Page 25 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

"Penny!" Ashley sounded genuinely shocked.

"I wouldn't!" Penny paused. "I totally would. As long as there were no security cameras."

"There aren't," Ashley said, sounding unexpectedly confident. "People in Renaissance aren't big on surveillance."

"Well, then." Penny mimed warming her throwing arm up, and Ashley gave her another dubious, shocked look. "Okay, I won't! Not if you're going to look all moral and conflicted at me!" They tumbled out of the car into the frigid air, both of them looking skyward at the columns of green stretching across the sky. Penny shivered happily. "Oh, that's perfect. Look at that. It's been a good year for the lights."

"Lots of sunspot activity." Ashley, tentatively, slipped her hand into Penny's, and Penny nestled up close, smiling as they watched the sky for several minutes.

Then, abruptly, Penny realizedshewas shivering, and Ashley wasn't wearing a coat at all. "Oh my God. We have to get back in the car. You're going to die of hypothermia."

"I'm honestly okay. No hypothermia, no frostbite. Here, see?" Ashley put her fingers against Penny's cheek, where they felt like heating elements warming her skin.

"That's crazy," Penny said breathlessly. "How are you doing that?"

Ashley hesitated. "I can tell you, but it's kind of a…it's crazy. It's a lot. It might be more than you want to know."

"Oh no. I want to know. I wish to master this strange ability."

"I don't think you can," Ashley said sheepishly. "It's innate to me. To my kind of people."

Penny's eyebrows crawled upward. "To tall blondes?"

"No." Ashley laughed. "No, although my whole family can do it. Um. Okay, you, I, I need to step back."

"Sure, that's fine, I'll just go over here and shiver." Penny took a few steps away, speaking in her most pathetic voice.

Ashley eyeballed her. "That isn't fair."

"No, it wasn't. Sorry. Go on, tell me what this thing is."

"I really have to show you. Because I'll say it and you won't believe it. So this is me saying it." Ashley swallowed nervously. "I can shapechange. I can shapeshift into a bear."

"Okay, that's a brand-new weird one on me," Penny announced. "I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. Is it code for something?"

Ashley, still visibly nervous, shook her head. "No. No, it's just…well…watch."

She took another step back, and then two more, before she shapeshifted into a bear. A huge, fluffy, golden-brown grizzlybear whose expression was somehow identical to the nervous look Ashley had had on her face. On her human face. Because she was a bear now. She had just shapeshifted, right there in front of Penny. That was a thing that had happened.

Penny looked around in her brain for a response, because screaming and running away seemed obvious, or maybe fainting, or maybe peeing herself, but none of those things seemed to be happening in her head.

Instead, a small bright voice somewhere in the back of her mind said,I can do that!and Penny shapeshifted into a partridge.

CHAPTER 15

Ashley shifted back to human and yelled, "Holy shit!" at the small, extremely startled-looking partridge in the snowbank a few feet away from her. "Holy shit, Penny, what the hell!? You just turned into a partridge!"

This is not supposed to go this way,her bear said, flabbergasted.Ourmateis supposed to be the one who shouts and is surprised!

Our mate wasn't supposed to turn into a partridge!Ashley yelled back, although she tried to keep the yelling inside her head. Not very successfully, apparently, because the poor partridge—Penny—flapped her wings and fluttered back in alarm at all the noise Ashley was making. Then it dumped itself wing-first into the snowdrift, panicked, and started beating its wings even harder.

"Penny! Oh my God! Penny! Calm down! It's okay! Holy shit!" Ashley hurried forward to try to collect the panicked partridge in her arms. Penny started beating her wings harder and rose a few inches into the air, then let out a horrified squawk and collapsed into the drift, quivering with terror. Ashley, trying to sound calm and trustworthy, managed to drop her voice into a croon. "Hey, it's okay, baby. It's all right. I've got you, Penny. It'sme, Ashley. I'm going to pick you up, okay? Don't scratch me. It's okay. Yeah, see, there? Everything is okay, baby."

The partridge did not look like everything was okay. On the other hand, she didn't fight or claw or flap any more as Ashley brought her arms down slowly and gently to scoop her up. "There," Ashley murmured. "There we go. That's it. That's all right. I've got you now. You're safe. Can you hear me, Penny? I want you to think about being human again, okay? You can just shift right back as easy as you shifted to being a bird. It's okay, just—oh! Oof!"

She went down into the snow with a thump as Pennydidshift back: an armful of woman weighed a lot more than an armful of bird did. For a moment snow and her gown and cloak and everything flew everywhere, settling with Penny's weight in Ashley's lap. She was warm and soft and smelled mostly wonderful, although there was a tang of sweat and possibly panic to her scent just then. "Good. Good job, that was good, you?—"

"Oh my God!" Penny wailed. "What happened to myclothes?"

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