“You heard me.” The hag swatted at another fish. Her rotted teeth gnashed as she smacked one against the wall. Her mouth didn’t move as she spoke, but the words came into Saskia’s head as if she were talking to her mind. The dialect of Inupiat was an unusual one too. “I did you a favor, and here you come, furry and mean. Vermin now in my house.”
Favor? And vermin? This wasn’t only a hoarding hag, but she was batshit crazy too.
Saskia spat out the fish in her mouth and said a silent thank you to it. She bared her teeth at the witch and prepared to pounce.
“What you do, girl? This my home. You bite me, I twist his head backward.”
Sedge groaned as the seaweed yanked his head to the side and pulled it back even more. Saskia growled, but took a step back. Even if he had used a bit of magic to breathe, the hag could still choke him. Saskia had to figure this out. Free Sedge and get the totem. Couldn’t she just go back to beating up drug dealers?
“Fish!” The hag snarled and killed another before casting a net over the entrance to her living room with a flick of her wrist. “Won’t let me be.” She gestured to Saskia. “What you want?”
Seriously? Saskia was not only in her bear form, but under the ocean. How the hell did the witch expect her to answer? More interestingly, why wasn’t the hag attacking her? This was to Saskia’s advantage at the moment.
Saskia tapped her mouth with her paw.
“Ah.” The hag nodded and muttered lowly. A bubble grew around her and expanded through the room. It engulfed her and Sedge within. The water disappeared with it, along with all the fish except for the totem salmon that still remained in its prison. “You change. You talk.”
Was it a trick? Saskia hesitantly removed the spell that let her breathe under water. Air. Stale, but still breathable. She took in a deep breath and shifted.
“Yes. There. So pale.” The hag shook her head. Her skin wetly shone a dark blue-gray as if she ate one too many seals. Though, if the skeletons were any indication, it wasn’t seal she ate. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you to release him.” Saskia pointed to Sedge who had stopped his struggling for the moment. He watched them with guarded black eyes.
“You say you want him to leave you. I help him leave.” A cackle punctuated her sentence. She folded her bony hands together in front of her with a creepy smirk on her thin lips.
“I never said—” Dammit. Saskia ran her hands over her head. “I didn’t mean it like that. Do you even know who he is?”
The hag snorted and curled her upper lip. “Bear. You think I not know? Bear a man like any man. He yell at women, tell them what to do, drown them in the sea.”
Whoa. Sure, Sedge might be bossy and sometimes shouted, but drowning women in the sea? Seemed the witch had some issues she was projecting on Sedge, and likely every man who had met a horrible death at her hands.
If Kinley were here, she might know what to say. Saskia had never played the therapist. A couple of times, people told her she needed one, but she didn’t give them a positive response.
Okay. Be nice. The hag was a man-hater. She could run with that.
“Yeah, men are generally assholes.” Saskia hoped she said that right in Inupiat. “Dogs.” There was a word she knew. “Barking and fighting.”
Sedge’s brows furrowed as he glared at her.
“Yes!” The demented woman hissed out the word. “Dogs. Good for their seed and nothing more.”
Saskia bit her lower lip. If that’s what the witch took before she killed the men, holy fuck. “Right. My name is Saskia, by the way.”
“Estuuya.” She tapped her chest and looked pleased with herself.
“So, a few men have purposes beyond, you know, their seed.” She refused to look Sedge’s way as she said it. If she could get Estuuya to listen, to be reasonable, they might come out of this with their lives and the totem. “Bear has a purpose. He and I are on a very important quest. If we don’t complete it, all of our kind could die.”
“All bears?” Estuuya blinked, seeming much like a calculating praying mantis.
It would be easy to say yes, but Saskia judged the truth would carry more weight. “All shifters.”
The sea hag pursed her lips, moving her mouth around as if considering the importance of it. Saskia reined in the urge to attack right then. Who knew how easily the bubble could pop and then they’d possibly drown in the damn cave. She’d not become one of those skeletons along the wall, nor would she let Sedge be one.
