more clearly than Phil: no big rescue was going to happen here. He and Gretchen were going up against a basilisk and a jaguar shifter—dangerous creatures, definitely, but ones that were thoroughly stuck on the ground. Now that Gretchen could fly, she, at least, could get back in the air. A trip dangling from her talons might do Phil some good.
He didn’t know if he could make it down the mountain in his griffin form, not as sore and bloodied as he was, but Gretchen getting away was the important thing. And her new lynx-falcon shape meant she could get away at any time.
Phil was watching the car’s approach with that same hateful arrogance on his face. His eyes flashed a deep, unnatural crimson as he started to shift—
—only to smack into the mystical barrier of the shiftsilver handcuffs.
His reaction was priceless. Gretchen didn’t know that she’d ever seen anyone’s jaw literally drop like that.
“You,” Phil snarled, turning to her. “You’d use these on another shifter?”
It seemed so unreal for Phil Locke, of all people, to be questioning Gretchen’s honor that they both actually laughed. Gretchen was the one who’d flown in the face of all loyalty and duty? Sure, Phil.
It was nice to have a little levity as the car streaked up towards them.
Gretchen said incredulously, “On a shifter who’s a criminal? A shifter like you, who framed his partner for a murder that didn’t even happen? A shifter who sold out the people who were counting on him to protect them? Um, yes. A thousand times yes.”
“You’re not really a shifter at all,” he said, spitting the words at her.
“Oh, she definitely is,” Cooper said.
A smile spread across Gretchen’s face, as beautiful and natural as the sun coming up. She almost glowed with it.
If Cooper never made it down this mountain again, he was going to try to die thinking of that smile.
“I’m a shifter,” Gretchen said simply. “But I’m a Marshal first.”
“Then it’s time we did some Marshaling,” Cooper said, “because they’re almost here. Gretch, it looks like you’re back on prisoner transport after all. Ready for a ride, Phil?”
*
It was almost over. They’d bring Phil back to her home office and explain everything that had happened, and after they all waded through an ocean of red tape...
Cooper would be free. They’d have a life together.
Thinking about that was such a beautiful distraction that Gretchen almost missed the poisonous delight in Phil’s eyes. Almost, but not quite.
A chill shot down her spine. “What?”
Phil spoke only to Cooper, like he’d decided that she wasn’t worth talking to since she didn’t fit his narrow, idiotic ideas of what it meant to be a true shifter. “You might have gotten me with these,” he said, holding up his wrists and letting the shiftsilver cuffs dangle down, the blue-gray metal winking in the sunlight, “but unless you have more of them—I’m telling you what I told you before. You’re not getting off this mountain alive.”
“Gretchen’s going to fly you off this mountain,” Cooper said. “No problem there.”
“We’ll all fly,” Gretchen said firmly. “If you’re not up for it, then you can ride on my back while I carry Phil with my talons. I don’t care if it’s hard. I’m not leaving you behind.”
Cooper reached out and squeezed her hand. “All right. Then we’re all going. And there’s not a thing Roger and Monroe can do about it, not if we’re in the air.”
Phil laughed. The unpleasant sound rang off the stones around them, echoing.
“What do you say when someone’s had plastic surgery?” Phil said.
He was enjoying himself now, Gretchen realized, toying with them the way a cat played with a mouse.
“They’ve ‘had some work done,’ right? Well, Cooper, old buddy, partner, you could say Roger’s had some work done. He’s not exactly the man you remember.” His smile was so wide it looked like the edges of it would come off his face. “And now he’s here. I almost feel sorry for you.”
Let him feel sorry all he wanted. Gretchen wasn’t standing around here another minute, not with Cooper’s freedom at stake. She didn’t know what Phil could possibly be talking about, but she figured the open sky was still their best hope.
She touched Cooper’s shoulder. “Come on.” She let some of the urgency she was feeling bleed into her voice. “Let’s get out of here.”
But Cooper couldn’t take his eyes off the car, which was, as Phil had said, now practically on top of him. The same wind that was