by Becca Andre
“Good thing I’m not paranoid, or I’d think you were talking about me,” Briar said.
“We were talking about you,” Kali replied.
“All right.” Briar wasn’t sure what to do with that.
Kali shoved herself to her feet and paced across the boat. Perseus merely watched her, saying nothing.
“I just don’t know, Perce,” Kali said at last.
“I believe it will help,” he said.
Kali halted before them and ran her fingers through her hair, stopping short of the leather tie that bound the dark strands.
Briar glanced between them. “May I ask what you’re discussing?”
“He thinks I should give you my oath,” Kali answered.
Briar blinked. “What? Why?”
“It’s something in our nature,” Perseus said.
“You want to serve the ferra?” Briar asked.
“Serve, no. But a tie to the blood makes us feel more… complete. Connected. It is difficult to describe.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“I won’t,” Kali grumbled. “Besides, she’s not even ferra.” She waved a hand at Briar.
“A tie with her is different. Strangely, it makes me feel more…” He stopped and shook his head. “It simply makes me feel.”
“Feel?” Briar prompted.
“Perhaps I should say it makes me care.”
Goosebumps rose on Briar’s arms. “You’re no longer cold. You’re more human.”
The corner of his mouth crooked.
“You know, I’ve noticed that you seem more talkative, less stoic than when we first met,” Briar said. “I thought perhaps I was just getting to know you better. You’re saying it’s the oath?”
“Yes.”
“All right.” Briar didn’t know what to think of that. “How will that help Kali? She seems to feel plenty.”
Kali glanced at her, a slight smile on her face. Their joint takedown of Darby yesterday had done so much for their relationship. They were almost friends.
Perseus chuckled and got to his feet. “We are each individuals,” he said, growing serious as he continued. “And Kali did not have the luxury of knowing what she truly was until she was grown. She harbors resentment and has not fully accepted it.”
“Perseus.” There was a warning note in Kali’s voice.
He met her gaze as if daring her to deny it. She looked away first.
“It will make her feel more connected and no longer an outcast,” Perseus continued. “And she will understand why I did it—and perhaps forgive me.”
Kali looked up.
“Will you take her oath?” Perseus asked Briar.
“Yes, of course,” Briar answered. “But only if she wants this. Like you, none of this was my idea. I personally find it rather gross.”
Perseus smiled slightly, then turned to Kali. “Will you do it?”
Kali’s brow furrowed, but it wasn’t in anger. “You really think I should?”
“Yes, I do. Have I ever led you astray?”
She dropped her gaze. “No.”
Perseus pulled a soul-iron throwing knife from his belt.
Briar sighed. “I don’t know why you’re whining,” she said to Kali. “I’m the one who has to be cut. Hell, that ought to make you more open to trying this.”
“That is an enticement.” Kali winked at her, but grew serious as she eyed the blade. She took a deep breath. “All right. I’ll do it.”
Briar made an effort to keep her mouth from falling open. Wordlessly, she held out her finger to Perseus.
With quiet solemnity, he nicked Briar’s index finger.
“What do I say?” Kali whispered, eyeing Briar’s bleeding finger.
“It is not the actual words,” he answered, “but the opening of yourself to let her soul touch yours.”
Kali’s brows lifted.
“By speaking your welcome with her blood, with her soul, you let her in.”
It was Briar’s turn to frown. “That’s an awful lot like what Liam made me do to take Lock. I had to name him with Grayson’s blood on my tongue.”
“You and he are equals,” Perseus said. “You forced him to submit. That is the whole purpose of the construct. Here, we let you in and welcome a connection to another soul.”
“That sounds nice, but yesterday, I gave you a command and you obeyed,” she reminded him.
“I was drowning your mate. In normal circumstances, you would not abuse the tie like that. Do you think I would trust you with Kali otherwise?”
Kali stared at him as if he’d just grown another head. “This really has changed you.”
“Changed me, no. It has merely altered my perspective.”
Another chill rolled over Briar. He really was part ferromancer.
Kali faced her once more, and Briar held out her finger.
“Simply give her your oath that you will be loyal until death separates you,” Perseus said, the words soft.
“Saying it in Greek is optional,” Briar added and Kali smiled.
Taking a deep breath, Kali leaned forward and touched her tongue to the blood. “I will be steadfast and true, tying my soul to yours—until one of us kicks the bucket.”
Briar bit back a laugh, but schooled her expression as Kali straightened. “The Greek was more elegant.”
“At least I didn’t cuss,” Kali said.
Briar smiled, but Kali just watched her.
“You feel it already,” Perseus said, his tone soft. “You are so amazingly sensitive.”
Kali stared at him.
He just smiled.
Briar cleared her throat, suddenly feeling like an intruder. “Well, I’d better get back to work.”
“Work?” Kali asked. “Sit on your ass, you mean.”
Briar turned to Perseus. “That didn’t change her.”
“I said it shifts perspective. The person remains the same.”
“Hell. I cut myself for nothing.”
Kali grinned and Perseus chuckled. Shaking her head, Briar turned and climbed up to the aft deck. She straightened and froze.
