The Earl's Childe (40 page)

A concentrated wind shoved into my mouth and all the way through my body. I fell backwards from the force, off Ermie, slapping my arms against the cobbles of our drive, barely keeping my head from smashing.

Because when would I have grabbed a helmet for all this, right?

Ermie screamed his sickening not-quite horse, not-quite human squeal, rearing.

“Ow! Get offa me!” Max was backing away, swatting, as the pixie slashed him around the arms and face.

Ermie—no, Ermie wasn't the name for the monstrosity in front of me anymore—
the kelpie
thudded to the ground, nostrils flaring. Head low, neck outstretched, he stalked towards Max, smelling the blood.

“Yooouuu…” His voice was a growl that shook me to the core.

No! No!
I shouted in my head.
Remember me!

The words in my mind felt like they were hitting a wall of thunder.

I rolled to my feet and scrambled for the bridle, barely avoiding his hooves as he stomped.

“Heather!” Joe grabbed me. “Get out of the way! She needs a clear shot! He'll kill Max.”

I yanked myself away from my friend, seeing the selkie, spear in hand, moving away from the red caps to where she had more space around her.

“No!” I screamed at her. “Wait!” I ran in front of the kelpie, between him and Max. There had to still be a piece of Ermie in there. It was still him. It wasn't just my soul that had made him who he was. It couldn't be!

I stared into glowing, blood-red eyes. He stretched out his lips and sniffed me, growl rumbling from his throat.

“Ermie, please. No—you can't! Please…” I held the bridle out.

He snapped at me once, twice. I didn't back away, but I couldn't stop shaking from head to toe.

“Hheeatherrrrr…” My name was a snarl in his mouth.

“Yes. It's Heather. Do you really want to kill me? Really?”

In my mind, more muted now, but still there, I felt his hunger, his craving for flesh, blood. No. I wouldn't believe that was all there was to him! I was right there in front of him. He hadn't attacked me. He wanted to, though. A part of him definitely wanted to eat me. But not all of him…

A flash of motion from the selkie tore my gaze from our connection. “Noo!” I screamed and ran without thinking towards his flank. “Move, Ermie, move!”

Confusion. I felt his confusion as he jumped away from me.

And then I felt pain. Burning, tearing pain through my chest and lungs. Worse than anything I'd felt before.

I looked down, but the effort was as if I were underwater. Slowed down. I felt like I was trying to breathe water, and it hurt.

There was a spear tip poking through my blouse.

And a shaft just behind my right arm.

The whole world seemed to blur while I gasped for breath, finding only liquid pressure. I couldn't inhale any more. From far away, I heard my name shouted over and over. I heard Joe and Max and Lily and Rowan and Chris and Jared and Sara-Not-Beth and Tom. From even further away, I thought I heard Mum and Dad.

Up close, I heard Ermie's scream in my ear. I felt the thunder of hooves near me. I tried to take another breath. More liquid. It hurt in a way I couldn't describe. My knees were buckling. But slowly.

I was aware of Ehrwnmyr.

Foolish, stubborn, idealistic, crazy…precious, precious girl
.

I hated it when he called me precious. It was… condescending. Why was I thinking of that now? I was dying.

It hit me. I was
dying
.

Another burning, searing, tearing pain yanked through my chest. I felt cracking. I flew backward, hitting something warm, solid, and damp. Ocean-scented. It moved away from me, and I fell to my knees. I didn't see the spear anymore.

Put that damned bridle on me. Now! Before it's too late!

I looked down at my hands still clutching the cut bridle. I tried to lift them. It took so much effort.

Blood and brine! Must I do this myself?

I was pushed backwards by the force of his head thrusting through the bridle. He tossed his head, pulling my arms up his face.

He could probably drink the blood right off my chest if he wanted.

Close the crown. Just…hold it together. You have to do that part. Heather, please?

Blinking, I registered his words, the unfamiliar tone of his voice. I'd heard it once before. When he begged me not to kill him. I didn't understand, but I found strength to push my hands up the bridle. To push the cut ends together.

The whoosh of air, burning, liquid air, was sucked from me this time, as if a huge vacuum was pulling…
everything
from me.

And then I drew a big, deep breath of my own.

With a hot scream, Ermie staggered away from me. I fell backward, on my butt. My blouse was still torn and bloody, but there was no wound. I was breathing.

Ermie fell to his front knees, and then to his side, a gaping wound bleeding at his ribs.

“No! Ermie, no!”

Your soul is safe. Your sacrifice ensured that
.

“What are you talking about?” I got down on my knees and shoved at his chest. “Get up! Get up!”

Foolish…precious girl. Will you begrudge me calling you that even now?

“Ermie! No! Get up!” I cried. Tears blurred my vision.

His chest heaved and I heard gurgling with each of his gasps. He moved his muzzle. No glamour hid the angular jaw or the shark teeth, but I didn't care. I knew what he was feeling. I'd felt it. And it was awful! Horrible!

It wasn't fair!

“Tony!” I screamed to the djinni, wherever he was. “Tony! Fix him like you did before! Like you did Stormy and Livy! He's still alive!”

He appeared not far from me, a step or two closer than the circle of people around us. His hand was on Joe's chest, holding him back. There were tears running down Joe's face. This was the second time I'd ever seen him cry.

Tony spoke to me, eyes on Ehrwnmyr. “This was his choice, Heather. I can't unmake it for him. This kind of power must be a trade, and it can't be undone.”

