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"Emotionally, I do."
Nykos climbed out next. "No one here is qualified."
Corian was the last off the boat. He waited until the two Aqua soldiers confirmed when they would return for the next supply check, then crouched beside the route marker fixed into the edge of the dock. The center of the island lay several clicks inland, where a broad raised shelf beside one of the freshwater channels had been used as a temporary research camp during earlier surveys. We were expected to camp there for the next two weeks and work outward each day while Dannian's team collected samples from the surrounding ecosystems.
Two weeks.
Inside an actual Rift.
I was beginning to think everyone had severely underestimated how difficult it was going to be for me to behave normally about this.
Corian stood and looked toward the jungle. "Halver, scout ahead. Keep within recall distance until we know the route is clear."
Halver nodded and set his case beside Alex.
I turned toward him immediately.
I'd seen Halver fully shifted once now, when he'd become a Cinderhound during training. That had been impressive enough that I'd spent far too long afterward asking him questions about how much instinct came with a form and whether his senses changed before or after the rest of his body.
He had eventually told me I asked almost as many questions as Alex. I considered that deeply insulting. Halver stepped away from the dock and reached for the hem of his shirt.
Right. Clothes never survived whatever came next.
He pulled it over his head in one motion and dropped it onto his pack, unbothered by the fact that other people stood close enough to watch. I looked. Broad shoulders, a wide chest, muscle shifting under bronze skin as he rolled one arm loose. I wasn't going to pretend I hadn't noticed.
His hands moved to his belt.
I spun around so fast I nearly walked into Alex.
"Warn a person next time," I said toward the ferns. A deep chuckle was Halver's only reply.
Boots hit the dock. Fabric followed. Then the low pressure of magic gathering built at my back, thick enough that my own awareness strained toward it without my permission.
Magic moved.
There was no partial change or gradual compromise between one shape and another, not that I needed to see it to know that. One heartbeat sounded human. The next didn't. Bone rearranged itself in a single heavy motion, muscle stretching taut then settling, and a breath came out rough and low, longer than a human chest should have been able to hold it.
I turned back around.
Except no panther I'd ever seen looked like that.
Dark fur covered his face and lower body, almost black beneath the filtered light, while overlapping scales spread from the back of his neck across his shoulders and down his spine. They were deep blue at the edges and brighter toward the center, catching the damp light like polished stone beneath water. Smaller scales armored his forelegs, each one fitting against the next so smoothly they flexed when he moved, and thin lines of cyan light showed between several plates whenever his muscles shifted.
His eyes were the same color. Bright, impossible blue, and they were stunning, but I'd never admit I preferred them to his own eyes.
Water gathered around his paws despite the ground beneath him being only damp, tiny droplets lifting and slipping over the scales along his legs before falling back into the mud. His tail curved behind him, longer and heavier than a normal panther's, the last third lined with fine fin-like ridges that folded flat when he held it still.
I stared.
Halver stared back.
"Oh."
Alex made a suspicious sound.
I ignored him and moved closer.
The Veylith was larger than a natural panther, its shoulder reaching to my chest. According to the Menagerie records, they inhabited the inner islands of the Water Rift and moved almost as easily through rivers as they did across land. The scales protected the parts of their bodies most often exposed during underwater hunting, while the glowing markings helped members of the same family track one another through dark water.
