by Mikayla Lane
“Koda, you don’t want to go there,” Emily whispered, holding up one hand in front of him. “Please, just go back up the hill and we’ll be there soon.”
Koda looked deeply into her sorrow filled eyes and shook his head slowly.
“You can’t keep it hidden from me if you plan to help me,” he said softly, wishing he could push the stray, damp curl behind her ear.
Emily nodded her head and whistled, gesturing with her hands for those who’d gone back up the hill.
“Get down here, I need your help to get him on the sled,” she called out.
Emily ignored the groans of the spirits as she grabbed the supplies from the sled and moved back around the fractured pod to where Koda’s body lie in the debris laden leaves.
She tried to ignore the horrified shock on Koda’s face and began pulling out the meager and damn near useless medical supplies she’d brought. She batted away the tears falling down her face as she slid to her knees next to his shattered body.
She was listening so intently to the instructions that Gran was giving her on how to wrap his nearly severed arm that she screamed when she felt Koda try to touch her shoulder.
“Go back up the hill,” she whispered, her concentration focused on listening to Gran.
“Emily . . . don’t. There’s nothing you can do,” Koda whispered back.
Emily finished wrapping the arm as Gran instructed and she furiously wiped the tears from her face as she turned angry green eyes to him.
“I’m not a quitter or a coward, and I’m not giving up. Go back up the damn hill,” she hissed at him before turning her attention back to Gran and her specific instructions.
“Emily, there’s nothing you can do! There’s nothing I want you to do! By the gods! Look at me! What’s left of me . . .” Koda said, shaken to his core by what happened.
Emily stood and held up her hand, palm out towards him. Koda watched in detached fascination as her green eyes sparked with a flash of colors before she closed them.
“Go,” she said in an unusually deep voice before a small burst of colored light threw Koda back over the hill.
Koda lay on his back for a moment in stunned disbelief before he got back to his feet and stormed back over the hill to where Emily, Joey, and half a dozen spirits were all giving her suggestions on what to do about his injuries.
He was getting ready to use his energy to push them away when Emily’s voice rang out.
“Try it, and I’ll chuck your ass all the way back to the cabin, and you can spend the night getting back here or wait for me to get back there. Pick your poison,” she threatened.
Koda quirked a brow at the commanding note to her voice and he almost listened to her. Almost. But he couldn’t let her do this to herself. There was no longer a point in trying to save what remained of him.
“Emily, you have to know there is no point. You’ll be wasting so much energy for a lost cause, and you’re not strong enough to get the body back to the cabin,” he said, unwilling to claim the mangled flesh as his body.
“Stay the hell out of my way, Koda,” Emily threatened before she stood and looked at the others gathered around. “OK, each of you lend your energy to getting him on the sled. Concentrate.”
Koda stood back and folded his arms across his chest, wondering what it was that she expected them to be able to do. When nothing happened, he shook his head and was ready to ask her to give up when Emily threw her head back.
“Elmer Stevenson! Get your ass here and help, and you’ll get to leave first!” Emily roared to the sky.
“You swear?” Elmer said from behind Koda.
“I swear. Help us, and I swear I will set you free,” Emily promised, ignoring the incredulous look on Koda’s face.
“You better not be lying, witch,” Elmer threatened as he moved the other spirits out of his way and looked down at Koda’s body before turning to look at his ethereal form.
Elmer shook his head and looked back at Emily.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
Emily nodded her head.
“Absolutely.”
Elmer threw his shoulders back and stretched his arms above his head before he leaned down and started panting, his large chest expanding and contracting until he reached out and threw Koda onto the sled, his injured arm dangling over the edge as his hand brushed the ground.
Emily rushed over to the sled, tucked Koda’s arm against his body, and covered him with a blanket. She then turned back to Elmer and the others.
“Elmer is first, as promised. The rest of you, help me pull when you can; when you get tired, I’ll help you as well,” Emily said then closed her eyes to open the portal for Elmer.
“Wait . . . just wait,” Elmer said gruffly.
“I’ll keep my word, Elmer,” Emily argued, opening her eyes to assure the spirit.
“Yeah, yeah. I don’t doubt you will. But these pathetic weaklings can’t help you worth a damn, or you wouldn’t have called for me,” Elmer said as he gestured to the other spirits keeping a wide berth from him.
Emily blushed, unwilling to outright lie. She also didn’t want their feelings hurt.
“They try very hard; they just never learned how to manipulate material things the way you have. What is your suggestion?” Emily asked, wondering if he had one or was just cruelly stating the obvious.
“Get him strapped on,” Elmer said before he reached down and started throwing the unused medical supplies in the backpack.
Emily had no idea what Elmer had planned, but she wasn’t taking any chances with Koda’s body. He was barely alive as it was, and she was scared to death that a tumble off the sled would finish him off. She had no idea how they were going to keep him alive at all. His injuries were so extensive, so brutal, she had no idea how he even continued to breathe.
She ran to the sled and looked for a place on his body that wasn’t shredded in some fashion so she could secure him. She shook her head as the tears slipped silently down her cheeks, finding nowhere that wouldn’t cause him more pain or disrupt an already horrific injury.
