by Mercy Loomis
Her tail burst into flames with a whoosh that singed the hair off her rump.
“Ow!” Ariane shrieked in horse. “You miserable witch! I have a show in two weeks!” This is definitely going to put a kink in Marty’s 4H project.
Without slowing, she ran between the unmoving initiate and his attacker. The mage jumped out of the way, but all Ariane had hoped for was that the proximity would make Gloria hesitate with her next spell. Ariane flicked her tail as she ran past, and had the satisfaction of hearing the woman yell as her robes caught fire.
“That's what you get for wearing synthetics.” Ariane turned her attention back to Kiran and Gloria. “Let's see if you can cast with my hoof down your throat!” She charged again.
Gloria had let Kiran go. She was kneeling with both hands pressed to the earth, whispering feverishly. As Ariane approached Gloria chanted faster, a language Ariane didn't know rolling through the clearing, gaining strength until, with one last shrieked phrase, Gloria shot triumphantly to her feet and pointed.
The ground beneath them rumbled, the trees swaying and groaning in protest. Ariane's charge faltered and broke as the earth in front of her heaved upwards, splitting apart. Desperately she veered to the side as a craggy hand reached up out of the crevice.
“Kiran, run!” Ariane yelled, knowing he couldn't understand her but unable to help herself. Her words came out as a high-pitched, frightened squeal. “Run, run, run!”
The confusion in Kiran's gaze gave way to terror as a second huge hand shot out of the ground, nearly catching one of Ariane's hind legs as she dodged around the opening. Kiran staggered to his feet. “What the—?”
“It's an earth elemental, you idiot! Go!” She ran straight at him, as if…as if my tail were on fire. Ha! With a half-hysterical whinny, Ariane pounded toward Kiran. Bless his heart, he finally turned and ran.
Ariane glanced back over her shoulder. Gloria was sprinting in the opposite direction, and the giant—now head and shoulders above the earth and slowly squirming farther out—blocked her view of the others. It looked frightfully annoyed, glaring across the small space at Gloria, but Ariane knew better than to think that it would turn on its summoner. It might take its sweet time getting out of the ground, but if Ariane got within its reach, she had no doubt it would kill her.
She had expected Kiran's strides to get stronger as he got going, but instead he lurched and tripped and looked likely to fall over at any second.
“Oh, love of Epona!” she snapped, skidding to a stop in front of him. Awkwardly she bent her front legs as he staggered to a halt. “Get on!”
Kiran stared at her, sobbing for breath, his brilliant green eyes drowning with confusion and fear. “What are you? How do you know my name?”
“I'm your ride out of here, and I am leaving,” Ariane retorted, out of patience. “Get on!”
The giant roared at them, and suddenly Kiran was scrambling onto her back. As soon as she felt his legs close around her ribs, Ariane hauled herself to her feet and bolted. She raced for the nearest nature trail, and was halfway down the path before she realized that he'd understood what she'd been saying.
There was no time to wonder how a human could understand a horse. Ariane raced down the peninsula, heading for the closest faerie mound. The ley lines shivered and cried like frightened children, more distracting than useful. She pushed her energy sense to the back of her mind. She knew where she was going.
“Hang on!” she called to Kiran. His arms were wrapped around her neck, his cheek pressed hard against her. He moaned, and Ariane hoped it was in response to her words, because she didn't dare stop yet.
There were barrows scattered all around the lakes. As they approached one, Ariane demanded entrance. This wasn't something that she did with words, or even conscious thought. She'd traveled this way too many times to question it. She ran at the side of the little hill, knowing that the doorway would open, and it did.
A human, watching her, would’ve seen horse and rider vanish into the hill, but to Ariane it seemed as if there was a cave ahead of her, one that had always been there but that she might have missed seeing because of a shadow, or from standing at the wrong angle. Ancient, weathered, and overgrown with hanging grasses, the cave was little more than a dark hole that looked far too small to fit Kiran alone, much less Ariane's current form. But she ran toward it, and while the cave seemed to grow no bigger, and she no smaller, still there was room to spare between her pricked ears and the cave's ceiling as she entered.
