Page 67 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

“I need to go,” Wallace says.

I nod and hold out the paper bag with the cinnamon buns again, just as I begin to wonder how he is going to carry them, he takes the bag in his mouth, does a moosey grin, and then disappears from sight in a flash of magic.

Well, I guess that’s that then. All of the questions that I wanted to ask either him or Winston come flooding back, and I silently curse that I forgot to ask them when he was here. Something tells me that if I called him back now to ask the questions, he won’t come, so I don’t bother.

The temperature is starting to drop now that it is late afternoon, even though the sun is still up and will be for another couple of hours. Pulling my jacket tighter around me, I start to turn around so I can head inside the house and warm up.

A sound from the woods stops me, I pause trying to work out what it is when I hear it again. It sounds like a cry, a human cry. Now, I’m not new, I know that certain animals can make sounds that resemble human crying, a mountain lion for example, but I don’t think we are in the right area for it to be a mountain lion or any of the other creatures that I know make those sounds.

I can’t just leave it. What if it is someone in danger? Or even one of the imps? They sound like humans, and one of them could be hurt or something. They are little shits for sending me on a task for a reason that they still haven’t shared with me, but that doesn’t mean that they deserve to die.

With that thought, my mind is made up, and I turn back to face the woods and walk forward, pushing past the underbrush and ducking under branches as I follow the sound deeper into the woods. I don’t recognize anything around me, this isn’t the way that I came when I went for a walk a few days ago, the day before yesterday? I don’t know. Time has gotten all mixed up since I have been sleeping for whole days and nights at a time. However long it has been, this isn’t the same trail that I took when I ran into the imps. In fact, this isn’t a trail at all. There is no path here.

I briefly consider calling the guys and waiting for them to catch up so that we can investigate it together, but the cries become shriller, and I decide that I don’t have enough time to waste. I pick up the pace, my feet crunching against the leaves still scattered on the floor, and I try not trip over any roots that they could be obscuring, I’ve done that too many times to count.

I’m not exactly graceful.

If I go down now, I will be absolutely no help to whatever it is that I am hearing, so I’m trying to be extra careful and hoping that my clumsy curse doesn’t take over.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Neith

Finally, I break through the trees and find myself at the edge of a giant lake. I mean, it is absolutely fucking huge, and I honestly had no idea that the guys had this much land, but it must be theirs because I haven’t crossed any boundaries, and I would know if I had because I would feel the buzz of magic when I crossed through Ransom’s wards.

The shoreline isn’t that far away from the trees, and I step out onto the rocky beach littered with driftwood and carefully pick my way toward the dark blue water. Even from this far away, I can tell that it is absolutely fucking freezing, hypothermia freezing. I’m guessing that this is where Evander comes to restore his magic and practice. The cold water doesn’t affecthim as it would me; he’s a siren, so he is made for all water conditions and adapts within moments depending on what the environment requires, it’s really fucking cool.

Sirens like to live out of the water mostly, although they do spend a large amount of time swimming and learning in water and if they are away from a water source for too long then it can start to cause them issues. Fortunately, they are all very good at using the moisture in the air if they really need to.

The cry turns into a shrill scream as I reach the edge of the water, and a shiver of warning runs down my spine. I look around me, trying to locate where the sound is coming from, and then frown as I look at the lake.

That can’t be right.

How is the scream coming from the water? You need air to scream, and you can’t inhale underwater, not without drowning.

I don’t know what comes over me, but I bend down, my fingers reaching for the icy water.

As soon as my fingers touch the water, weeds wrap around my wrists and pull me in. Quickly dragging me from the shallows to the deeper water. I barely have time to take a breath before I’m pulled under the water. The murky depths swirl around me, the cold threatening to freeze my limbs as my hair obscures my vision and wraps around me.

No, not hair, weeds and vines wrap around me from all directions, as they pull me deeper into the dark depths of the lake.

That’s when I see them, eyes, glowing red eyes. Once I have spotted one set, I see more, dozens of red eyes glowing at me from the depths. Eyes set in horse-like faces, except these horses have razor-sharp teeth. They have two strong front legs like horses, but rather than having back legs, they have a long and incredibly strong tail that helps to propel them through the water and that they also use for fighting. They aren’t thetraditional horse colors, but instead, they are a mix of muted greens and blues, varying shades but all very dull in color. They also possess a certain amount of magic.

Fuck.

Kelpies, they are fucking kelpies and that means these weeds aren’t naturally occurring, it’s them and their magic. It also means that they lured me here, and I was the stupid idiot that I should have known better.

I am also reasonably sure that kelpies like to drown and eat people.

Fuck.

I know that one of the worst things that I can do in this situation is panic, but that’s pretty much the only option I have as they swirl around me. I’m surrounded on all sides, and they are snapping their wickedly sharp teeth in my direction, clearly enjoying the terror that they are causing in me. I struggle against the tightening vines, clawing at them and trying to get them to loosen, but getting nowhere as every vine I break just gets replaced with another one.

Just as my panic reaches its height, a familiar weight hits my palm, and I grip the hilt of my sword tightly. I have no idea how it’s here, but I’m not going to question it.

Don’t like a gift horse in the mouth and all that. I could smack myself for that ridiculously bad pun but I kind of need to focus on fighting for my life.

I slash and slice at the vines and the kelpies that start to come for me in earnest now that I have the means to protect myself. I finally escape all of the vines, and they stop being replaced, as the kelpies instead focus on trying to take bites out of me with their wickedly sharp teeth. I manage to catch a few of them with my sword, but it’s really fucking difficult to fight underwater. I’m moving slower, but they aren’t.

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