“Secure his wrists to each upper corner, leave a little slack so he can move with the swaying of the sled without pulling on him,” Elmer said as he threw the backpack in next to Koda’s foot. “Then do his one foot to the other corner. Finish it off with a wrapping around his waist to stabilize his trunk.”
Emily nodded her head numbly, trying hard to avoid looking at all the dried blood marring his body as she started to secure him to the sled. She was grateful when Gran talked her through how to stabilize his neck and keep him from being knocked around.
Everyone, including Koda, watched in amazement as the powerful spirit and Emily worked together to get his body secured to the sled.
Emily surprised everyone when she picked up Joey and sat her next to Koda on the sled, tying her sister to the bonds securing Koda so she wouldn’t fall off.
Emily looked up at Elmer and smiled at him in the dim light as night began to fall.
“Thank you, Elmer. That was a wonderful thing that you did,” Emily said, figuring he was now ready to move on.
He shocked her by pushing the sled up the small hill before he jumped on top and let it slide down the other side. Without her pulling it, the scratching and dragging sounds on the hard plastic took on an ominous sound, and Emily ran after them in a panic, praying that nothing had happened to Joey or Koda.
She reached the top of the hill and stood in open mouthed surprise at a giggling Joey and a perfectly safe Koda as Elmer pushed them a little farther through the path Emily had already made through the forest.
“Oh stop staring and come on. You can answer some of my damn questions on the way,” Elmer yelled back as he pushed the sled further.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Tom told Emily as he ran past her to catch up to the sled.
Emily grinned through her exhaustion, hoping like hell Elmer could make it all the way back to the cabin. If he could, she’d answer a
ny question he had. With a whoop of excitement, she ran down the hill to catch up, the other spirits following her. Which left Koda standing there staring after them.
He turned back and walked to the pod, looking around at the debris field and the trees surrounding it.
“What the hell . . .” he said as his eye caught on something in the bushes a few feet away from the pod.
He walked over to it and quickly turned away when he saw that it was the lower half of his severed leg. He leaned down with his hands on his knees and took gulping breaths as he tried to process what was going on.
“This is fucking crazy! I can’t even die right!” Koda stood and roared to the night sky.
When he calmed down, he looked around the area, trying to find a way to signal Grai when he found the pod. He found a charred piece of wood and gathered his energy around him as he used the stick to write on the pod.
When he was done he headed back up the hill to catch up to Emily and her spectral entourage.
Which I’m now one of . . . awesome, he thought sarcastically as he stomped after her.
By the time he reached her and the others, they’d somehow managed to go at least a half mile, and Koda had to run to catch up.
Not like I could lose them with the noise they’re making through the damn forest, Koda thought, wincing as Elmer ran over a rock, scraping the bottom of the sled. And her glowing like a damn runway light!
Koda refused to look at his covered body in the sled as he walked beside it, but his gaze was drawn to the soft snores coming from the sled, and he couldn’t help but smile at little Joey.
The adorable baby had cuddled herself up to his chest and had one little arm thrown over his bound one while her other was laying across the uninjured side of his face. His heart clenched at the sight and the knowledge that he’d never been able to lay in such a way with a child of his own.
His emotions in turmoil over the last few hours, Koda let the wild energy propel him past the sled so he could walk beside Emily.
“I think that now would be a good time for you to let this go. Even you had to admit that it is a lost cause; I cannot be saved,” Koda said gently, trying not to upset her.
Emily snorted and stomped away from him, back to where Elmer was using his energy to propel the sled forward.
“What questions do you have, Elmer? I owe you answers—big time,” she said, completely ignoring Koda.
Koda was getting angry and frustrated, but he was also smart enough not to piss off the one person who could end the nightmare for him. Instead, he slowed his pace until he was walking beside her, so she would know he was there even if she was trying to ignore him and bided his time.
“Is what you told that boy the truth? That sometimes you get caught because something goes wrong and not because you’re fighting the fact you gonna be Satan’s bitch?” Elmer asked bluntly.
Emily sputtered then laughed. She’d never heard it put quite like that before.
“Yes, that was the truth,” Emily admitted. “It was an angel named Indrid who explained to me that something is wrong with the energy or something of the planet and it causes problems sometimes. There’s also the trauma of the passing or unfinished business to consider. If you think hard about it, one of those usually applies to everyone I deal with.”
“It’s the conversion,” Koda interjected.
“What?” Emily asked, turning to an obviously irritated Koda.
“It is the energy of the planet; the magnetic poles are shifting. It can disrupt everything involving humans because like all beings, you are made up of energy. This,” Koda said, gesturing to himself. “Is our energy, manifesting the last image we remember of our bodies. What Elmer is doing, that the rest of you aren’t good at, is using his energy to move the sled. Like so.”
Koda moved to the sled and used all his pent up frustrations and anger to push the sled. Right into a log where it hit violently before slipping onto its side.
“You bastard!” Emily screamed as she ran over to the sled to right it and check on Joey.
