Page 204 of The Spider Queen
“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.”
