“Maybe we can,” she echoed. It wasn’t easy to pull back from his embrace. She wanted to take up residence in those arms and never leave. Instead, she shouldered her pack, clucked to Rune, and pulled the magic she’d need to jump.
Tears were dangerously close to the surface as her spell made the air around her shimmer. What the fuck am I doing? she asked herself roughly. I got along fine without him until now. I don’t need anything that will make me hurt again. Nothing.
“Think about the Old Ones and our task.” Rune was in her mind, voice stern.
Good advice. She spat out the words that would take them to Taltos, still feeling ridiculously conflicted.
Because she’d aimed for Mount Shasta City, thinking it held the gateway, Aislinn was surprised to find a collection of dilapidated buildings and nothing more. Usually cities retained more in the way of debris. It looked as if no one had lived here for fifty years. Rune broke from her side and dropped a paw onto a mouse that had the bad luck to scurry by at just that moment. Its small bones made little crunching sounds between his powerful jaws.
“So where is it?” she asked, eying him.
“Follow me. We can walk from here.”
At first, she was annoyed he hadn’t sent her the right image, but as she stretched her legs into a long-strided lope, she was grateful for time to organize her thoughts. They climbed a hill that led due east out of town. The bulk of Mount Shasta towered above them. Snow spilled down its flanks nearly to the remains of the town. Rune disappeared into a hillside. Even though she couldn’t see the opening, she figured there had to be one and followed him.
A cave so large that she couldn’t see its other end stretched before them. Rune sat on his haunches, a dark shadow barely visible in the cavern’s dusky gloom. She dribbled magic to her mage light. Breath whistled through her teeth. Lava formations made whimsical archways. Multi-hued crystals glittered in the depths of some of them. The effect was dizzyingly beautiful. Water ran down one wall. She grinned in spite of herself. Gee, that part’s a lot like my house.
“What now?” she asked the wolf.
“We wait. They know we’re here. They likely knew last night.”
“Your animal has wisdom.” Metae’s unmistakable voice, something like temple bells with a buzz saw behind them, preceded her form as it oozed through one of the walls. “I wonder about you, though.” The tinkling bells cooled perceptibly. “Did I not tell you I would let you know when to come here?”
“Oh?” Aislinn did her very best to look surprised. “I knew you were angry because I didn’t get here in the four-day time limit, but I thought you meant for me to get here as soon as I could. See,” she prattled on, working to infuse truth into her voice, “we ran into more troubles. D’Chel—”
“What about that charlatan?” Metae demanded.
Well, that seems to have gotten her attention. “I met a fellow traveler. Also a Hunter, bonded to a raven. D’Chel attacked the raven—”
“And me, too, but I got away,” Rune cut in. “I marshaled the forest wolves to help fight.” He leveled his amber gaze at the Old One. “But we were not strong enough. Two were killed.”
Metae’s gaze shifted from Aislinn to Rune. Something unspeakably alien and undeniably ancient shone from her iridescent eyes. Aislinn shook her head to clear her thoughts. Wonder why I never noticed how strange her eyes were before?
“Because I titrate which parts of me humans can see,” Metae sent. The temple bells pealed again. “Never forget I can read your mind, child. Now, what happened to the raven bond mate?”
Aislinn sucked in a breath. “I, uh, offered myself in exchange for D’Chel letting the raven, her human, and Rune go.”
That inhuman gaze drilled into her. “Apparently you got away. How?”
Opening her mouth to try to talk felt strange. Suddenly, she knew anything shy of unvarnished truth wouldn’t pass her lips. “He stopped shape shifting and took on human form. He touched me and kissed me, but he was so cold.” Aislinn shuddered at the memory. “I’d planned to just have sex with him and figure out a way to escape after, but he was leaching everything warm out of me. I, uh, knew if he fucked me, I’d lose myself.”
“Good you figured that out.” Dry amusement ran beneath Metae’s voice. “You still have not told me how you escaped.”
“I told you how cold I was. Well, I drew fire. Since I didn’t have a spell in mind, I held it within me.” Aislinn squared her shoulders and clasped her hands behind her back. “The heat made me feel a whole lot better, especially when I figured out my skin was so hot that he couldn’t touch me. He tried a couple of times and then turned into a cobra.” Aislinn shrugged. “Since I already had power to spare, I diverted it into a jump and was gone.”