
“We’re close,” I said, voice dropping instinctively to a whisper.“Can you feel it?”
Rozi nodded, her expression somewhere between fascination and something deeper, more primal.“The air feels different.Heavier.Like walking through an electrical field.”
The final approach to the COL was marked by a curtain of luminescent vines that swayed gently despite the absence of wind.Blue-white light shimmered through them in rhythmic waves, as if following the heartbeat of something massive and ancient.
“The Threshold,” I explained, stopping before the living barrier.“Only those with pure intentions can pass.”
Rozi raised an eyebrow.“Definepure intentions.”
“Respect for the COL.No desire to exploit or control it.”I took her hand, feeling the electricity of our connection surge between us.“Ready?”
She nodded, fingers tightening around mine.Together, we stepped through the curtain of vines, the cool tendrils brushing across our skin like curious fingers.
The cavern opened before us, so vast that my breath caught in my throat.Walls lined with crystals caught and amplified the light emanating from the central pool, throwing rainbow prisms across every surface.The COL itself formed a perfect circle, perhaps thirty feet across, its blue waters so intense it seemed to ripple with its own heartbeat.Steam rose from the surface in graceful spirals, carrying the scent of minerals and something else, something ancient and alive that called to both man and wolf.
My skin prickled with goose bumps, the hair on my arms standing on end as power washed over me in tangible waves.My wolf howled silently within, recognizing the source of our dual nature, the primordial magic that had created the first shifters millennia ago.Every muscle in my body tensed with the effort of remaining human, the urge to shift nearly overwhelming in the presence of such raw power.
“It’s… incredible,” Rozi whispered.
I tore my gaze from the pool to look at her, and I immediately forgot to breathe.The blue light bathed her features, illuminating her from below like some ancient goddess stepped from myth into reality.Wonder transformed her face, parted lips, flushed cheeks, eyes wide with awe and understanding.The sight hit me with physical force, a tightening in my chest and throat that made speech impossible for several heartbeats.
“Yes,” I finally managed, my voice roughened by emotion I couldn’t disguise.“Incredible.”My fingers itched to trace the curve of her jaw, to tangle in her golden curls, to pull her against me and claim what the universe had twice offered.
Not yet,I reminded myself, though my wolf snarled in frustration.Soon.
She moved forward slowly, reverently, her trained eye cataloging every detail.Then she stopped abruptly, dropping to her knees at the edge of the pool.
“The moss,” she breathed, hands hovering just above a thick growth of vivid blue-green moss that formed a perfect ring around the COL.“Look at it, Brody.It’s growing exactly at the water line, not submerged, not completely dry, but in the liminal space between.”
I knelt beside her, our shoulders brushing in a contact that sent sparks through my system.Through the mate bond, I could feel her excitement almost as my own, her wonder bleeding into my consciousness.The moss danced with the same rhythm as the water, its color shifting subtly with each wave of energy that passed through it.
“This is it,” she said, excitement making her voice tremble.“This is what your tonic was missing.The moss that grows at the threshold between water and air, it’s the key stabilizing agent.”
“Like us,” I said softly, the words escaping before I could stop them.
She looked up, her brow furrowing.“What do you mean?”
I swallowed hard, suddenly finding it difficult to meet her gaze.“Shifters exist in the liminal space, not fully human, not fully animal.Balanced between worlds.”I reached out, my fingers hovering just above hers without touching.“And you and I, we’ve been caught in our own threshold space.Not together, not truly apart.For years.”
Her breath caught, the sound loud in the quiet of the cavern.“Brody…”
“It’s why nothing worked before,” I continued, something about this place compelling honesty that might have been harder elsewhere.“Una’s tonic, your research, they were incomplete because we were looking at only one side of the threshold.Just like us.”
Her eyes met mine, something vulnerable and fierce shimmering in their depths.“Until now.”
“Until now,” I agreed, the promise in those two words hanging between us, imbued with the COL’s ancient magic.
Her fingers reached out, barely brushing the growth.The moss responded immediately, its glow intensifying where she touched it.“It’s reacting to me,” she said.
“It recognizes you,” I said quietly.“As a healer.”
She looked up at me, and in that moment, with the COL’s light illuminating her from below, my heart stuttered painfully in my chest.The blue glow caught in her hair, turning the golden curls to something otherworldly, and highlighted the perfect curve of her lips.
Lips I’d tasted too briefly, lips that had whispered my claim.Heat pooled low in my belly, my body hardening with a desire so intense it bordered on pain.
My wolf surged forward, desperate to complete what we’d begun in the cabin.Mine, he insisted, the primal need to claim our mate amplified by the ancient magic surrounding us.Soon,I promised him silently.Soon.
