Where The Ice Gives Way novel Chapter 84

Chapter 84 The Field Between Us

Charlotte

Mara looks between us both, then says softly, “Close your eyes.” The room disappears into darkness behind my lids. Mara’s voice stays calm. “I

ant you to picture a field,” she says. “Open and wide and untouched. Tall grass moving in the wind. Trees in the distance. Sky above you.

hing crowded. Nothing pressing in.” I try. At first, it feels like exactly that. Trying. I picture grass because she tells me to-green, then gold he edges, moving in long neath a pale sky. A tree line sits far off where the land rises slightly, and the wind moves through it in a

w, steady hush.

Something

and the

the

er us. “Picture the ground beneath your wolf’s feet.” The image sharpens. The grass is no longer just now. Cool at the stems. Soft where it brushes against my legs. The earth beneath it is firm and springy, ng in the real world ever does. Sun-warmed grass. Open water. Bark. Sky. I draw in a breath. “Imagine do, and the field deepens around me. Th

moves over my back, along my sides, under my fur. My

my mind. No. It’s not my thought. It’s S

something I am picturing from the outside living room go. The rug. The house. The he or one dizzy second, all I can do is look, no nding beneath the wind, pale seed heads ca

ter runs over stone in a low, constant murn

The clouds above you.” They are there. Slow

ell it-the clean, sharp thread of it moving a passenger leaning over her shoulder whi

step is smooth and certain, The dily and deeply. There is no f

grass from the far side of me place, I feel the bond unlight, body loose and

between them closes

and I am in her. The world drops away so completely, I

of it is gone beneath a rush of open air and light and but through hers. The field stretches forever. Tall grass ise in the distance, their leaves whispering. Somewhere off to moving through it, but it sounds far away now. “Breathe in. oss a wide blue sky. “Breathe out. Picture water nearby.” I can hear is moving. I am with her. Inside her. Riding just behind her senses

a place she already knows. She moves forward through the grass.

and legs, brushing against white fur. Her ears flick once. Her breath moves ion. Only knowing. Something moves ahead, a shape moving toward us through pears. I know him before he gets close enough to see properly. I know him in the mistake. He comes over the rise in a long, easy stride, dark fur cut through with with the sort of certainty that makes something in my chest turn over. The distance th. Mate. The word moves between them without sound, and still I hear it.

Shanti presse

ving

of her body along his shoulder and side, and Lex answers, his head dipping, his neck fur slides together softly. Grass bends beneath their paws. The field goes quiet around them. whole way around, and Shanti turns with him, tail low and relaxed, eyes half closing as she leans jaw. She nudges his chest. Their movements are so instinctive, so easy, that all the awkwardness and

feel ridiculous.

econd-guessing. No wondering what they are. They know. The field seems to widen around them as they nd unhurried. Lex walks close enough that their shoulders bump every few steps. Shanti lets him. Wants it. Shrinking back, no fear of being seen. She is exactly what she is, and he meets her there without question. It ime stretched out in sun and wind and tall grass. Time doesn’t exist here. It folds in on itself and opens again, and ower into the field together, side by side at first, then closer, until Shanti’s side is pressed flush to Lex’s and their e same slow rhythm. I feel it then. The calm. It moves through me from the inside out, washing over every place in me or days, maybe years. It softens things I didn’t know were clenched. It settles behind my ribs, and in my throat and under impossible stretch of time there is no fear anywhere in me at all-only peace.

ra meant by stillness, I understand it now. I want to stay in it forever, in a place where I feel like I belong. The field begins to

I am not ready to leave yet. But Shanti is already loosening from it, the world beginning to slide backwards the way it came, feel the living room coming back in pieces

first, soft and steady and close now instead of far away.

ays. “Keep breathing slowly as you

Id settle around you.” My eyes open, and all I see is

M

K

9:02 am P Ppp.

Chapter 84 The Field Between Us

Blake. His forehead is pressed against mine. Our legs are tangled together on the rug. One of my arms is caught between in while the oft curled against his side. His hand rests warm and broad at my waist, and his other arm is bent beneath me. His eyes open too, his breathing slow. I don’t know which one of us moved first. I don’t know if I slid toward him or if he leaned into me or if Lex and Shanti found each other through us the same way they did in the field, and our bodies followed-the bond hums between us. Mara’s voice comes again, lower this to “Good,” she says. “Just like that.” Neither of us moves. I can still feel the field under my skin. The grass. The wind. Lex’s for against Shanti’s side. The quiet certainty moving between them as it had never been in doubt. Blake’s eyes flick once to my mouth. Then back to my eyes. My

breath catches, and his does too.

Comments

Sherry Fulayter

awe that was beautiful

7 days ago

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Where The Ice Gives Way