by Jenna Kernan
She ran to him, and he opened his arms wide, accepting her as she threw herself into his embrace. He clasped her to his side and rocked gently back and forth. To Michaela, it felt like coming home.
His head dropped to the top of hers and he drew her close, rubbing her back with long comforting strokes. This was what she longed for all her life, without even knowing, this kind of acceptance and trust.
“I was afraid I had killed you,” he whispered.
“You saved me.”
He drew back to stare into her eyes. “You do not fear me, little rabbit, now that you have seen what I am?”
Chapter 18
S ebastian waited in agony. How had he let this little human become the center of his world? She had tunneled into his heart with the determination of a prairie dog expanding her burrow.
She smiled up at him. “I trust you with my life.”
He gasped in astonishment. The terror and the loathing he had dreaded had not come. She accepted him. It was a gift he could never have expected. Even Nicholas, with his many human conquests, had never tasted such joy.
She was smiling at him—at him, a Skinwalker, only half-human.
Kanka coughed and he glanced to her for the first time, only just recalling she was there. She did not smile; in fact, the look she cast them smacked distinctly of disapproval. He didn’t care. He was glad that Michaela knew what he was. If Kanka could heal her and if Michaela would accept him, he would stay with this woman all her life.
He stepped back to scrutinize her and noticed the grayish skin surrounding Michaela’s wound. Prickling anxiety crawled over his body like an army of ants. He looked to Kanka, his question upon his face.
“Can you heal this wound?” asked Sebastian.
“I can heal the place where evil touched her soul, though she will bear a mark.”
Sebastian was not certain by her answer that she could cure Michaela, but he was desperate for her help.
“Do it, then,” he ordered.
Kanka’s smile was menacing. “You show yourself as more animal than man. I will do what I will do, with or without your bidding.”
He had inadvertently insulted her. He chose the submissive path and glanced away, breaking contact with her unnatural eyes.
Kanka continued to berate him. “What are you, Sebastian, over one hundred? But still you haven’t learned manners, because you do not walk often as a man. Do you?”
He felt Michaela’s grip tighten at the disclosure of his age.
“One hundred?” she asked.
“One-ten,” he admitted.
Her wide eyes were back. She stood right beside him, but he felt her slipping away. He could not bear the confusion in her mind. He turned to Kanka.
“I am sorry.”
“Yes, you are, and over your head, just like a bear. Not used to being bested. But you never faced a foe like this one. Nagi’s stronger than me and I’ve beaten a bear or two in my time.” She pointed to the large skull by the fire.
Sebastian instantly recognized the remains of a polar bear, a big one. He cautioned himself. Kanka had great power and a hair-trigger temper. She was unpredictable and she was Michaela’s only hope.
“Will you heal this woman?”
Kanka’s grin and the maniacal twinkle in her eyes did nothing to assure him. Rather, it made him brace, preparing to take Michaela and run if the sorceress turned ugly.
“I can heal her Spirit, but the wound has torn the fabric that joins her body and soul. Only she can bring them together.”
“No human can do such a thing.”
“True.” The smile broadened. “But she is not human, bear.”
Now it was his face masked in confusion. She was not Inanoka for he recognized his own by scent. He glanced from Michaela to Kanka.
Kanka laughed at his befuddlement. “She is Niyanoka.”
Sebastian staggered back as if from a body blow.
A Spirit Child—the other Halfling breed. Niyanoka did not associate with his kind—not ever. They did not trust and they did not love. It had been so since the war between their races.
He swallowed back the lump in his throat.
Michaela came toward him, hands reaching.
“Sebastian, what is it? What has happened?”
“The little cub understands. He must give you up.”
Michaela sputtered in confusion. “But, but…he saved me. He kept me alive. Why would he do that if—”
“’Cause he loves you,” said Kanka. “Without even knowing what you are. But now he sees that he can never have you and it burns him like fire.” She stared at him as if studying an ant under a magnifying glass. “It’s true, then. Inanoka do have hearts, for I see yours bleed.” Her smile was cold. “Go into the snow and hunt, bear. I do not work for free. Bring back something big. I hunger for red meat.”
