My lungs burned like ice in my chest, and the muscles in my thighs itched with exertion. I stopped, sagging against a tree as I gulped down air. I was shaking so hard PC would suffer whiplash soon, but I had to keep running. I squeezed my eyes closed. Once I catch my breath.
If I survived this, I was going to have to take up running.
If I survived this, I was going to have to take up running.
Digging my phone out from under PC, I glanced at the time. Nearly two. Somehow I had to make it to the bridge and elude the skimmers, who I could hear crashing through the woods in the distance behind me. I could cal John, but I wasn’t familiar with the area. Where would I tel him to meet me? Hel , right now al I knew about my location was that I was somewhere west of the cemetery and I could hear the river.
I shoved the phone back into my purse and my fingers brushed the enchanted bridle Malik had lent me before we went looking for the kelpie. I stopped. I could hear the river, so I wasn’t far, and a horse could cover ground a whole lot faster than I could.
“It’s a crazy idea,” I told PC between wheezing breaths.
He looked up at me with his big brown very freaked-out eyes. The sound of the skimmers crashing through the underbrush was getting closer. I had to get moving again.
I headed toward the sound of running water. Tricking a carnivorous horse who liked to drown and eat people who climbed on her back was a crazy idea. But I didn’t have any better ones.
Once I reached the riverbank, I pul ed my dagger and pressed the point into the flesh of my finger. The last cut hadn’t even healed yet, and here I was bleeding into the river again. I only hoped her curiosity would get the better of her and she would answer.
I stood on the bank, shivering and waiting with the bridle clutched behind my back for what felt like a long time. Every sound from the wood made me turn, expecting to see the skimmers rushing toward me. Then the water swirled as a large dark head emerged.
“You do taste tempting,” she said, her large nostrils flaring as she inhaled my scent. “Have you changed your mind? Care for a ride?”
“Actual y, yes.”
The horse blinked at me. I hadn’t spent a lot of time The horse blinked at me. I hadn’t spent a lot of time around horses, only one summer when my father sent Casey and me to camp, so I wasn’t familiar with al of their expressions. I hadn’t realized that a horse could project pleased surprise, maybe even anticipation. She swam for the bank and then climbed up onto the damp sand. I’d forgotten quite how big she was until I found myself staring at an eye-level flank.
She leaned forward, stretching her front legs and lowering herself. “Climb on.”
Okay, this is it. I stepped forward, reaching for her thick neck. Then I tossed the bridle over her head. Malik had said as long as I tossed it, it would catch her.
It worked.
The kelpie screamed, a loud, equine yel of fury. “Release me this instant.”
“A favor, and I wil let you go.”
Her dark eye rol ed in the socket, focusing on me, and she whipped her large head around like a dog shaking out his coat. Water and seaweed flung off her, hitting me, but I didn’t release the reins.
After a moment, she huffed and turned her head toward me. “Name your request.”
Now the tricky part. I had to get the wording right or she’d find a loophole, which she would probably exploit as on opportunity to eat me.
Goon One, or maybe Goon Two—hard to say which, stepped out of the forest beside me. Damn, out of time.
“I request a ride for myself and my dog, above the water.
You wil carry us to the old bridge as fast as you can and al ow us to dismount unharmed.” I hoped I hadn’t missed anything.
“Fine.”
The kelpie lowered her front legs again and I scrambled onto her back as the goon ran toward us. I had time to see him lift a gun. Aim it at me. Then the kelpie went from standing to an unnatural gal op and the world flashed by standing to an unnatural gal op and the world flashed by me.
I clung to the reins with one hand, my purse and PC with the other, and kept my knees pressed hard against the kelpie’s sides. I’d never ridden bareback, and I expected to fight to keep my seat, but the kelpie’s scales were sticky, holding me in place. Well, how else would she keep her riders locked on her back while she drowned them?
The trees blurred as she gal oped past, and then the giant arch of the bridge loomed ahead of us. She slowed to a canter and then stopped at the base of the bridge. I slid down to my feet, my legs trembling with more than just exhaustion.
The kelpie shook her head and the bridle slid free. She looked at me, and huffed a breath smel ing of rotted fish in my face. Then she turned, stepping into the river.