Page 206 of The Spider Queen
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 inAlice 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.”