The tunnel twisted and writhed, but her hooves always found solid ground beneath them, and after a few nearly-blind moments she shot out into the Underground. The sky glowed a brilliant, pristine blue, and the long grass brushed against Ariane's belly. She slowed, blowing out a relieved breath. “Okay, we should be safe now. Just stay on my back, all right?”
Kiran clutched at her mane, his legs trembling against her sides. “Where are we?”
“The Underground.” Ariane picked her way down the gentle slope toward the river. She didn't trust the forest's sense of humor, not tonight. “Avalon. Arcadia. Faerieland. Take your pick.”
“Faerieland?” he asked, as if he hadn’t heard her correctly.
“Yes.” Her tail swished back and forth in agitation—or would have, if she'd still had tail hairs to swish. The scorched skin of her rump and the dock of her tail protested the movement, but she couldn't help it. “Look, sit tight. We’re just passing through.”
“But—”
Ariane stopped in a huff, twisting her head around to look at him over one shoulder. “The Underground is not a safe place for humans at the best of times, much less tonight, so unless you want to get stuck here for eternity, be quiet!”
To Kiran's credit, he shut up.
Keeping her pointed ears pricked, Ariane navigated the steep bank. The river was shallow here, more a babbling brook, easy to wade across. Ariane knew better than that, though she couldn't help getting her hooves wet as she followed the riverbed. All I need is a few minutes…
There was a great splash in the middle of the stream. Kiran choked in disbelief as what looked like a horse made of water burst up out of the fountaining spray. It stood on the moving surface and cocked its head to one side.
“Is that a human?” it asked Ariane.
She gave it a polite nod, but kept walking. “Yes, but he's with me.”
The kelpie laughed, a sound like water over little stones. “I didn't think your kind trafficked in humans. How delightful!”
Ariane felt Kiran tense, but she had to ignore him for now. “We don't. He's a guest.”
The kelpie lifted its flowing, cascading tail, and Ariane gave it an envious glance. “I could give you a ride, pretty human. Wouldn't you rather come with me, and see the ocean in all its glory? The blue of the Mediterranean, the craggy shores of the Scottish Isles?”
“And the dark vasty deeps, with no air to breathe?” Ariane added lightly, as if sharing a joke. “No, he'll stay where he is.”
The kelpie tossed its head, spraying them both with drops of water. “You mortals. No fun at all.” It giggled, sinking slowly back into the stream. “Better hope the King doesn't find you.” It vanished in a tiny whirlpool that was quickly swallowed by the gentle current.
“Crap. Hang on.” Ariane broke into a canter.
Kiran threw his arms around her neck, sliding around on her back in a most distracting way. “Wait!” he cried. “You said we were safe now!”
“We were. Briefly.” Ariane spotted the little overhung hollow she’d been looking for and altered her course, hugging the edge of the river, which was growing deeper and wider as they headed upstream. “But that kelpie will tell every fae it sees, and they won’t all be so polite.”
Almost there. Ariane dodged into the water so she could swing around and find the tunnel. “Don’t let g—”
An explosion of water rocked them as her hooves broke the surface. Ariane couldn’t quite see what it was, but something huge ro
se up behind them, and Kiran yelled, a desperate, terrified sound. Ariane felt the weight of him lessen as the water fae tried to snatch him off her back, but before she could even try to check her headlong flight there was a burst of hissing steam, and a roar. Kiran dropped hard against her spine, his sobbing breaths loud in her ears. It was all the encouragement she needed. With one wild leap, Ariane found the tunnel and ran.
They emerged moments later in Ariane’s backyard. She stumbled to a halt next to the back door, sides heaving and head low. On her back, Kiran shook like a fever victim.
“You can get down now,” she said finally, when they’d each caught their breath.
Slow and awkward, Kiran swung one leg over her withers and slid to the ground. His knees buckled, and he landed in a shivering, boneless heap.