He staggered toward the entrance to do her bidding, unsteady as if shot by a high-powered rifle.
“Sebastian?” Michaela’s voice trembled. “What is happening?”
He shook his head. He still wanted her, even knowing he could never have her. He had marked her as his mate, hoping she might accept him. And by some miracle she had, even after seeing him transform. But she was Niyanoka.
How could fate be so cruel? Kanka would heal her, and he would have no choice but to do what he had planned to do all along—return her to the place where he had found her and let her go.
He turned away, but she grasped him, clinging with all her tiny human strength. He could shake her off, disappear out the door and never look back. But instead, he found the unnatural urge to scoop her up and run into the twilight.
Her face shone earnestly up at him. He had found a human female to love him, but she was no more human than he was.
“I don’t understand,” said Michaela. “Where are you going?”
Her bewildered gaze broke his heart, but when her bare hand touched his cheek, he read the volcano of confusion erupting inside her. It was too much. He drew away.
Kanka’s admonishment came from behind them. “Leave her, bearling. She was not raised by her kind and does not understand their ways.”
He tried to step back and still she clung, tenacious as a weasel scenting blood.
He did not know where he found the courage to speak. His voice came as more growl than words as his animal side chafed against such rules and conventions.
Michaela tugged at his arm. “This doesn’t change anything between us.”
That she still thought to stay with him after learning the truth only showed that she had no understanding. It would have been easier to see her disgust than to bear witness to her stubborn insistence that all could be as it was. She met his gaze and saw the realization that he was going. She clasped her hands to his cheeks, searing him with her pain at his abandonment.
“No,” she begged.
“Let go now,” he whispered.
She did, thank Maka. He stroked her cheek with the index finger of his hand. “Stay with Kanka until I return.”
Her hand slipped off the fur of his coat and she stood looking lost and alone. The sight broke his heart.
He gritted his teeth and headed out into the snow.
Michaela turned to the old sorceress. “What did you say to him? Where has he gone?”
“He seeks payment for my services for he knows you cannot.”
Michaela recalled the look of absolute loss on his face. It hung over her like a shadow on her heart. Why did he look so crestfallen? What were they talking about? “He will be back, then?”
She nodded, her sharp eyes pinned on Michaela as if she were prey. “But it is as you fear. All has changed between you.”
“Why did he look at me like that?”
“Like you tore out his intestines with your bare hands? You are descended of Niyan. That means you are a Halfling, like him, but not like him. His people protect the animals. Yours help humans. There are clans among your people, too, but unlike the Inanoka, your clans
are not named after animals. You alone are Ghost Clan.”
“Ghost?”
“The very last one. Clans come from the mother’s side, so you might not always be the last. Still long odds against you unless you learn how to use them gifts. But if you die, none on earth will see them ghosts sneaking about.”
Michaela felt a chill and moved closer to the unnatural fire. She did not want such a horrible gift. She wanted to fly like the Thunderbirds or heal like Sebastian.
“But Sebastian can see ghosts. I know he can.”
“No, child, he can see Spirits, like Nagi. All Halflings can. But Spirits aren’t ghosts. Spirits are the first creation of Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery, so they is immortal and mighty. Ghosts is just what’s left over once the body drops away. Sebastian can’t see them ’cause it ain’t his job. He’s got to protect all those that go on four legs, while you watch over those that goes on two.”
Michaela frowned in confusion.
“Though you go on only two, so it is not his concern, but the bear was in danger so he stops. All Halflings gotta try to keep humans from learning of their existence. Once he seen your Spirit Wound threaten that secret, he should have left you or killed you. As I said, it don’t figure.” Kanka lifted a knobby bone that looked like a vertebra of something large, for she hefted it in two gnarled hands as she held it over a metal bowl. Then she crushed the bone to dust as if it were chalk.
