Page 57 of Shifters Unifying

“The first lost her mind, wandered out into a blizzard, and died in northern Bulgaria.”

“And the other?”

“Also lost her mind.”

“Perfect,” I muttered.

Dr. Wise tipped her head to the side and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Before her end, she begged to be killed, so shewould not allow herself to be used against her people. The enemy she had been sent to beat spread through Europe, and the imbalance began the great migration of many shifters to New Port Orleans, into Louisiana, and up the Mississippi River.”

“So, if I don’t accept my duty, I’ll lose my mind. That’s great.” The admission felt like a gut-punch, and it took my breath away.

Dr. Wise shrugged. “According to the limited histories I’ve studied. It’s likely that there are instances of successfully deferred multimorphism of which I am not aware. The information is not complete.” She paused, thinking. “Yes, I believe I can say that it’s as likely as not.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “Acheron’s out there, and it’s my job to beat him or die trying. When I think about Logan and leaving him to fight the battle on his own… I already know that I’m in too deep.”

She nodded, lifted her case, and reached inside. When she brought her hand out, she held another jump drive and offered it to me. “This is encrypted and password protected as before.”

“What’s the password this time?”

“Your name, transposed to the number equivalents, plus five.”

I frowned. “Huh?”

“E-M-M-A would be 5-5-13-1. Add five to each number. That would be 10-10-18-6. That’s the first part of the password. Do the same thing with you last name.”

“Understood.” I help up the portable drive. “What’s on it?”

“This is a compiled, indexed list of everything I could find on linking. It’s similar to the fated mate bond. Basically, it’s a study I’ve done on what you’ll likely need to do to beat Acheron.”

“And what’s that mean? Do you have a summary?”

“In order to beat him, you’ll have to do what he does.”

“How so? I don’t intend to do anything he does,” I countered. “He destroys where I must heal rifts, build up clans, and unify them all.”

“In order to beat Acheron, you’ll need to link with other shifters and channel their energy through you, much as you did on the training mats.” She beamed at me. “As Acheron’s strength grows, your energy circle will need to grow large enough to combat him. In the end, there’s no telling how many warm shifter bodies it might take to beat him.”

My jaw slacked, and I gaped at her. “You’re tell me I’ll have to do what I did in there? Again?”

“That is correct,” she said. “It’s the only way to have enough energy to beat the still-growing mage.” She grinned. “Don’t you see?”

I shook my head. “See what?”

“It is a good sign that you were able to do that. It means you can link, and you can funnel shifter energy where you need it. If you were to access the primal at the same time as linking to other shifters, it is likely that you would be able to beat Acheron.”

“That’s everybody’s wild hope,” I said sarcastically, flashing a thumbs up.

“That is the hope,” she agreed. “You must continue to practice linking and managing incredible amounts of shifter energy. That practice is necessary to avoid another instance like today. Thankfully, as is often the case for the multimorph, you can balance any accidental destruction with healing.”

“Oh, that’s handy, isn’t it?” I sighed. “There’s no way I can practice,” I said. “Didn’t you see what happened in there? I hurt them, almost destroyed them. That’s the mark of someone evil, not someone meant to be the multimorph and save our kind from a larger threat.”

“It only happened that way because you’ve only read about using energy-linking. You’ve had no practice, no teaching.”

“Uh, no, I’ve not read about it at all.”

Dr. Wise froze. “Then how did you know how to do that?”

I frowned and studied my toes. The moist Louisiana soil cooled the soles of my feet grass, but the dirt in this spot had been burned by Theo’s cremation. It was still too soon for any of the vegetation to have grown back without magical assistance.