tossed us about and sounded loud in my ears. The warmth of the sun played on my face. And then the world flipped and I laughed, because Ray’s ruse had worked!
The fey had been left behind!
Well, most of them.
I spied several dark figures slinging around the vortex below us. But vampire stamina rivalled that of any fey, not to mention vampire strength. Ray started paddling and our little craft took off, almost flying down the rapids.
And this time, I knew what to look for.
“There!” I yelled, clinging to his waist with one arm, while pointing with the other. “Right there!”
“I see it!” he yelled back, looking at the tell-tale whirlpool almost hidden among the crashing waves. He made for it, just as I felt something whiz past my ear. A fey arrow quivered out of a piece of driftwood where none had been a second ago, and then a barrage followed.
I looked about, confused as to how they had gotten here so fast, and how they had shot waterlogged weapons when they did so. But then I glimpsed a fey with dry clothes on the bank, with a foot looped under a root to allow him to lean out and fire arrow after arrow at our wildly bobbing vessel. Most of the arrows missed, but several ended up tangled in the thicket around us, and one slammed into Ray’s thigh.
“Fuckers!” he yelled.
And then we were plunging down another watery conduit.
I did not know how we were supposed to get ahead of our pursuers if they were on both sides of the river now. I assumed that Ray had been right: these tunnels had to be easier for Nimue’s people to navigate. Perhaps they used them like slides, giving them a speed boost and leaving their enemies floundering in their wake. But we were not Green Fey.
We were, however, on the ride of a lifetime, because this vortex seemed stronger than the last two, or perhaps we had just entered it going at a greater speed. All I knew was that we shot out of the water on the other side of the river, sticks flying, Ray cursing, and me clinging to him with an iron grip. And trying to tell myself that we were not about to plunge to our deaths as we sailed straight into the huge open space below us.
It was still a shock when we slammed into the water again, upside down. And even more of one when the mind wrenching feeling of having the world reorient itself hit again, so abruptly that I wondered if this sort of thing led to brain damage if done often enough. I did not have time to wonder long, however.
The current was stronger here, grabbing us like a closing fist, ripping us out of the area around the vortex and all but throwing us down the river. But I did not feel like complaining. Because the fey were back, or, more likely, had never left at all.
I did not know if some had stayed behind deliberately, or if they had simply not made the transition fast enough, but dark shadows were already leaping along the “banks” behind us, finding toe holds in the almost perpendicular rock, and making themselves a pathway where none existed.
So that they could send another barrage our way.
“Damn it, get in front of me!” Ray yelled, as arrows hit the water on both sides of us.
“No! Ray—”
“I can take a few arrows; you can’t!”
“That’s more than a few!”
He turned around and grabbed me by the front of my tunic. “Look at me. I am the captain now, all right? Now get the hell in front!”
But as it happened, I didn’t have to.
The current whirled us around a second later, leaving us facing the wrong way, and Ray gasping as three arrows slammed into his back, almost at the same time.
“Fuckers,” he yelled again, although it sounded more like a wheeze, his lungs having just been shredded.
“I need a weapon,” I gritted out, furious.
But I didn’t have one. Our pack was long since gone, lost along with everything we owned in the raging rapids. But then a fey dropped down on top of us from the slick side of a stalactite, and it turned out that I had everything I needed, after all.
I snatched him out of the air before he could grab Ray, who had slumped over. I wasn’t sure how much leverage I had with my useless legs, but for once, luck was on my