Changing back to her birth skin was nearly as easy as breathing. By the time Kiran had blinked once, the horse had been replaced with a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl kneeling at his side. Ariane wished she’d worn something a little more attractive than ratty cut-offs and a t-shirt when she left the house earlier, but hey, she hadn’t expected to be human again until morning. “Let’s get you indoors,” she said, reaching down to him.
Kiran fell onto his back with a yell, his eyes showing white all around.
“Oh, for…it’s me, you idiot.” Ariane stood up, hands on her hips, and glared down at him.
“I know you.” He sounded more panicked than ever, which made no sense to Ariane. “You’re in my chem lecture.” His voice rose until it cracked.
He noticed me? There have to be fifty students in that lecture at least. Ariane tried not to preen. Or blush. “Yes. Well. That’s how I know your name.” She tried to gather her scattered wits. “Kiran, calm down. Please. We need to get inside. It’s safe there.”
He eyed her up and down warily, but his exhaustion was overcoming his fear. “I’ve heard that before,” Kiran muttered, but didn’t protest when she put his arm over her shoulders and helped him to his feet. Even with her guidance his feet wandered in every direction. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Want a list?” Ariane half hauled him up the few stairs to the back door and fumbled her keys out of her pocket one-handed. Grumbling under her breath, she finally got the door open.
Kiran staggered over the threshold, and she nearly dropped him as his legs gave out. “What was that?” he gasped, hanging like a dead fish from her shoulder.
Ariane glanced at the doorway. “Wards. I forgot, I’m so used to them. You felt that?” She pulled the door shut behind them and gave a relieved sigh as she shot the bolt home.
He shuddered. “It’s like…like static electricity, all over, even on the inside. Ugh.” Kiran grasped her arm and tried to stand, but his legs still wouldn't hold him. “What is wrong with me?”
Ariane gently lowered him to the ground, then scooped him up in her arms.
“What, girls can't be strong too?” she snapped when he gave her a disbelieving stare. With a toss of her head, she started down the hall.
A laconic voice drifted through the doorway ahead of them. “That hardly sounds fair, Ari. Who are you tormenting now?”
Ariane carried Kiran into the living room and set him down on the sofa. “Dave, this is Kiran. Kiran, my roommate Dave.”
Dave turned his computer chair around, but didn't get up. His mahogany brown eyes narrowed as his gaze swept from Kiran's muddy sneakers to his damp tousled hair. “Well, you do know how to pick the lookers,” he said, but there was concern and puzzlement in his tone.
Kiran moaned and Ariane looked down at him. He was pale under that lovely dark skin, and sweat had broken out on his forehead. “Oh, God. It's getting worse,” he gasped.
“What is?” Ariane asked, but Kiran just shook his head.
Behind her, she heard Dave rise to his feet. A gentle touch on her shoulder made Ariane step back. Dave moved up next to the couch, his form blurring in her sight as his soul leaned out of his body. He passed his ghostly hands over Kiran.
Kiran didn't seem to notice any change in Dave's appearance, but then, few humans would have. Then again, few humans liked to spend much time looking at Dave. Ariane was used to him, but most others found him obscurely off-putting; something to do with the remoteness of his gaze, or maybe the slightly grayish tinge to his ebony complexion.
“What are you doing?” Kiran asked.
Dave's eyes were half shut, the astral specter of his hands getting lower and lower until they finally touched Kiran's body, dipping just under the skin. Kiran noticed that, all right; he jerked like he'd been touched with a live wire.
“You are missing something,” Dave murmured, his words echoing faintly. His hands settled on Kiran's head, while Kiran's back arched and his mouth gaped like a fish's. After a few seconds Dave moved again, his hands tracing a line upward. Kiran's posture didn't change. “This is not good.”
Dave turned and walked back to his chair, his soul settling back to its usual place. Kiran collapsed against the cushions like a puppet whose strings were just cut. With great heaving breaths he curled up on his side, eyes squeezed tight shut.
“Dave, what is it?” Ariane had never seen him look so grim. “What's wrong with him?”
He shook his head, his gaze even more distant than usual. “Ari, where did you find him? I thought you were running an errand for G—”
She cut him off. No need for Kiran to hear that name; at least, not yet. “I was. Kiran was there, and there was some kind of ritual. A mage, Gloria, she pushed a ley line through him, and I think she had started to try to steal whatever powers she woke up when I interrupted her.”
