“You speak nothing but nonsense!” the bear screamed. “Start making sense or I swear I’ll paint my porch with her brains before I come after you!”
Her bravado nearly spent, Ana had to fight just to keep her knees from giving out. She stood there in the wind and snow, staring at a man who would very likely bring about her death. The selkies around the building stared at her like she’d lost her mind, their gazes flickering between her and the man holding one of their kin. The medved’s hand holding the rifle shook. He was losing patience, if not sanity. She didn’t have much time.
With one last rush of adrenaline, Ana held up the strip of her skin that she’d been clutching to her chest. Her soul wailed in protest, begging her to take it back, to hold her skin to her and never let it go. The full strength of the cold gnawed at her bones, seeming to penetrate her human skin and clothing like they were nothing. She held the fur out to the bear.
“Take it,” she forced through chattering teeth. “I took your skin six months ago and now I offer you mine. Let my misery pay the price for her life.”
The bear stared at her, shock, slackening his jaw. Whether or not he believed that the piece of skin she was offering was really her fur, she didn’t know. The concept of a skinwalker willingly surrendering her fur was unheard of. Suddenly he released the selkie woman’s arm. She ran sobbing into the arms of one of the selkies. Ana stood there, her entire body trembling violently with fear and cold.
“Ana!”
The lead selkie’s voice rang out, but neither Ana nor the medved looked at him. Without looking around, Ana began to shuffle toward the cabin.
“Ana, stop! Brec told me what happened, you don’t have to do this!”
The sound of Brec’s name turned her head. Ana stared at the selkie who would had spoken and the part of her brain that hadn’t yet frozen had a moment to realize just how like Brec he looked.
“If you know Brec,” she called out, her teeth clacking together painfully. “Tell him I’m sorry and I’m very very grateful.”
The selkie moved toward her, but she used the last of her strength to throw herself toward the cabin. The bear caught her body in his arms and dragged her inside, slamming the door behind them.
Chapter 28
The sound of his brother screaming Ana’s name sent a wave of adrenaline singing through Brec’s veins. He pressed down on the snowmobile’s gas pedal, not bothering to follow Ana’s paw prints anymore and instead followed the sound of his brother’s voice. He burst into the clearing just in time to see a flash of pale skin vanish behind a slamming door.
His brother and the two warriors with him exploded into a flurry of movement.
“Get Elsie back to the water!” Micah shouted. “Adam, keep your gun on the door!” He turned to Brec. “Get over here, now!”
Brec’s heart leapt into his throat as he stopped the snowmobile. Not bothering to retrieve the keys from the ignition, he leapt off the seat and dashed to his brother’s side. “What the fuck is going on, Micah? Was that Ana?”
Micah snorted. “That woman is insane. Fucking insane. We had the place under guard, we were trying to get the medved to let Elsie go and all of a sudden your woman walks up and tells the guy she’s the one who took his skin.”
Brec jaw dropped, horror frosting like ice up his spine. Whatever he’d been feeling about Ana earlier, this wasn’t how he wanted it to end. “That’s suicide!”
“No shit. Then she offers him this little strip of white fur—says it’s to make them even. Next thing I know she’s telling me to tell you she’s sorry and that she’s ‘very very grateful’ and then she dives toward the psycho and he pulls her inside.”
Brec stared at the cabin door. Ana had offered the medved her fur? That couldn’t be right. Nothing mattered more to Ana than that fur. She’d only just got it back. The sheer multitude of paw prints around her cabin had told him just how much she’d enjoyed having her foxskin back, what on earth could have possessed her to give it up?
“It’s okay, Brec, just relax,” Micah said soothingly. “We’re going to get her out of there. We just need to—”
The door to the cabin slammed open again, the rickety wood nearly falling off its hinges. A hulking figure appeared in the doorway.
“Come on, you bastard, come out so I can shoot you,” Micah muttered.
“What if Ana’s behind him?” Brec hissed.
The man was huge, there could have been a whole army standing behind him and they wouldn’t see it. Brec’s blood turned to ice as he thought of Ana trapped in there with that man. Brec kept his eyes on the medved, looking him over as if he could read his intentions in his body language. Judging from the tension in his shoulders and the dark scowl on his face, things didn’t look good for Ana. Brec took a deep breath to calm himself. At least he didn’t see any blood.
“I’m not shooting, am I?” Micah growled. Louder he said, “No one takes a shot until I give the word!”
“One of you get in here!” the medved yelled, ignoring the guns trained on him.
“Don’t even think about—”
Brec missed the last part of what his brother was saying as he dashed forward toward the cabin. Ana was in there, and in the worst case scenario she didn’t need a warrior--she needed a healer. And Brec sure as saltwater wasn’t going to stand outside and wonder what was happening to the woman he’d gone through so much to save. The mountain man moved back inside as Brec barreled through the doorway, slamming the door behind him.
