“What is—”
“Silence, woman.” I stare over her shoulder at the two glowing eyes that seem to hover in midair just over her shoulder. If I hadn’t been so distracted by her, the beast never would have gotten so close. “When I tell you to run, run back to the village like your life depends on it. Because it does.”
A fine tremor works its way through her body, but I don’t have time to worry about her fear right now. I’ll have to time this carefully. The creature will pounce and there will be one moment to get out of the way. These animals have the ability to partially shift planes of existence, which allows them to dodge attacks both physical and magical.
How do I know that?
We’ve stopped at Yaltia a handful of times over the years, but I’ve never once ventured out of the village itself. I took one look at the houses in the trees and any curiosity I felt shriveled up. Up until this moment, I would have sworn I have no idea what resides in this forest.
The eyes shift, sinking a few spare inches. The beast is about to pounce. I shove Evelyn toward the village. “Run!” I draw my magic forth even as I pull my largest knife from my boot. Not bringing my sword was a foolish thing to do, but I hadn’t expected to do more than gather up a wayward witch. Fighting for my life wasn’t on the agenda.
I get my first clear look at the creature as it stalks out of the darkness, a giant black cat with a startling patch of white on its chest. Its shoulders are massive, likely coming up to my chest if it stood still long enough, and its claws are easily as long as my hands. The glowing eyes hold an intelligence that is hardly animal. There’s menace there, hate even.
The beast launches itself at me. I throw up a shield, and it blinks out of existence. There one moment and gone the next. It reappears on the other side of my shield, far too close. The damn thing teleported. I knew it could do it, but seeing it verified is something else entirely.
Holding a shield around my body is all but impossible in a fight, and it won’t do any good against an enemy like this. Instead, I go on the offense. I strike with a concentrated blast of magic aimed directly at its head.
The damned thing dodges, leaping straight up so my magic passes harmlessly below it. “Fuck.” It obviously has experience fighting magical humans. I’m in trouble. If I can’t strike and I can’t defend … this might be it for me.
I barely have time to process that thought and the conflicting emotions it brings when a ball of violently purple fire smashes into the cat’s side. It howls in agony as the fire wraps around it, freakishly fast. The beast blinks out of existence, but when it reappears, the fire is still spreading through its fur.
With a cry that makes my skin prickle, the cat turns and flees deeper into the trees. Instantly, the fire goes out. It doesn’t stop running, though. I watch it disappear before I turn to where Evelyn crouches.
Her fingertips are filthy from carving the rough circle she occupies, and she’s breathing just as hard as I am. She looks up at me, her green eyes glowing nearly as brightly as the cat’s had. “I didn’t want to hurt it.”
I blink. “What?”
“I couldn’t let it kill you.” She weaves a little and plants her hand on the ground. Her hair falls forward to hide her face from me. “And it’s too close to the village. A child could have wandered this deep into the woods. It’s not like we walked far to get here. It’s only a matter of time before it kills someone.” Her voice is clogged as if she’s fighting back tears.
I move closer on pure instinct. “You saved me.”
“It’s not right to kill animals just because they’re dangerous. By that logic, both you and I should be killed, too.”
Gods above and below, my thieving witch has a bleeding heart.
I don’t stop to think. I scoop her into my arms. “You didn’t kill it, and it’s smart enough to move on to an easier territory to hunt. You saved my life and probably the lives of at least one villager.” I press a kiss to her temple on pure instinct. “And the villagers would have killed it after it took one of their own. You did a good thing, little witch.”
She gives a sad little laugh. “I know what you must think. It’s a silly thing to be sad about. But we humans fuck up too much shit, you know? It’s not the wild’s fault that we’re so determined to show up where we’re not wanted.”
I hug her even tighter to me. “Are you going to ask me to track down the beast and heal it?”
“What?” This time, her laugh sounds a little bit closer to the woman I’m coming to know. “Of course not. There might be others, and while I’m sad at the thought of hurting it, I don’t want to die. Or for you to die.” She tilts her head back and looks at me. Her brows draw together. “You really would do it, wouldn’t you?”
I don’t want to. The thought of venturing deeper into the trees makes my skin threaten to crawl right off my body. I don’t know that it would return to this place once it’s healed, but it’s possible. The beast being so close to the village is a recipe for disaster. If the villagers weren’t able handle it themselves, the C?n Annwn would be summoned back to this place to deal with the problem. And they … we … wouldn’t stop until it’s dead.
“It would be a bad idea to track it down and heal it,” I say finally.
“Oh, Bowen.” She rests her head on my shoulder. It feels rather nice. “I’m going to let you carry me because that was a bit of a reckless move on my part, to pull that spell with so little prep, but don’t think it’s because I like you.”
I smile against her hair. “Of course not.”
“I don’t like you.”
“Mm-hmm.”
She sighs. “Right. I don’t even sound convincing to myself. Whatever. Take me back to the ship, Captain. I’ll be a good little sailor, at least for a while.”
CHAPTER 12
Evelyn
BOWEN DOESN’T SAY ANOTHER WORD AS HE CARRIES ME around the perimeter of the village and back to the ship. Probably because he’s very much a man not overly in touch with his emotions and I’m doing my best not to weep over a murderous cat monster.
Bunny always said I was too soft when it came to furry friends.
Then again, she suffered from the same affliction. She constantly fed strays and nursed sick creatures back from the brink of death, and she never met a swan she didn’t want to talk shit to as if it were human.
She wouldn’t have faulted me for defending myself … except I wasn’t defending myself. I was defending Bowen. I could have run like he ordered me to. Truth be told, I had started to. It was only when I looked back and realized the cat could teleport to avoid his magic that I realized exactly how much trouble he was in.
The fool didn’t even have his sword, and it was absolutely my fault. He came out here to bring me back, to save me from myself. The fact that he didn’t bring a weapon with him speaks volumes … and it was going to get him killed fighting that beast.
If he died, Miles would take over the Crimson Hag, and that outcome is unacceptable. That’s the only reason I saved him. Yep. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t have that thought until just now. Totally checks out.