“No, Paige.” Sil regarded me. “She’s more or less conscious, insisting she gets started on everything tomorrow.” She paused. “I suspected, but now it’s confirmed. She’s–”
“No,” I interrupted, clenching my fists.
“No?” Sil sounded surprised. “Why not?”
“Because the odds are against me right now, Sil,” I said desperately. “Can you honestly tell me otherwise? How could I do that to her? It’s too cruel.”
“Rayner, nothing is guaranteed in this world. Least of all failure.”
“I’m more than ready to meet my fate,” I said in a low voice. “But I can’t focus on that if I have anything holding me back.”
Sil’s eyes flashed. “Come with me,” she ordered, marching off into the night.
With a shrug, I followed her and then slowed as the healing tent appeared in the distance. “What’re we doing here?” I asked, getting annoyed. “I thought I wasn’t allowed in.”
“You still aren’t. Sit here.” She gestured at the entrance. “Guard till Pea gets back.”
With that, Sil left me and I made a face. “Seriously?”
I was exhausted and badly in need of a bath and a shave. Now I had to sit out here in the cold and wait for Pea? This was such bullshit. Head falling forward, I groaned and tried to keep my eyes open. I couldn’t fall asleep now. I had plans to make.
And I didn’t want to dream about Paige.
“Girl problems?”
“Huh?” I lifted my head, shaking off the drowsiness and glanced around. Patterns of sunlight fell across my face and blurred my vision. There was a tree above me, its leaves shaking in a playful spring wind. Slowly I sat up and looked around.
I was in Sil’s garden, but the house seemed far away and the landscape altered.
Glancing to my right, I saw Burr lounging on the ground next to me and he shot me a wink. I stared at him, then over at Cree, grinning at the clouds. Wes was bent over a sketchbook and Ben lay on his stomach, one eye open.
“Girl problems,” Burr repeated, only this time affirming it. “You’ve got that hangdog look.” He let out a loud bellow of a laugh. “Hang-coyote?”
I looked from face to face, trying to place why I felt an overwhelming sense of relief, tinged with confusion. Where was everyone else? Where was…?
“Is it the redhead?” Wes asked, shooting me a sly look. “That’s why you’ve been acting like such an idiot the last few days.”
“Have you asked her out?” Cree piped up.
“Of course not,” Ben retorted. “You can tell.”
“Hey!” I burst in. “I’m taking my time.”
“Don’t take too much time,” Burr warned. “And don’t overthink it.”
“But how do I tell her about everything? Us?” I rubbed a hand through my hair. “It’s not like we’re exactly normal. Plus, what if she doesn’t want to move to Montana?”
“Who wouldn’t want to live in Montana?” Cree asked, puzzled.
“You can’t make everything perfect, Thor. Loosen your grip a little, kid,” Wes said sagely.
Ben was turning a leaf over in his hands as he spoke up, slowly. “Be honest. That’s what matters in the end.” He let the leaf go on the wind. “Lies catch up. Trust me on that one.”
I stared at him as he yawned, burying his head in his arms and he fell back to sleep. “Hey – wait. Where’s Hazel? Where are the girls?” No answer. Glancing back around, I saw each of my brothers was now asleep and panic gripped me. “Wait! Don’t leave me! Don’t go back to sleep!”
I jerked awake and stood up, staring over my shoulder at the tent. Then I looked down at the ground. Drawn in white paint where I’d been sitting was a symbol of the rising sun.
“Oh, Rayner, you can go back now,” Pea said, emerging from the shadows and smiling at me. “Paige is well. She sleeps and her shoulder should not scar too badly. Thin lines, if anything.”
I nodded, then went to ask her something and stopped. I already knew the answer.
Back at the house, everyone was asleep. Quietly, I slipped into Paige’s room and sank into a chair by her bed. As I watched her sleep, a mingled sense of dread and hope went through me.
I’ll try to be honest, I thought.
In no time at all, it seemed, I’d fallen asleep and woken back up by a rustling noise. Paige was sitting up, awkwardly and stiffly, looking at her shoulder. Then she smiled over at me. “Good morning. Nobody grabbed my glasses, did they?”