The silence of the cabin was broken only by the crackling of the fire in the hearth and Ana’s broken sobs. Brec glanced around at the sparsely decorated room, assuring himself that there were no other threats inside, save the medved. There was a couch against the far right wall with a picture window above it. Micah might be able to shoot the man if he was standing in the right spot. He frowned. Unfortunately, their captor was standing just in front of the door. Micah wouldn’t even be able to see him.
“She freaks out screaming every time I try to make her come closer to the fire and she’s shivering too bad to answer my fucking questions,” the man snarled. “What the fuck is the matter with her?”
His rough question forced Brec’s attention to the real reason he was there. He turned to the source of the sobs and his heart wrenched in his chest.
“Oh, Ana,” Brec breathed.
The lisitsa sat curled up in the corner, far away from the fireplace. Her arms held her knees close to her chest, and her entire body shivered violently. There was no coat in sight, not surprising since she’d likely been wearing her foxskin on the way here. She kept her chin tucked against her legs, her eyes locked on the medved. She didn’t look at Brec, didn’t even seem to register his presence. Brec’s gaze landed on her skin, lying on the floor between her and the other skinwalker.
The fact that she wouldn’t take her eyes off of her skin long enough to look at him pounded into Brec’s spirit like an iron spike. It only confirmed what he’d already figured out, but it still hurt. Shoving aside his emotions, he shook himself and concentrated on the task at hand. He pulled his sealskin from his shoulders as he walked toward her.
“Ana, it’s okay, I’m here.”
He tried to keep his voice steady as he searched Ana’s face for signs of shock. Her eyes twitched to his as he gently eased her out of the corner just enough to slide in behind her. He put both legs on either side of her and pulled her against his back. Whipping his skin out like a blanket, he covered her up, tucking it in as best he could. He wrapped his arms around her and willed his body heat to stop her shivering even though he knew it was only partly from the cold. If she was going to get out of here alive, she had to answer the medved’s questions.
“Why won’t she get closer to the fire?” the skinwalker demanded. “Does she think I’m gonna throw her in there?”
“Her skin was burned by a human who wanted to keep her for a wife,” Brec explained calmly. “Fire triggers the memory and sends her into a post traumatic episode.”
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Something like horror passed through the other man’s eyes, but it was gone too soon for Brec to tell for sure what it was. Then the man was glaring at Ana again.
“That’s impossible. I saw her change form and that little strip of fur couldn’t do that. She’s not a skinwalker, she’s a werefox.”
“She’s a skinwalker,” Brec insisted. “I made that belt out of her original skin. It was all that could be salvaged, the rest was burnt to--”
Ana whined piteously as if hearing them talk about what had happened to her skin made strengthened the effects of the traumatic episode. The sound pricked at his heart and Brec clenched his teeth. It made him angry that her pain still affected him so, even when he didn’t want to care anymore. He turned that anger outward, glaring at the skinwalker. “The goddess Morrigan told me a spell to make her a belt that would work like her original skin did. It’s magic.”
“That’s not possible,” the medved grumbled.
“But it’s true. I swear on the powers granted to me by the god Alaunus, this woman is a lisitsa.”
“Wait a minute--you’re Brec? The selkie healer?”
Brec nodded.
The medved stared at him and then looked away. He shifted from foot to foot as if trying to figure out what to do now. Once again, Brec found himself apologizing to Alaunus for ever taking his powers for granted. His reputation may very well save both their lives.
After several long moments, the skinwalker sighed. “I bear you no ill will, healer,” he said finally. “You may leave.”
“I’m not leaving without her,” Brec said firmly. “She’s still my patient and she’s suffering.”
His determination must have showed in his face because the medved didn’t argue. Instead, he turned to Ana, his face darkening with rage at just the sight of her.
“Why did you take my skin?”
Ana tried to speak but her teeth chattered so hard it was impossible to understand the jagged sounds that came out. Brec put his lips to her hair.
“Shhhh, it’s okay,” he whispered. He met the big man’s eyes. “She stole your skin to try and replace her own.”
“So she was going to trade my misery for hers?” the medved sneered. He scooped up her fur from the floor, tightening his fist around it. It looked even smaller in his hand, just a pathetic strip of fur. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t destroy this.”
Ana sobbed and turned to bury her face in Brec’s chest. His heart clenched at the utter despair in the sounds coming from her lips and he tightened his hold on her. He narrowed his eyes at the medved.
“How long have you been without your skin?” he demanded.
“Six. Months,” the skinwalker hissed.
“Hers was destroyed two years ago. I made that belt last night.”
The look came back into the medved’s eyes and this time Brec knew it was horror. The large man stared at Ana with a combination of disbelief and dismay. “Two years?” he whispered.
