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I rubbed my cheek against his neck, placed my lips against his warm skin. ‘Yes, I’ll swim with you, kelpie’—his ears twitched back and I started to draw away—‘one day, but that day hasn’t—’
Green lightning arced around us, sizzling into steam as it hit the water. The kelpie horse screamed with rage, rearing up and lunging towards the beach. The turbulent wave that spread out behind him knocked me off my feet and I sank below the dark sea. I kicked out with my legs, reaching for the surface above me. A hand wrapped around my ankle and I kicked, panicked, until it loosened. I burst out into the air above, heart pounding, gasping for breath. The shore was further away than I remembered—time and space and magic conspire to deceive in Between. I started swimming, a
Someone was throwing Stun spells around like they were firecrackers at a troll’s New Moon party.
Panic hit me before I remembered no one could pass Tavish’s entrance without his say-so. He knewwhoever it was attacking. And he wouldn’t have let them in if he didn’t think he could deal with them ... I just wished he’d remembered that he’d left me struggling in his rage-lashed sea. Arrogant bastard. I clamped my lips tight together and doggie-paddled towards the shore, doing my best not to drown. Within minutes my arms ached and the jeans were like lead weights around my legs, determined to drag me under. I trod water as I struggled with the zip and finally managed to push the jeans down over my hips—then promptly panicked again as I followed them under into the depths below.
Water choked my throat and burned down my nose as I struggled back up to the surface and then gulped for air like a stranded fish. Then trying to ignore the cramp stabbing into my left thigh, I pushed out again. But hard as I swam, the shore was still too far away, and I realised that something—either the kelpie or the magic—was holding me back. Anger filled me, giving me another burst of energy. No way were they going to keep me out here any longer. As soon as I thought it, the sea became calmer and easier to swim through, and the beach suddenly got a lot, lot closer.
The kelpie’s screams grew louder in my ears, and other, deeper roars of anger and challenge slashed through them. As my hands and knees scraped against the sandy bottom, I lurched to my feet in the shallower water, then stared at the fight before me. The kelpie reared up, still screaming with rage, his forelegs thrashing through the air, then thudding down discordantly into the sand. A heavy-built silhouette of a satyr rose against the brilliant blue of the sky, horns curving sharp above his head, ready to charge. Fi
Then I watched, my heart in my mouth, as the satyr lunged between the kelpie’s hammering forelegs, thrust up with his horns and gouged a bloody wound across the kelpie’s chest. The kelpie’s hooves struck down on the satyr’s back, knocking him down, but as the kelpie reared up again, the satyr rolled out from under the hooves and came up into a crouch. The kelpie thudded back down onto four legs, his broad chest heaving, sweat and blood combining in a pink froth on the green-black of his coat.
The fight was awe-inspiring and terrifying, and I understood why their ancestors had been worshipped as gods or feared as demons. It was also fucking stupid, all the more so because I suspected they were fighting because of me—and by the looks of them, they weren’t going to stop until one or both were unconscious. Being fae, that could take a long, long time, and I had better ways of spending mine than watching two idiot fae pound each other into the sand. Like looking for a murderer! Bad enough I’d let myself get enticed by Tavish’s magic—
‘Stop!’ I yelled, but neither heard me.
Fuck. I was too far away. Frustration rose inside me and the Knock-back Wards shifted uneasily—giving me an idea: maybe I could use them in some way? And even as I questioned it, the magic answered and I felt the weird sensation of a heavy metal bar being dropped into my hand. Almost without thinking, I lifted the bar above my shoulder, holding it like a spear. With the magic vibrating through me like high-voltage electricity I concentrated my will and threw it, aiming for a point in the sand between the two fae.
I held my breath.
Where the spear struck a padlocked door materialised into existence. Buzzing over its surface were the black and grey stripes of a Knock-back Ward. The satyr was on one side, the kelpie on the other, and neither appeared to notice the door. They lowered their heads and charged—
—and as both crashed into the mirage of the door the release of magic exploded out, lifting me off my feet and knocking me back into the water. Again.I scrambled up again and looked towards the sudden stillness.
The fight had stalled. Both fae lay groaning on the sand, the door an incongruous barrier between them.
Smiling in grim satisfaction, I strode towards them, my nose flaring at the sharp, scorched smell that stung the air.
Fi
Tavish lay on his back, arms outstretched, in his human shape once again. His dreads were matted and tangled and bright crimson blood bubbled from the jagged wound across his chest.
‘What the fuck do the pair of you think you’re playing at?’ I yelled. ‘I came here for help, not to be half-drowned, and then end up refereeing a fucking fight!’
Neither spoke. They just glowered at each other, their expressions equally closed.
I kicked at the sand in frustration. ‘Right. So if either of you is going to help me, then do it. If not, then you can just fuck off back into the water, or wherever the hell you came from. But. Stop. Wasting. My. Time.’
Turning my back on them, I stormed towards the camouflage tent. I knew how Tavish’s computers worked; I didn’t need him or anyone else for that. I lifted the fabric door and ducked under it—A wind as fierce as a hurricane blew against me, making me stumble. I grabbed hold of a wooden tent pole to keep from falling. My skin prickled with magic as hot air eddied round me, stripping the water from my dripping T-shirt and wet hair. I’d forgotten that Tavish had his threshold tagged with a Clean-Up spell. I waited until the magic cooled, telling me the spell was done, then stepped forward.
And shiftedfrom Betweenand back into the humans’ world.
And back to my problems.
Chapter Nine
Tavish’s underground living area hadn’t changed since my last visit. The walls were grey blocks of rough granite, much like the RAF monument above, and the floor was flagged with smooth dark-grey slabs. To one side of the high-ceilinged space was a low black suede sofa. A black granite slab sat solidly in front of it on a huge white long-haired skin rug belonging to some animal that had never roamed the humans’ world. I’d never felt comfortable walking on the rug with shoes on, let alone with bare feet—something told me the granite slab wasn’t just there as a convenient coffee-table—so I skirted round it and headed for Tavish’s office. A glass wall divided it from the rest of the space.