Thrown, I glanced around, trying to remember if they had. “Um, I’m not sure.”
“It’s fine, I have an extra pair. They’re just not as cute.” She paused. “What were those –those animals? What happened to their faces?”
My mind flashed back to the morning when Hazel had appeared in the living room after being healed by Ben and finding out about coyote shifters. Her eyes had been wide and curious, the same look that had been on Kalin’s face and then Sky’s. (Willow had already known of this world, of course.)
Paige’s expression was one of curiosity, but also trepidation. As of yet, she was still ignorant of the Skinwalker and I wanted to keep that veil pinned in place. But I couldn’t any longer.
Rubbing my neck, I looked up at her and began to speak. I told her what had happened at the end of last summer, why the survey of the cave had really been called off and of the Moonstone. The chase to Arizona, meeting and saving Kalin, who’d stolen the Moonstone back.
I told her the circumstances around Burr’s disappearance and rescue by Willow in Alaska, and more recently, the murder of Otis Huxley in Seattle, a scholar who’d gotten too close to the truth.
“I heard about Otis,” Paige said, her arms clamped around her knees. “So, this is all connected? Everything that happened at Rampart Mountain all those years ago?”
I started and stared at her. “What?”
“Oh, I worked with Otis, a long time ago. Well, what was it, six years ago? We went out to Rampart Mountain, south of here, and some strange things happened. He’d always been interested in myths and legends and ghost stories.” Her lips twitched sadly. “But after that trip, he became obsessed with the cryptozoological after what happened.”
“Did you see anything?” I asked, my heart racing.
She shook her head. “No, but the look on Otis’s face was… Well, a group of us from that team agreed to help him look into it. I lost touch with them in the last two years, though. Became too busy with everything. But I did hear that everything he collected was lost.”
“It wasn’t.” I blew out a breath. “I have it.”
“You do?” Paige tilted her head. “Wait…” I could see her mind working and putting two and two together. “Oh, God. He saw an Ash Walker. And that man?”
Reaching out, I gripped her blankets and shook my head. “Was no man. It was a Skinwalker.”
Paige sucked in a hard breath and lay a hand over mine. “From Navajo lore – they’re real?”
“It’s real,” I said grimly, staring at the blue weave of the blanket caught in my fingers.
“Was it someone you knew?” she asked, her voice soft and kind.
I hesitated, then shook my head. “No, but we know its real name.”
“Oh!” I looked up to see her hit her fist into her palm. “That’s right, the real name is said to undo the curse and render them human. Or destroy them. Depends on the myth.”
I explained then how we couldn’t use the name yet – for one thing, we didn’t know how exactly it would work, and for another, the Skinwalker held the threat of my brothers’ lives in exchange for the Moonstone. And how if we gave it the Moonstone, we were all but assuring the destruction of the walls between our world and the Deadlands.
Putting a hand to her forehead, Paige made a comical face. “Okay, I’m starting to get why you were so reluctant to tell me all of this. You need me to help you guys parse through the mythology and the sacred sites to find out if there’s something that can help you avoid both of those scenarios
.” She nodded slowly. “I’m sure there is. There has to be.”
“Do you want to look at Professor Huxley’s stuff? After you take a shower and have breakfast, of course.”
“Sure.” Paige stood up and her hand brushed along my shoulder. “I haven’t looked at it in a while. I’m sure some of my stuff is still in there, though. What did I used to sign off as? Red Hare?”
“Red Hare?” I exclaimed.
“Yeah, hare like the rabbit and then because I have red hair,” Paige said with a laugh. “It was a joke between Huxley and I. Plus once I visited a Cherokee medicine man and he said that was my spirit animal. Wait – why?”
“You’re Red Hare,” I said faintly. I had no idea how to feel – I’d spent weeks trying to find the contributors to that master file of Huxley’s – and kept learning they were dead. I’d assumed the worse for Red Hare, but here she was.
“Paige, you should know the other contributors – the Skinwalker or something working for him – well, they’re all gone,” I said slowly.