Eli and Molly still sat on the tiller rail, but both were laughing, and he had an arm around her shoulders. They noticed her and quickly drew apart, Eli going so far as to come to his feet.
“Miss Molly got to laughing and almost fell off the back of the boat,” he explained, a touch of color in his cheeks.
Molly shrugged. “Clumsy me.”
“You need to be more careful,” Briar teased her. “I don’t have time to fish you out of the canal.”
The pair laughed at the teasing, but Briar didn’t miss the warm glance they exchanged. Molly’s potential tumble into the canal had not been the reason for the hug.
Smiling, Briar faced forward and was surprised to see that they were already coming up on the guard lock into the Licking River. So much was going right.
They were making excellent time. At this rate, they would certainly arrive in Portsmouth on schedule. For the first time, the prospect of returning to Solon didn’t terrify her. She was finally on track to find Grayson a cure—maybe the others as well. Her spirits were also buoyed not only because she was no longer at odds with Kali, but because Darby had been removed from the picture. If she could get rid of the daily meetings with Andrew, this trip could be an enjoyable one.
They entered the river through the guard lock, navigating the slack water above the dam. This was a particularly beautiful stretch of the canal. Sheer cliffs covered in laurel and topped with pine rose to either side of the river. There had been no room for a towpath, and the rock face had been dynamited to create one. The process had supposedly destroyed a Native American painting of a black hand, and though the painting was long gone, the area was still known as Black Hand Gorge.
“It’s so beautiful here,” Molly said, looking up from the potatoes she and Briar were peeling.
“Aye,” Eli agreed. “It’s perhaps the prettiest stretch of the canal.”
Briar glanced up. She didn’t recollect him ever making comments about the pretty scenery. Smiling, she dropped a peeled potato into the pot and selected another.
Lock had been resting on her knee and hopped over to sit on the rim of the pot. He cocked his head to the side, eyeing the peeled potatoes she and Molly had been dropping inside.
“Don’t fall in,” Briar said. “This is supposed to be potato soup, not dragon soup.”
Lock lifted his head and gave her an indignant whirr.
“What did he say?” Molly asked, smiling at the little dragon.
“He’s offended that I implied he could fall.”
“Not that he could become soup?”
“Nah. Boiling liquid wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, he knows I’m kidding. He wouldn’t make a very tasty soup.”
Lock squawked at her, then sprang over to Molly’s knee and watched her peel the potato she held.
“Your mistress is so mean to you.” Molly rubbed him beneath the chin, and he leaned into her finger with a metallic purr.
“Hardly.” Eli rolled his eyes. “That has to be the most spoiled mechanical gizmo ever.”
Lock didn’t respond. He jumped to the basket of potatoes and grasped one in his talons. With a flap of his wings, he returned to Molly’s lap. Balancing the potato in his claws, he lifted his tail. A shimmer of molten metal, and the end of his tail became a slender blade. With impressively precise strokes, he shaved away the potato’s peel.
Briar laughed. “That’s brilliant, Lock.”
Eli grunted, and she had the suspicion he was impressed.
Lock spun the potato faster, slashing off the peel so rapidly that he was slicing away the next piece before the first landed.
“Show off,” Briar muttered.
Molly clapped her hands. “Oh, that’s—”
A crack echoed off the gorge walls, followed an instant later with the braying of a mule.
Briar started to stand, but the boat surged forward at the same moment, and she ended up on her butt. “What the hell?”
Eli sprang to his feet and took the tiller in both hands. “Gun shot startled the mules.”
Gun shot? Was someone hunting in the area?
Briar gripped the rail and hauled herself to her feet. The mules had broken free of Zach, the reins dragging the ground behind them as they raced away. Oddly, Zach knelt on the towpath. Had the startled mules injured him, or—
Zach fell over on his side, a hand pressed to his ribs. Even with the growing distance between them, Briar had no trouble seeing the red stain on his white shirt. Zach had been shot.
Chapter 18
The mules were in full flight, racing along the narrow stone towpath that had been cut into the base of the cliff wall. Grayson had started to run after them, but spun to face Zach after he fell.
He ran back to where Zach lay in the middle of the towpath. Grayson seemed to hesitate for a moment, then dropped to a knee beside him.
Briar considered reaching out to him to ask how Zach was, but she had another problem at the moment. The mules weren’t stopping as they raced along the towpath that would lead them to the outlet lock at the end of the slack water.
Briar took a breath to shout for Jimmy—who was with Benji, cleaning the bow cabin—but Perseus climbed up onto the aft deck before Briar could call out, Kali right behind him.
Briar didn’t waste time on an explanation. “We need to detach the towline,” she said as she joined them on the aft deck.
Perseus spun away and sprinted along the catwalk toward the bow.
“What’s going on?” Kali asked. “Was that a gun shot?”
“Yes,” Briar answered, though she kept her attention on Perseus. He had reached the bow deck, a knife glinting in his right hand. With the towline stretched taunt, he must have realized he wouldn’t be able to get enough slack to detach it from the deadeye mounted to the edge of the deck.
Perseus grabbed the towline and glanced toward shore. He frowned, then slashed through the rope—behind the place where he gripped it.