Dave looked up at her, startled. “How much do you think he—”
“Stop talking about me like I'm not here!”
Dave and Ariane both turned to look at Kiran. He'd lifted his head, his glassy eyes bright with fierce and fevered defiance. He struggled to raise himself up on one elbow and Ariane hurried over to help, propping him up with some pillows.
“Is that better?” she asked, starting to step back.
Kiran grabbed her wrist. His skin kept shifting between cool and hot, but his grip was almost painfully hard. His eyes locked onto hers and held her, and she fleetingly wondered if this was how Gabriel's prey felt. That look demanded her full attention, determined and desperate, and made her breath catch in her throat.
“What are you,” Kiran growled through clenched teeth, “and what is he, and what the hell is happening to me?” A note of pleading entered his voice, and a hint of fear showed in the line of his brows. “Talk to me.”
She swallowed, and gave him a shaky smile. “Well, I'm Ariane Conant, and I'm a skinshifter, and he's Dave Larue, and he's a zombie, and you're Kiran Eckhart, and you're a human psychic. I think.”
Kiran looked from her to Dave and back, but only said, “Go on.”
He still hadn't let her go. Just like Gabriel. Ariane sighed. Men.
She knelt next to the couch, hoping to avoid a crick in her neck from looking down at him. “Honestly, I don't know entirely what's going on. What were you expecting to happen on Picnic Point?”
Kiran's lips thinned, and he closed his eyes. “She said she could awaken my psychic powers. She said she knew the minute she saw me that I had a lot of potential, and she could help me unlock it, learn to use it.” He shuddered, his hand tightening on her wrist. “She didn't say that it would hurt.”
Dave snorted. “There is a price for all things. Ari, you said she shoved a ley line through him?”
Ariane briefly described what she had seen. “Kiran, what was it that you gave her?”
“Some hair and nail clippings and three drops of blood wrapped up in a little piece of my pillowcase.”
“You what?” Ariane cried in dismay. Dave only groaned and muttered something about fools. “Kiran, you gave her total magical power over you by doing that. Basically, as long as she possesses that talisman, she can do whatever she wants to you.”
“No wonde
r the attack is getting through the wards,” Dave said, starting to pace. He spoke quietly, thinking out loud. “It's not quite the same…still, I don't think it will be possible to sever the connection…except… Excuse me a moment.” He turned and hurried out of the room. Ariane heard him run up the stairs to his bedroom.
“Where's he going?” Kiran asked.
“Probably to consult the loa, his spirit guides.” Ariane shivered. “They kind of creep me out.”
“He's really a zombie?” He sounded doubtful.
“Yes. He got his soul back, but the connection's been a little loose ever since, apparently. I don't know anyone else that can partially step outside himself at will like that—usually it's all or nothing. But he knows a lot about certain kinds of magic.”
“What about you?”
Ariane shook her head. “I don't do magic, and I try to avoid it as much as possible. Although, Dave's wards are kind of nice.”
Kiran frowned, his eyes searching her face. “But you changed shape.”
He's got such beautiful eyes. “That's not magic. I'm a skinshifter. That's what we do.”
He gave her a smile that was part admiring, part self-deprecating. “It sounds like magic to me.”
Ariane was very suddenly aware of just how close they were, with her kneeling next to the couch, and him all propped up on the pillows. Mortified to feel her cheeks heating, she glanced down. “You seem to be doing a little better.”
“A little. It's not so strong when I'm touching you.”
Her gaze snapped back to his. “Really?”
He nodded, but there was something in his expression that made her think that wasn't the only reason he was holding on to her. “In, uh, in the Underground it wasn't too bad at all, but when we were outside the house it was worse even with you touching me. The wards messed me up, but the other wasn't as bad, until you set me down.” He shuddered. “Even with the wards, it's worst when you aren't touching me.”
“Oh. Well, then, I'll just stay right here.” She knew she sounded breathy, but she couldn't help it.