She went white, a hand pressing to her mouth.
“It’s okay, you’re safe here.” I hastened to assure her. “And there’s no way it knows,” I stood up and hugged her. “We’ll keep you safe. I promise.”
“I mean, otherwise, I’d be toast, right?” Paige tried to joke, fiddling with the bracelet at her wrist as I stepped back. “It’s okay. Um, I do really need to take a shower.”
“Be careful of the bandages,” I said, trailing after her and out into the hallway.
“Oh, ho, what’s this?” Willow’s amused voice carried down the hall and I flinched.
But then there was a chorus of good mornings and introductions as Sky, Kalin, and Hazel descended on Paige. In the melee, I slipped downstairs and found hot coffee waiting for me.
With a small sigh, I inhaled the scent and listened to the clatter from upstairs. A low pinch of guilt went through my gut. I’d lied again. I hadn’t told her who the Skinwalker’s really was.
By the end of the day, Paige had us all assigned to tracking down myths or maps. She herself was a whirlwind, scribbling notes, asking questions I’d never thought to ask, and lapsing into long silences. At one point, Sil passed through with raised eyebrows and a small smile.
I could see what she was seeing. Paige completed our circle in some way. The last colors and brushstrokes, finishing the picture. Even Nim did too, finding a nook under the bookcase to snooze in. And the worried looks of the girls faded into fierce ones of seeking. Everyone was busy and filled with purpose. It helped fill the abyss wrenched into our midst by the absence of my brothers.
And later that night, when I found myself waking form a dark kind of dream, the impression of being hunted and pinned into a corner, I didn’t have to be alone.
Sneaking into Paige’s room, I intended to sleep in the chair by her bed, but she was awake and waiting for me. Her hair was a gloss of firelight and I held her face gently as I looked at her.
“What is it?” she asked after a moment.
“I wish I could find the words,” I murmured, pressing a kiss to her nose and then her lips.
In my head, I begged, help me forget. Just for a little while. Let me be here with you.
Our kisses became desperate and hungry after that. Crawling over her, I pushed her down into the mattress and delved my tongue deeper into her mouth. Paige arched up, her soft curves swelling against me and I shuddered, feeling her.
Slipping our clothes off was a descent into heat as our bare skin met.
Gasping now, feeling as though I was stealing these kisses, I slid into her silken warmth and relished the sound of her quick breaths against my neck. We were wrapped wholly in each other.
I took care to worship her with every caress and every moment. This was the languorous rhythm of love-making. And while the words were still caught inside of me, I hoped Paige would know, somehow, how I felt about her. What she meant to me. How much I appreciated her.
When the pleasure broke over me, I pressed a kiss to her lips and she trembled against me, as though the intensity of it had surprised her. Drawing away, I stared down at her and I saw she was smiling, but her eyes were filled with tears. She reached up and kissed me, sliding her foot along my calf and my fingers dug into her as I held on.
“Stay with me,” she murmured, her voice breathy, as she pulled away. “Don’t leave.”
Letting my head fall onto her chest, I nodded, but I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t lie.
“Please don’t leave,” she said again, in the barest of whispers.
Closing my eyes, I wrapped my arms around her and held onto her as though I could grant that simple and impossible request.
Chapter 16
Glancing back and forth between the notes I had scrawled and the computer screen, then to the printouts, I rubbed my brow and made the angry noise of a cat who’d had its tail stepped on.
“This can’t be it,” I muttered. A numb, hollow feeling was carving itself into my chest and I put down the papers. Staring out my bedroom window with blurring vision, I took off my glasses and wiped my eyes on my sleeve. “Please, please, this cannot be it.”
We had figured out why the Skinwalker had taken such a desperate risk in enacting that blood magic. I kept finding things about vulnerabilities, but I wasn’t quite sure what it all meant. Perhaps only that it weakened the creature.
But I had figured out that the solstice was the key. If on that day, the Moonstone was turned to the east in a certain sacred place northeast of here – Central Mountain – it would close the gash that allowed the Ash Walkers to slip through.