Briar gasped and heard Kali do the same as Perseus was jerked from the boat. He landed with a splash, but didn’t release the towline, letting it drag him toward shore.
“What the hell is he doing?” Kali asked, clearly concerned.
Briar thought that perhaps he was trying to stop the mules, but he released the towline as he reached shore. Struggling to move quickly through the shallow water, Perseus emerged on land a moment later, then ran toward Zach and Grayson.
Her heart beat faster as Briar suddenly understood his actions. Perseus feared that Grayson would not be able to resist making Zach soulless.
Unfortunately, the boat’s momentum carried them on around the bend in the river, and she lost sight of the three men.
She reached out to Grayson. Is Zach all right?
He will be, Grayson responded in that typical brush of sensation.
Briar released a breath, not only in relief over Zach, but also from the emotion she sensed from Grayson. He seemed to be holding the ferromancer at bay just fine. Or perhaps Zach’s injury wasn’t so serious that he needed Grayson to heal him immediately.
“Steer us toward shore, Eli,” Briar said. Without the pull of the mules, the boat was slowing rapidly.
Jimmy and Benji climbed up onto the stable deck, then ran across the catwalk to join them.
“Captain, what happened?” Jimmy asked.
Briar gave them a quick recap as the boat bumped against the bank. She had barely finished her story when Benji jumped down into the cargo hold, then leapt to shore. He took off at a run, heading back to Zach.
“I already reached out to Grayson,” Briar added when Jimmy looked like he was considering following Benji. “He seemed to think that Zach would be all right.”
Jimmy nodded, though he still looked concerned. “But who shot Zach?”
“I don’t know. I—”
“We need to tie up, Captain,” Eli interrupted. “The current will pull us out into the river otherwise.”
“I got it.” Jimmy turned and hurried across the catwalk toward the bow.
In the momentary silence, the sharp bray of a mule echoed off the walls of the gorge.
“Was that your mule?” Kali asked.
Until this moment, Briar hadn’t considered the troubles her wayward mules could give another boat. “Eli, secure the boat,” she shouted, already heading for the cargo hold. “I’ll go collect the mules.”
“I’ll help you,” Kali offered, hurrying after her.
“Be careful, Captain,” Eli called.
She waved a hand to acknowledge him. He had a reason to be concerned. It was Big Red, after all. Had it been the other team, the mules might not have bolted.
The boat was close enough to shore that they didn’t need to get their feet wet, and a moment later, Briar and Kali were running along the towpath, following the aggravated braying of the mules. Hopefully, they’d just become tangled in their harnesses. Briar prayed her animals hadn’t run headlong into another team.
The river made a slight turn and they followed the towpath around the bend. The mules were just ahead, and to Briar’s relief, hadn’t encountered another team. A pair of men had them corralled, though Big Red was making such a fuss that the men hadn’t actually caught them.
Briar stepped forward, a word of thanks on her lips when she noted that there was something familiar about these guys. She’d seen them before. Perhaps crewmen for another boat? She was still trying to place them when a third man left the trees and stepped up beside the others.
Briar’s mouth dropped open as s
he had no trouble recognizing him.
“Bet you thought sinking my boat would be the last you saw of me,” Dale Darby said, an ugly smile creasing his face. He stopped before them, his hands folded behind his back. He looked exceedingly pleased with himself.
“You’re behind this?” Briar demanded. “You shot Zach?”
A faint frown wrinkled Darby’s brow. “Got a crewman who’s pretty good with the long iron, but he was just supposed to startle the mules.” Darby shrugged, then chuckled. “Maybe he ain’t so good with the long iron.”
Briar clenched her fists, but Kali sprang forward before she could speak, lunging for Darby.
He must have expected it this time because he pulled his hand from behind his back, displaying the revolver he held.
Kali tried to dive to the side, but she was too close.
Darby fired, the shot echoing through the gorge, and Kali crumpled at his feet.
“Kali!” Briar took a step toward her, but Darby leveled the gun on her.
“Quickly,” he said.
The command confused her until she realized he was looking past her. She started to turn when a hand seized her shoulder.
“Do it now!” Darby shouted. “Hurry! Before she makes that armor.”
A second arm came around her, and before she could puzzle out what her assailant intended, he pressed the rag to her lower face. It was damp and smelled oddly sweet.
Briar reached up to pull his hand away, but her fingers barely brushed his wrist before her world went dark.
Briar woke to a splitting headache. She tried to lift a hand to her face, but found herself bound by wrist and ankle to the high-backed chair beneath her. Struggling against her bonds proved to be futile. She couldn’t even use Lock to get free. He was back on the Briar Rose with Molly.
Squinting her eyes in an effort to take in her surroundings, she discovered walls covered in peeling wallpaper and a worn hardwood floor. The room seemed to be a catchall for discarded furniture. There were a couple of dust-covered dressers, a sideboard, and a selection of mismatched chairs. She definitely wasn’t on a boat. It was a windowless room, but where the hell was the room? Was it a house not far from the river, or was she a dozen miles away? She had no idea how long she’d been out. It could be night for all she knew.