More truth. Make it a harder hit. “If we don’t complete this quest, you won’t have your salmon there anymore. You must have felt it. It’s a powerful totem.”
Estuuya turned and placed a hand on the salmon’s bubble. “Oh, yes. My prize. Powerful. It shines bright like the morning sun.”
This might prove to be difficult. If the witch were that possessive about the totem, they’d have to fight her for it. First thing first, though. Free Sedge and make a plan. If Sedge didn’t just roar and barrel into battle. Goddammit. He’d do that, wouldn’t he?
“I’m sure you’ve noticed how the other fish are acting. They attacked us and you.” Saskia spoke slow, not certain where she wanted to take this. Diplomacy wasn’t her thing. Couldn’t she just hit the bitch, take the totem, and free Sedge?
“Vermin.” Estuuya spat.
“Bear and I, we know how to make them stop. If you give us the totem—”
“Mine!” The sea hag bared her teeth and stood in front of the grand salmon.
Saskia held up her hands. “I will not steal it from you. But we need it, or we’ll die. Is there anything I can trade you for it? A… um, new bell? A set of chairs and a table. I’m a carpenter. I could make one exactly how you want it.”
“No. Mine.” Estuuya shook her head and flexed her hands as if preparing to do a spell.
“Anything. I can get you anything your heart desires.” Hopefully Saskia didn’t sound as desperate as she felt.
Estuuya paused and then a small smile turned up her lips. Not fucking good at all.
“My heart desires one thing.” Estuuya held up a single digit. The fingernail so long it curled back onto itself.
Please let it be easy like chocolate or a bottle of rum.
Sedge’s mouth worked beneath the seaweed. Likely he had something to say. Probably a good thing that he couldn’t lest he piss off the hag and screw them both over.
Estuuya patted the salmon’s bubble and stepped toward Saskia. “Each beat is sorrow without my love. He, I want. But I cannot find him.”
From man-hater to broken hearted. A little easier to deal with. Saskia could find the guy. He might not want to be reunited with Estuuya, but she’d worry about that later. She nodded. “I’m good at finding people. Tell me his name, where to look. And with Bear helping me, we’ll find him even faster.”
“Petuwaq,” Estuuya said the name with a girl-like sigh and then turned harsh. “Bear stays.”
One good hit and… They’d probably drown before Saskia even touched the hag. She let out a slow breath. “I need Bear to help. We will not cheat you. We are honorable. And you have the totem.”
The sea hag glanced at the salmon and directed her gaze back to Saskia. Her black eyes narrowed as if disbelieving or trying to pry into her mind. “You find Petuwaq. Take Bear to help. But you must come back with Petuwaq.”
“We will. I promise we will.” Saskia nodded. Come on, old woman. The faster they were out of that watery dungeon the better.
“Petuwaq. He—” Estuuya howled. Her black eyes squeezed shut, and she gripped the skirt of her torn dress. It looked like hide or untreated skin. Hopefully animal skin. “He left me. I do not trust him. I do not trust Bear. He wants to eat me.”
There was nothing Saskia could say to that. Sedge might not ingest the hag, but he would certainly tear her to bits. “But you trust me, right? I’m honorable.”
Estuuya moaned softly. “You shine. I trust your shine.”
Shine was no
t something Saskia did or had ever done. She had no idea what the witch was talking about, but it didn’t matter. If she had to dunk herself with glow-in-the-dark paint, she’d shine like a fucking lighthouse beacon.
“Bear go with you, but I make sure he come back.” Estuuya scurried to the salmon in its bubble. She stroked it, rubbed it like a crystal ball, and muttered to herself.
Damn, she better not do anything to the totem. Saskia could not lose this token. Death had already walked off with the fox token when it had been right there for her and Sedge. She’d been certain Death had come for her. The fight with the Jinxioc nearly ended her life.
Saskia turned her gaze to Sedge. He yanked at his bindings. Did he know what the hag was doing?
He shifted into his human form. Still bound and naked, he roared to shake every pile of junk in the cave. He thrashed, and the boulder moved a fraction of an inch. His face reddened with the strain, and his eyes bulged.