However, it wouldn’t put an end to the Skinwalker’s malice.
Nor could this be accomplished by any but the five of the moon or a servant of the nameless shadow. Sivulk, I wrote, followed by a question mark. A name for the nameless.
“Are you still awake?” Rayner asked, and I jumped, scattering my notes. “Sorry.”
“It’s alright,” I murmured, wishing Nim was here. But he didn’t care for stairs and liked to be near the kitchen to beg treats off the denizens of Sil’s house, who gave in far too easily. The dog was getting plump after being here a week.
A week of trying to find answers and now wishing I hadn’t.
In that time, Rayner had gone from a hopeful, happy guy to a quieter and more withdrawn one. With each passing day, the worry in his eyes grew as did the distance between us. Yet he still came to my room every night, even though he was gone before I awoke the next morning.
Except for that first night, when I’d begged him not to leave.
He had to know I hadn’t meant only for that night.
“You found something, didn’t you?” he asked and I whirled around. A sad smile was crossing his face. “I can see it in your eyes.”
“I’m not sure yet, I have to double check.” I paused. “I’m not going to bed just yet.”
Nodding, Rayner got up and left without a word.
I stayed up for hours, searching for another answer, but I couldn’t find one.
Unless…
The next morning, the sky was heavy and gray, pressing down on the earth, and I struggled to get dressed and become a functional human. Everything in my body seemed to ache, my eyes, my limbs, and my chest. I didn’t want to tell them what I’d found.
Sil, the four girls, and Rayner were assembled in the living room like they were waiting for me. I could hardly meet their eyes as I walked in, gripping my coffee and wishing futilely for a loophole. Coyotes were tricksters, weren’t they? They pushed limits and overcame great burdens with their wits. Why couldn’t that be the case now?
For a few minutes, everyone tried to make small talk except for Rayner. Unable to stand it a moment longer, I launched into my explanation. The room was deathly still while I spoke, my voice and hands shaking as I handed around my notes.
At the end of it, Willow looked to Hazel. “Hazel, can’t you try to see if there’s some other way? Tap into some
old memory and see?”
Hazel was still recuperating from last week and she gave us a tired smile. “I’ve been trying. But it’s like they’re locked away. I was told that what I would need would come, nothing more or less.”
Sky was staring out the window. “My friend who is an environmental reporter says that Viper Fuel has decided to break ground in the valley – right below Central Mountain. There are protests and people trying to fight it, but they’re not prevailing.”
“Only stopping the Skinwalker will,” Kalin finished, her hands over her face. “What are we going to do?”
“We have to give it the Moonstone,” Rayner said, his voice devoid of emotion, and we stared at him. “I will not sacrifice the four of them. Besides – we can’t win without them.”
“Would they want this, though?” Willow asked, her heart in her voice and her eyes closed.
“I think not. I think they would tell us to find another way. No matter the cost,” Kalin choked out and put a hand over her eyes. “They wouldn’t want us to give in.”
“Well, um,” I spoke up and five pairs of eyes settled on me. Rayner was still staring at the ceiling. “I also found something else. I don’t know if it’s true, but it seems to be.”
“What is it, dear?” Aunt Sil asked, speaking for the first time.
“It’s a little reckless, but it’s something a coyote trickster might attempt in this kind of a situation.” I took a deep breath. “A coyote inviting Sivulk through.”
Rayner looked down and over at me in amazement. “How did you…?”
“This is no ordinary Skinwalker, right?” I rifled through my notes. “From what you told me, it sounds like it is being fed these powers via the Deadlands, from Sivulk. This creature has become the Skinwalker’s shadow, I think. But were Sivulk here, the Skinwalker would degenerate into an ordinary one. A corrupt shaman, but no longer with any abilities to manipulate the Ash Walkers… I think.”
“You think?” Willow asked, her tone hard but her face filled with worry. “That’s a huge risk.”
“Are you saying that if Sivulk were here, the Hotshots would wake up?” Sky was staring at me now and clenching her fists. “They’d be freed?”
HOTSHOT BROTHERS: Coyote Shifters Page 81