CHAPTER9
Aodhan had been braced for the transition, but Cathy clearly hadn’t known what to expect. As the kelpie dove into the pool, she let out a muffled shriek, cut off as the water closed over their heads. She stiffened against his body, every muscle going rigid.
He tightened his arms around her, praying that she’d understand the warning. They were already far deeper than the physical pool, Neifion carrying them into the secret magical currents that only water fae could navigate. If she kicked free from the kelpie now, there was no telling where she’d emerge—if she emerged at all.
To his relief, she didn’t head butt him and try to claw her way back to the rapidly vanishing surface. Her heart was beating so hard that he could feel it hammering against his own chest, but she remained in the saddle as the kelpie swam steadily downward.
They couldn’t talk underwater. He tapped her wrist, making her start and look round at him. They were too deep for sunlight to reach, but the kelpie glowed with blue-green phosphorescence, giving off just enough light for him to make out Cathy’s tightly clamped lips and wide, panicked eyes.
Breathe, he mouthed at her.
He inhaled in demonstration. Although water pressed against his face, air rushed up his nose, warm and unpleasantly humid. Aodhan wrinkled his nose at the green, stagnant smell.
Should have done the spell myself. Aodhan still had one lined up in his head, ready to release at the first sign of trouble. His air would have been cool and crisp as a mountain breeze. In Aodhan’s professional opinion, kelpie transmutation magic was distinctly sub-par.
Still, at least Neifion was keeping his word and making air for them, even if it did taste faintly of swamp. Aodhan took another long, deep breath, exaggerating the motion so that Cathy could feel the rise of his chest. Blowing out a stream of bubbles, he nodded at her.
Cathy took a cautious breath, and he felt her body relax a fraction. Her face was pale as fresh snowfall in the kelpie’s shifting light, but she flashed him a quick, tight smile before turning round to cuddle Noodle. The black dog wasn’t struggling, but his tail was firmly clamped between his legs. The puppy clearly wasn’t enjoying the ride any more than Cathy.
Neifion’s legs stretched in smooth, steady strides, galloping rather than swimming through the water. Apart from the kelpie’s ghostly glow, it was pitch black now. The back of Aodhan’s neck prickled with the sense of crushing weight, poised above them like a giant’s hand. He kept his wand out, ready to fling up a shield at the first sign of trouble. He didn’t think that Neifion would betray them—the dratted creature was irritating, but not malicious—but kelpies weren’t the only predators who swam these hidden waterways.
Cool currents tugged at his robes. Apart from that one small hint of movement, Neifion might as well have been running in place, suspended in the infinite void. Time seemed to hang still. They could have been riding for seconds, or hours, or days.
A phantom glimmer broke the darkness, as high and remote as a star. Neifion’s muscles shifted, bunching. Aodhan’s stomach dropped as the kelpie launched himself upward, front legs tucked under as though jumping a fence.
Sunlight broke across his face. Aodhan coughed, spitting out a mouthful of stagnant water, and glanced around. To his relief, familiar peaks and forested slopes surrounded them. Neifion had brought them out in the middle of the lake which lay at the heart of his hidden valley. The water horse trotted across the glimmering waters, leaving fading hoof prints in the placid surface.
“Short of coming up in your bathtub, this is as close as I can get,” Neifion announced, coming to a halt at the lake shore. He cocked an ear at Aodhan. “Or did you want me to carry you all the way to the bedroom? If you need someone to offer encouraging advice, I’m more than happy to stick around.”
Aodhan dismounted, water streaming from his robes. “I think I can take it from here, thank you. Human?”
Noodle jumped down straight away, but it seemed to take Cathy a moment to unclench her death-grip on the kelpie’s mane. She slid off Neifion’s back, not entirely gracefully.
“If at all possible,” she managed to get out, through blue-tinged lips. “I would like to not do that again, please.”
“Sorry.” Neifion’s tail drooped in what looked like genuine chagrin. “Built for speed, not comfort. And normally I’m trying to make people scream.”
“I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.” Cathy hugged the water horse, pressing the side of her face against his glassy neck. “You were marvelous. Really, I can’t thank you enough. If you’re ever in the human world, please look me up. My son would love to meet you.”
She hadn’t said Kevin would love to meet him. Let alone hugged his neck.
A sharp surge of nameless emotion—surely not jealousy, that would be utterly ridiculous—caught Aodhan by surprise. Without really meaning to, he found himself stepping between the pair.
“The last thing we need is this dripping idiot causing chaos in two realms,” he growled, because yes, that appalling prospect was definitely the cause of his totally rational desire to mule-kick the water horse straight back into the lake. “Don’t go giving him ideas.”
Neifion craned his neck, peering over Aodhan’s shoulder to address Cathy. “You sure you don’t want to trade this grumpy hobbyhorse in for a better ride?”
Aodhan let his hand drop to his wand. “You sure you don’t want to leave my valley in one piece, rather than as a drifting cloud of steam?”
“Thank you again,” Cathy said to Neifion. “We really do appreciate your help.”
Neifion slanted a sidelong glance at Aodhan. “I want to hear him say that.”
Aodhan ground his teeth, but he had to admit that the kelpie had been unusually cooperative. “Thank you. I owe you a debt.”
“Ooooh.” Neifion’s ears perked up. “So if, as a purely hypothetical example, I wanted to peruse your extensive collection of erotica…?”
“Don’t push your luck.” Aodhan slapped the kelpie’s shoulder, sending ripples through his body. “One favor, yours to call in at need. I suggest you don’t waste it.”