“No!” I screamed again. I wanted to get up and punch the djinni. But Ermie gasped in my lap. I wouldn't leave him alone for this. “No,” I whimpered, stroking his nose. “I'm here. I'm here.” I bent over and hugged his face, gruesome teeth, tentacle fur, and all. The glow of his eyes, now back to ocean-blue, faded to the thinnest lines around black pupils.

I heard more hooves, but I didn't look up. I figured Stormy would want to say his goodbyes, too, with whatever sentience or recognition he had.

The clack sounded awfully delicate for draught-sized hooves, though.

Then I was blinded.

“Foolish horse,” clucked a female voice I most certainly did not recognize. I blinked, but nothing seemed to come into focus. Everything around me was bright. And something else, glow-y bright—only visible against Ehrwnmyr's green-black coat—was poking him in the spear wound. “Did you think I wouldn't have come for the girl?”

Ermie coughed on my jeans.
Not…worth…the chance
.

“You of so little faith.” She laughed, sounding almost like a songbird's lullaby. “I bet you did this just to see me.” She paused, and then said his name in that same musical way, “Ehrwnmyr.”

A head, an equine head attached to the stick of glowing brightness at Ermie's wound, winked a crystal-blue eye at me.

Wait a minute…

“Are you a…” I was hugging a kelpie, had just won negotiations with a daoine síth Lord and Lady, had dealt with a djinni, and had just been speared by a selkie, but I couldn't bring myself to say
unicorn
. That was too weird.

Well, at least the question of which “magickal beast” Ermie had been interested in knowing was around here was now answered.

The unicorn laughed again, and then lifted her head. The wound closed. Ermie coughed a few more times. Blood and foam stained my jeans, but I smiled anyway. He was breathing. He rolled to his knees, inspected where the wound had been, and then looked at her. She danced a few feet back.

I looked around, only seeing the light.

“Where is everyone? Where are we?”

“Just in a bubble of illusion. I figured a moment of privacy was warranted, though this is a rather momentous occasion.”

“You can talk-talk.”

“That's how you perceive it, yes.” She was still hard to see, blending into the light around us, but I could catch glimpses when she moved. Unlike Ehrwnmyr, who looked like a sinewy draught horse with some ill-fitting shark and dog features thrown in, she was a graceful creature, like an Andalusian horse mixed with a deer and one of those fancy angora goats.

You came to rescue no other child
. I could hear sulkiness creeping into Ermie's voice.

“No other child thought a creature like you was worth dying for. They were merely afraid of you.” There was a chiding note to her voice.

Ermie stood up and shook.
I am what I am
. He took a step towards her, head lowered stubbornly. I could feel his rebelliousness. We were linked again.

“Not quite so, anymore,” she told him, turning her horned head to me.

“What do you mean?” I asked as Ermie projected the same question.

“The soul within you…” She spoke his name. His True Name. “…is now your own. It no longer belongs to Heather. I'm here just as much to complete that as to keep you alive.” She tossed her head…dare I say…flirtatiously. “Though, I think Heather's eye color suits you. That can stay.”

Ermie backed away several steps, unable to find words to express his disbelief…and other emotions.

“Did you not invoke the power of the bridle to save Heather's life? Knowing where it may very well have landed you?”

Ermie tossed his head proudly.
There
was
always the chance you would come. I had heard you had travelled to this region…

Since we still had some sort of a connection, and he was a bit preoccupied with staring at the unicorn, I picked up that this little rumor was, in fact, why he felt he “belonged here.” And it wasn't just any unicorn he wanted to know about, either. Had we seen her? He knew this unicorn.

“You truly believed I would come for you, despite all you've done, rather than for a girl who threw herself in front of a spear for you? Are you really that…” She caught my eye and winked again. “…precious?”

Ermie snorted, bouncing on his front legs and chewing on this news. His eyes never left her. As thick as I clearly was about boys and relationships, I was getting a feeling about this.

“However…” Her voice had an edge to it. Not an angry one, a cautionary one. Such a cliche, but why wouldn't there be a “however?” She stared intently at him. “There is a certain concern that the weight of a soul will not be enough for you. That you are still too dangerous and, if uncurbed, will harm more innocents.”

Perhaps those who feel that way are right
. He pawed at the glowing light that should have been the ground.

“Do you feel that is right?” She took a step towards him. “Should I feel that is true?”

He didn't answer, finally looking away from her, head lowered. Well, mostly looking away. I could see him keeping her in the corner of his eye. He didn't
know
an answer to that.
So, what shall be done to appease those who are concerned?

“Should you…return to your darker ways, I…” She paused, almost faltering, if such a graceful creature could falter. “I am charged with taking your life once again. Leaving your soul to whatever fate you've given it.”

Ehrwnmyr swallowed, lifting his head and staring at her straight on. This time she dropped her head.

I see
.

“Of course,” she moved her focus back on me, “this means you have no command over him anymore, Heather. You may
ask
him.” She turned to him. “And it may be wise for him to follow your lead.”

He grunted in response to her “suggestion,” looking away again.

She twirled, yes,
twirled
was the best word for it—I knew dressage riders who would kill for their horses to be able to do that—and looked over her shoulder at us. “I've done and said what I came here to do and say. Farewell, Ehrwnmyr and Heather.”

Wait! You're leaving already?
He took several steps after her, but she seemed to blend right into the light, which now was fading around us.