Saskia took a step toward him. He looked in pain. What was going on?
“Hush.” Estuuya hissed at him. “You will come back now if you want to be Bear again.”
The air rushed out of Saskia’s lungs. “What did you do, Estuuya?”
The sea hag raised her chin. “I talk to salmon, talk to magic. I block man from touching his animal.”
Holy shit. “You made it so he can’t shift?”
The witch should have just killed Sedge. He was The Bear. He’d never lived without his animal. He was his animal. God, even Saskia couldn’t imagine not being able to shift. It would be like her head was separated from the rest of her body.
“If he want to be Bear again, he come back with Petuwaq.” Estuuya turned her black gaze onto him. “You promise. I let you go.”
Sedge growled and huffed, the redness not receding from him. “I will find him and bring him to you. This I vow.”
Under those words, Saskia heard all the unsaid promises of how he was going to rip the hag limb from limb. She’d had to convince him to stall his revenge until after all the totems were found because this was a fight she wasn’t sure Sedge could win.
“I see you take my head. Now you cannot.” Estuuya laughed, throwing her head back with it. Clearly she’d heard certain threats in his tone too. She flicked her fingers, and the seaweed released Sedge. He shook out his body with a snarl, but stood in the same spot and summoned clothes onto himself.
Saskia thought to try to change the hag’s mind about her guarantee, but Petuwaq was likely somewhere in a nearby village. Sea hags were made from drowned maidens. The Inupiat rarely traveled far from home. The guy could even be right there in Kotzebue. Sedge could live with not being a bear for that long.
“Nobody’s drowning anyone. Now to find Petuwaq, we need to know where to find him.” Saskia waited for that magical easy answer.
“Petuwaq drowned too,” Estuuya said with a low moan.
Ah, shit.
“He live with the Salmon People.”
The whereabouts of Petuwaq was something Saskia should have asked before agreeing to find him. The man was dead. Probably for a very long time. And the Salmon People, who were the spirits of departed fish, lived in another realm at the bottom of the ocean.
Idiot. She was a fucking idiot.
Maybe taking out the sea hag right now would be the better option.
No. Not without Sedge being able to turn into a bear.
Think, think, think. Saskia glanced at Estuuya. “Do you know how to get to the Salmon People?”
“If I could get to Petuwaq myself, I no have you do it.” Was the sea hag smirking?
“Let’s go.” Sedge put a hand on Saskia’s shoulder and tugged her toward the exit.
And do what? Go fishing until they found a magical salmon? This was ridiculous. But she’d been the one to dig them into the hole. It was up to her to find a way out of it.
“Okay.” Saskia nodded to Estuuya and took one more look at the massive salmon in its prison. It no longer rammed itself against the sides. Did it know she planned to save it?
She shifted and summoned the magical gills. The witch didn’t even wait until they were out of her cave before she popped the bubble of air. It didn’t matter. Sedge still had his magic, at least. She swam ahead of him and planned what they needed to do next. Back to land, find out how to get to the Salmon People, and probably get a boat. As polar bears, they could swim long distances, but who knew how far they’d have to go to find the other realm.
Wait. A boat would be a necessity. Sedge couldn’t shift.
Saskia turned her head to look back at him. Sedge slowed, his movements becoming sluggish as they kicked upwards.
Though still dark, she could see his arms droop and his face slacken. He wasn’t going to make it. Shit!
She spun around and paddled fast to him to snatch his left arm in her mouth. Then she kicked with all her might. Rocketing to the surface, they burst out of the water. Sedge didn’t move. His eyes were closed and his skin, damn, was it blue?
A few minutes exposure to the cold sea could kill a man. Sedge wasn’t just any man, but without his bear, he had no protection from the elements. He was going to die.
There was no way she could swim with him back to Kotzebue fast enough. She headed to the closest snowy shore. After saving him from the sea hag, she couldn’t let him die of hypothermia. Every second counted. Faster, faster!