Michaela shrank back in surprise, reminded in that instant that Kanka was not an old woman living in an odd house. She was a supernatural creature with powers beyond understanding.
Michaela trembled.
“We’ll make you that medicine now,” she said, and winked. As she leaned forward, a strange pendant slipped from beneath her parka.
For a moment Michaela thought it was clear glass, but then she noticed it was moving, swirling like a hurricane as seen from a Doppler radar image.
“What is it?”
“Just a no-name storm. Nobody missed it.” She tucked it back under her robe.
Michaela felt her skin prickling a warning, only the feeling was stronger, bordering on painful.
“That’s one of your gifts, too. You can see Supernaturals and all Spirits, not just Nagi. That prickling is your alert. You feel that and you look around. Shouldn’t be too hard to spot us.” Kanka lifted the bowl. “Now, let’s heal that ugly mess on your arm. My magic will close up the flesh, but it will also open up the portal to your gift. When I’m done, you’ll be able to see all ghosts. See ’em, talks with ’em, even send them packing, once you learns how. Though if it were me, I’d only send off the ones that are confused or the ones that done wrong. The others—I think they got a right to linger.”
Kanka lifted the bowl and Michaela shrank back, suddenly fearful. She wished Sebastian was here to protect her, for she did not trust this sorceress.
Kanka laughed, and Michaela’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. Could the woman read her thoughts?
“You got little choice. We heal that and you get your gift or we don’t heal it and you die. Now, give me that arm.”
Michaela was so dumbfounded she merely extended her arm. It was too much to take in. She was Niyanoka of the Ghost Clan and a Seer of Souls. What did Seers do? She opened her mouth to ask and spotted the bowl of powdered bone before her.
A flash of foreboding shook away her questions. Kanka neither mixed the bone dust into some potion nor burned it in her fire, as Michaela expected.
Instead, she lifted another bone and struck it sharply against the rim of the metal bowl. A low gong vibrated through the air. Kanka spun the bone along the inner rim, bringing forth a deep rolling hum from the metal. The powdered bone in the basin rose up, swirling in a sparkling white minitornado like snowflakes twinkling in the sunlight. The beauty of the motion captivated Michaela. She gasped, and then leaned forward to get a better look at the dancing dust. She saw an animal there, a sperm whale, diving and breeching in the swirling particles.
Then it dove deep, disappearing into the vessel. Michaela leaned farther forward to catch a glimpse of the phantom whale. It rose with a speed that forced her to lurch back. The specter left the spinning tornado above the bowl and dove toward her. She lifted her arms up to defend herself, and the whale opened its leverlike mouth, showing rows of gleaming silver teeth as it latched on to her wounded arm.
Michaela screamed and tried to shake it off, but it clamped down harder, thrashing until it dug so deeply into her flesh that only the tail waggled obscenely from her open wound.
“Get it off me!” she screamed.
But Kanka only watched with malevolent eyes.
Michaela felt something else now, branching out in all directions from her wound, gripping at her flesh as if many arms wrapped around her muscles and corded around her blood vessels. The whale’s tail thrashed violently as it slowly retreated, emerging from her arm. It gripped something black in its mouth. The thing flailed, clinging to her flesh like tar until she thought it would tear the very vessels from her arm.
The whale bit harder, and the black thing released its hold on her, withdrawing in long strands that reminded her of tentacles. The whale sailed back through the air, aiming for the bowl, still clutching its prize. It joined the swirling vortex, swimming in rising circles.
Michaela stared at the obscenity gripped in its crushing jaws. The struggling black mass had taken the shape of a giant squid, with familiar yellow eyes. Its long tentacles latched around the whale in a death struggle. The whale reached the pinnacle of the spinning crystals and dove straight into the vortex of the whirlpool until it hit the bottom of the bowl, making it ring like a bell.