“That was a real asshole thing to do. I can see why you’re stuck here,” Elmer said with a disgusted shake of his head before he went to help Emily.
Koda wanted to hit something when the other spirits walked past him shaking their heads as if he’d disappointed them.
“I didn’t mean to flip it over!” he screamed, but no one was listening.
He watched them all work together to right the sled and settle down an awakened Joey before they left. Again, without him.
“Is this a fucking joke?” he roared at the sky, his fists shaking in anger.
More like my own personal fucking hell! he thought as he smacked at a small bush that had somehow escaped the landscape-destroying sled.
With nowhere else to go, Koda stomped back through the forest to catch up to them again. This time he hung back and just followed them. He was pretty confident he wasn’t welcome. Not that he could blame them. He could see how it might have looked bad from their point of view, and with Elmer and Emily nearing the point of exhaustion, now wasn’t the time to explain he hadn’t intended to flip the sled.
He was grateful when he saw Tom stop and wait for him to catch up.
“Is Joey OK?” he had to ask. He’d never intentionally hurt a child, and it was killing him that he might have.
“Yeah,” Tom said with a sharp nod. “She’s fine. Emily on the other hand is really angry. Tell me that was an accident.”
Koda looked into Tom’s eyes without flinching.
“I’d never hurt a child. Ever. I didn’t realize it would move like that. I’m not exactly real good at this . . .” he gestured to himself.
“That’s what I figured. In all the years I’ve been hanging around, I’ve never been able to do something like that. And you did look surprised when it happened,” Tom agreed.
They both looked up when Elmer began to tire enough that Emily had to start helping him push the sled.
“Why is she being so stubborn?” Koda asked in exasperation.
“She cares,” Tom said with a shrug. “And if you’re so convinced it’s a lost cause, why do care if she tries? It’s only her time she’s wasting. I would have liked to think someone cared enough about me to have tried like that.”
Koda snorted and looked at Tom like he was stupid.
“Did you see what they put on that sled?” he asked, wondering if Tom had somehow avoided looking at the mangled body thrown onto the sled.
“Yup,” Tom nodded. “A really badly injured . . . you. There are worse things than letting a kind and lonely girl try to do something nice for you. No matter how futile.”
“Lonely?” Koda asked with raised brows as he looked around at the others.
Tom laughed.
“Hey, it’s obvious she likes you in a way she’s never liked one of us,” Tom argued and gave Koda a sly look. “And you like her too. Try apologizing to her, have a little patience, and think of how this must be for her. For once, she may actually be able to save one of us. When all you’ve known is death . . . I wouldn’t give up either.”
Tom gave Koda a huge grin and tried to pat him on the back, but his hand only went through Koda’s shoulder. He cursed under his breath and quickened his pace to catch up to Emily.
Koda ran a hand down his face and considered what Tom said. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand Emily’s need to try and save someone, he just knew it would only end up hurting her more when she tried so hard and failed.
His only chance would be for Grai to find him soon, and with each passing hour it was becoming more and more likely that wasn’t going to happen. Something had to have gone wrong in the Folly, and Koda didn’t think his body was going to hang on long enough for Grai to make it in time.
Koda looked up when Emily slipped in the previously trampled undergrowth and fell to her knees. He ran up to help her but she’d already used the sled to help her stand and was trying to wipe the sweat from her brow as she
tried to catch her breath.
He shook his head, unable to believe that here he was damn near dead, and he was going to end up helping push his mangled body through the forest to a small cabin where he’d end up dying anyway.
Yeah, this is hell, Koda thought with a sigh as he moved to stand next to Emily.
He leaned over and nodded at Elmer’s quirked brow and tried to push the sled more gently this time. He grinned when he was able to move it just like Elmer and Emily had.
He couldn’t help but grin back at Elmer and felt his heart stutter at the brilliant smile Emily gave him. He turned back to the sled, determine to stay detached from the charming and beautiful soul executioner. The last thing he needed to do was make his eventual death harder on either one of them.
Instead, Koda focused his concentration on moving the sled as gently as he could so he wouldn’t hurt the adorable Joey who was using the fingers of her one hand to trace odd patterns on his chest.
The rest of the trip, Koda and Elmer took turns helping Emily get the sled back to the cabin. Everyone cheered when it finally bumped into the small porch and Emily laid down on the grass with a huge grin on her face even though she was clearly exhausted.
“OK, figure out where you want him inside, and we’ll get him there. Then . . . I think I’m ready,” Elmer said with a small smile at Emily.
She jumped to her feet, concentrated as hard as she could, and gave him the first hug he had in years. Emily pulled back and looked at Elmer’s startled face.
“I think you’re more than ready and have nothing to fear. You’re a good man, Elmer Stevenson. I would have been proud to call you friend,” she whispered, tears shimmering in her eyes before she ran in the cabin to figure out where to put Koda’s very large body.
Elmer turned his back for a moment to wipe the tears from his eyes before he faced Koda.
“You better be damn nice to her, or I’ll come back to kick your ass!” he growled at Koda before he went into the cabin to help Emily.
