“Yes, and it’s too foreign for you to mesh with or understand how to expel. The Broker’s magic isn’t what hurts you directly, it hurts you because your spirit keeps trying to fight and get rid of the intruding magic, but you aren’t just attacking it, you’re doing damage toyourselftoo.”
Of course. The Brokers being bastards was the gift that kept on screwing me over. Their magic was stuck inside me and kept making things worse. That sounded so like them.
"Alike enough or not, you’ve always given the impression that angels are far superior and more powerful than us,” Lysander said. “Can’t you fix it?"
"What’s the best way to use a tornado to fix a hangnail?” Frost mused. “There isn’t one. Solving one problem means creating several others.”
“We need… magical tweezers?" I felt silly for saying that out loud.
"Essentially,” Frost agreed. “We need something that is capable of interacting with earth magic and with you. Something that could mesh with you and give you the tools you need to expel the irritant.”
"Like a vaccine?” Lysander wondered. “You introduce a controlled version of a virus so the immune system can create antibodies to fight the disease if infected later."
“So something good from Earth can help me fight the bad magic from Earth?” I said. “Why does that sound too good to be true?”
"Probably because of my tone," the other angel reasoned.
"Frost.”I slammed my hand down on the coffee table.“What’s the catch? Does this element even exist?”
“Not naturally.” He hesitated. “There’s a potential solution but you might not like it.”
“So what else is new? Tell me anyway and I’ll decide.”
“Yes,” he said. “You both will.” Both? “You can blend with the right element, with some adjustments. Like spirits here, ours are also capable of fusing together.”
"Wait, are you talking about what I think you’re talking about?” Lysander wondered. “A soul bond?"
Frost nodded. "Since we create links to other angels without altering our spirits, we view this process differently than people here who mate for love. We use them to cement tricky alliances, because there is no reversing the process for us."
Lysander frowned. "But if we’re too incompatible…"
“An angel and a fox shifter arenaturallyincompatible, which is why only adapting and becoming enough like each other will work. Nothing else can bridge the gap. But with this, you’re fundamentally altering yourselves.” Frost did away with all pretense we were talking about a hypothetical situation. “You wouldn’t be a shifter anymore. You’d be a shifter with a touch of angel and vice versa. Your lifespans would meet somewhere in the middle. All the incompatible parts would meet somewhere in the middle."
Somewhere around the time a soul bond got tossed out, it was like my brain took a step back from reality. The world out there became too much to deal with and I made a strategic retreat. Their conversation continued without me, the words reaching me from far away, weak and unsustainable by the time they found me, the words couldn’t hurt me.
But now I slammed back into the present moment and the truth hit me hard. Oh no. "I’d need to mate."
My hands weren’t linked with Lysander’s anymore. I pulled mine away. Mating scared me my entire life. How was I supposed to be okay with this?
Just great. Free from the basement and yet I was still Especially Doomed.
~
Max
The moon reflected off the still water. Out here in the dark quiet, nothing else existed except the moonlight and the pond. The geese long ago retired for the night and light from the nearby apartment complex didn’t reach this far, so foot traffic was scarce.
That meant the approaching footsteps could only belong to one man.
"How’d you find me?"
"Lucky guess.” Lysander joined me at the edge of the pond. “How did you even get here?"
"Magic."
He sputtered quietly in response. "Seriously?”
Needing some space, I wished for a private spot to think. An image of the pond flashed across my mind. I needed to be there and suddenly I was there.