Saskia dragged him onto the rocky shore and dove into the snow. With her massive paws, she swiftly dug a den. Really, it was nothing more than a hole in the snow. Crappy as it was, it would have to do.
She pulled Sedge over and shifted into her human form. He needed to be warmed up. Fire.
Rocks, snow, and ice. There was nothing to fuel a fire, and she was no mage. She couldn’t conjure flames.
Fuck.
He was going to die if she didn’t think of something. Dry clothes weren’t going to be enough. They needed a heat source.
Body heat. It was all she had to offer.
But lying on the snow even with her wouldn’t work. They could lie on all her clothes, and then she could summon more to cover them. Still not enough.
What she needed was a sleeping bag. One of those subzero super thermal ones. The problem was: she’d never made more than clothes before. There was never the need. And she never asked Azarius how to do it.
Sedge already looked like a gorgeous corpse. Was he even breathing? She couldn’t bring herself to check yet.
It was all about intent. Imagine being wrapped in a big sleeping bag. She’d camped out a thousand times with her dad. Half the time they turned into bears and slept under the stars, but she’d spent her fair share of time in a tent.
She loved that feeling of being out in the wild. The woods and mountains surrounding them and all the nighttime noises. All while safe and warm in her sleeping bag.
Smiling, she remembered the feel of the soft fleece and the crinkle of the slippery surface of the bag. She even had one that could tie up around her head to make her seem like a mummy. It was like a cocoon, the world’s most comfy full body housecoat.
Saskia blinked and found she was suddenly much warmer. She wore the sleeping bag like another coat.
Laughing, she unzipped it and stepped out. She laid it out in the den and pulled Sedge over. She rid him of his wet clothes and hurriedly rolled him into the bag. Splaying a hand on his chest, she felt a slight rise and the faint beat of his heart.
He was still there.
She zipped the bag up most of the way before throwing off her clothes. She wiggled in with him and sucked in a breath. His skin made her shiver. No one could survive being so cold.
Fuck them. This was Sedge. He could survive anything.
He had to.
Please let him live.
Her heart hammered as Saskia wrapped her body around his and zipped up the bag to the top with her right arm out. She snatched her tuque and pulled it over his head. Weird to see him wearing something black. She’d always thought he’d l
ook good in black, but no. White was his color.
Sucking back a sob that threatened to spill free, she grabbed handfuls of snow and built a wind barrier around their heads with a window facing up at the dark sky. Yanking her arm back into the bag, she closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against his cheek.
It’d been years since she held him this way, since their naked bodies tangled together and shared their heat. Among other things.
Her chest constricted. In another world where her mother hadn’t died, where cancer hadn’t eaten away at her life and hovered always on the fringes, Saskia could do this every night. Not the whole bargain with a sea hag and Sedge nearly dying part, but the twined together and sharing heat thing. The tender and not so soft touches, the fierce kisses, and the shake-the-world sex.
Sedge loved her. Even after she ran away, after fighting him on every little thing, he still loved her. He never stopped.
When her mother died, her heart had been crushed. Azarius’ death ripped at her soul. If Sedge died, there’d be nothing left of her.
Because she loved him too.
Warm and cozy. The waves lapped at the shore, and a ship’s horn honked in the distance. The steady sound of his breathing…
His breathing.
Saskia’s eyes snapped open. Sunlight reflecting on the snow made her squint. When had she fallen asleep?
She squirmed, attempting to untangle herself from him and sit up. His arms tightened around her.
“Don’t move.” Sedge’s hot breath skated over her forehead.
“What? Why?” Was there someone out there? She stiffened as she listened and sniffed. No one. Just the two of them.
Sedge nuzzled the top of her head. “Because I’m enjoying this.”
She groaned and propped herself up on an elbow. “You almost died. Did you know that?”
“I know. I remember my body freezing.” He swept her long hair back out of her face and wound it around his hand. “You saved me.” His gaze wandered to her partially exposed chest, and his pupils dilated a little. “With your body.”
Deep Current (Totem Book 6) Page 3