Brec nodded. “She survived for two years without her skin--knowing it was burnt beyond repair. This wasn’t one of the old stories where the skinwalker lives happily with her spouse while searching for her skin. She had no husband, no friends, no family.”
The bear turned his attention back to Ana. There was a thoughtful look on his face now. He looked at Ana as if he were measuring her up for something.
“So after she got her skin back she decided to return mine?”
“No,” Brec said firmly. “She turned it over to me before that. She wanted to make amends.”
The medved took a deep breath and started pacing. Ana stirred in Brec’s arms, cuddling closer to him. Her body wasn’t shaking as violently now and he was relieved to feel some warmth coming back to her skin. As long as he got her back in her skin before her extremities got frostbite, she would be fine.
The bear stopped pacing and turned to Ana again. “Is she okay enough to answer a question yet?”
“Yes,” Ana said softly, her voice still wavering, but intelligible.
“Why did you offer me your skin?”
“I thought . . . it would make you let the selkie girl go.”
Brec stiffened in surprise. So Ana had been willing to trade her skin for Elsie’s freedom.
The medved shook his head. “You went two years without your skin. You know what kind of misery that is, what it does to you . . .” His voice trailed off as if his mind was replaying the last six months. It seemed to take an almost physical effort for him to shake it off. He cleared his throat. “How could that selkie’s freedom be worth more to you than your own skin?”
Brec went completely still, holding his breath as he waited for Ana’s answer.
“It’s not.”
Ana laid her head back on his chest and Brec found himself staring into crystal blue eyes full of emotion. “I thought if I could show you that I’m not selfish anymore, that I really can care about someone else more than myself, that you would forgive me.” She bit her lip and then continued. “I thought maybe you would believe me when I say that I loved you even before you gave me my skin back.”
Brec froze, staring down at her. Her confession was so unexpected, he didn’t know what to say, what to feel. Ana sighed and leaned back against him.
“I thought my skin was all I needed to be happy,” she said quietly. “I thought it was my whole life. Then you gave it back to me and it was wonderful and amazing . . . but not enough.” She raised a hand to caress his jaw and Brec allowed himself to lean in to her touch. “I don’t want to go back to living a life without you.” Tears welled up in her eyes and she tightened her jaw as if fighting not to cry. “I would give up my skin if it would convince you how much you mean to me. If it would make you forgive me.”
Brec shook his head in amazement, hardly believing his ears. He could hear the truth in her words, but still he could scarcely believe it.
“Ana, I would never ask you to give up your skin.” He raised both hands to cup her face. Before he could second guess himself, he took a deep breath. “I love you too,” he whispered.
“Fuck,” the bear muttered.
Brec and Ana both turned to look at him. A small sound escaped Ana’s throat as he threw her fur down in front of them. Brec kept one arm around Ana as he leaned forward and snatched the skin up, handing it back to its trembling owner.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she whispered over and over.
The man sighed and sat down on the bed against one wall. “I was a good man six months ago,” he said tiredly. “I kept to myself, but I was good to travelers who showed up at my door and I never hurt a hair on anyone’s head.” He nodded at Ana. “Seems to me that losing her skin made her into a person she wasn’t proud of, but she managed to pull herself back and become a better person.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I can’t very well let getting my skin back make me into a worse man than before, now can I?’
Brec held his breath as the man shook his head and turned his gaze to Brec’s.
“Take her home.”
Epilogue
“Hold on, Elsie, I’ll just be a minute.”
Ana gave the young selkie woman a smile and patted her back before turning to go downstairs. The poor girl had cut her hand up on a broken seashell and was oozing blood from several tiny cuts. Still, a little rosewater would make her good as new.
A smile pulled up the corners of Ana’s mouth as she reached the lower level of her cabin. The entire far wall was lined with huge shelves and cupboards full of incenses, oils, herbs, and brews. Everything a healer could need to help her people.
I have more herbs than Mrs. Downing now, Ana mused.
She opened one of the cupboards. Her eyes landed on an empty spot where the rosewater should have been. Ana frowned. Narrowing her eyes she stepped back and crossed her arms.
“Nu!”
A few seconds later the pixie landed on her shoulder. He smelled like roses.
“Yes?”
“Nu,” Ana said sternly. “Where is my rosewater?”
Nu widened his eyes, the very picture of innocence. “You mean it’s not in the cabinet?”
“Nu,” Ana intoned, letting her warning echo in her voice. “Where is my rosewater?” she asked again.
“Well that’s a fine how do you do,” Nu grumbled. “Doubting me like that. And after all we’ve been through. Need I remind you, madam, that when we first met I pledged to carry the secret of your skin’s location with me to my grave--in the face of an angry selkie no less! Why, Tatania herself would have fainted under such threats.”
“You would have told Brec where the skins were eventually.”
Under His Skin Page 25