At the sound, the white powder fell innocently back into the container. Quick as a thief, Kanka snatched up the vessel and hurled the contents into the fire.
There was a flare of violet flames and then a hiss of yellow sparks before the erupting of black smoke.
“Nasty one.”
“Was that a squid in my arm?” asked Michaela, still blinking in astonishment at the fire.
“It was Nagi’s magic. Strong and black. But my whale, he’s strong, too. Took me three days to land him.”
“You landed a sperm whale by yourself?”
Kanka grinned, showing both her pride and menacing rows of pointed teeth.
Michaela felt sick to her stomach, and she was overtaken with a deep longing to lie in her bed and draw her blankets over her head. Instead, she faced her terrifying hostess.
“Thank you.”
The sorceress glanced at the open wound. “We best close that. It will heal now.”
She reached in a leather pouch and withdrew a bone needle and black thread. Michaela drew back.
“The skin is still numb. You won’t feel it,” said Kanka.
Michaela looked away as the sorceress went to work closing the flaps of skin. As promised, Michaela felt no pain, but the tugging disquieted her. At last Kanka pulled the cord taut and sliced it with a bite from her wicked teeth.
“Stitches stay in. No need to pick at them.”
“They dissolve?”
“No.” Kanka grinned. “They join with your skin.”
Michaela glanced at her arm and saw the stitches form two bisecting lines, one horizontal and one vertical. Surrounding them, the punctures of the bear’s teeth formed a rough circle.
“It looks like a wheel,” said Michaela.
“A medicine wheel,” corrected Kanka. “Appropriate for a Seer of Souls.”
She drew out a tin of a white cream, which she smeared liberally over the wound.
“More bone?”
The old sorceress laughed. “This is zinc oxide, child. It’s real good on burns and cuts.”
Michaela laughed, as well, only hers sounded hysterical and frightening to her ears.
“I’ll see ghosts now?”
“No, child, that will take one more spell. But you best rest while you can. Nagi will know I broke his magic and be mad as a tundra chicken in a
rainstorm.”
Michaela glanced around the circular hut, searching for a moving shadow with glowing yellow eyes.
Kanka laughed. “He won’t dare come here.”
“Are you more powerful than he is?” She couldn’t keep the hope from her voice.
“Not more powerful, exactly. See, I’m more like a skunk. Not the strongest or fastest, but creatures keep their distance round me or regrets it. Only the foolish ones tangle with me, and Nagi, he’s not foolish. No, he sure is not.”
“Can you help me defeat him?”
“Defeat him? Mercy, child, you can’t. Best you can do is bring him to a draw, like that silly bear. Nagi tried to possess him and learned something new. But you could have done worse. Without that grizzly, Nagi would have you already.”
“Can you teach me how to ‘bring him to a draw,’ then?”
“My way ain’t your way. You’re no skunk. But all creatures have means to survive. You have to learn your way and hope you’re prepared when he come. If I were him, I’d come sooner, hoping to catch you before you ready.”
“How will I learn, then?”
“That should’ve been your daddy’s job. But he had to go poking around where he don’t belong. Cost him dear. So they’re gone from you until you walk the Spirit Road yourself.” Kanka lifted Michaela’s chin with a bony finger.
Michaela had to repress a shudder at the wintry touch; the woman was as cold as the ice on which she lived.
“Don’t look so glum, child. There’s a teacher for you. Teach you the laws of your kind and ways to keep humans from seeing what you truly are. When I’m done, you go to your people.”
“What about Sebastian?”
“What about him?”
“I can’t go without him.”
“You best set him from your mind, child. You’re a fine Niyanoka, and he’s just a bear that knows how to walk on his hind legs. You’re not for the likes of him.”
“Don’t you say that!” Michaela could not contain her rage.
For some reason, Kanka seemed pleased at her outburst, for her mouth quirked. Then she cast a quick look at her fire and stirred the coals, staring into the green embers as if reading a map. After a moment her sharp eyes shifted back to Michaela.