Her eyes were silvery too. We watched each other, silent, two predators at the watering hole. Soul cracked first.
“I smell disease leaking from your pores. Do you understand why you are sick?”
It was an odd form of the question. Not “Do you know why you are sick,” but “Do you understand . . .” “Skinwalkers aren’t meant to walk through time,” I said. “Timewalking and absorbing all the magics I came across ruined my DNA. I have a tooth with healthy DNA and can heal myself, but I might have a five-year-old body and have to grow up again.” And I might lose Beast, I thought. Not willing to do either.
Puma concolor and Jane are Beast. Best hunter.
Dang skippy, I thought at my Beast.
Soul tilted her head to the sky, her eyes still on me, and said, “You have a scale from an arcenciel. Take the scale and go to the interdimensional opening. You can use the scale to see your damage, and to heal yourself. Or you can swim through the rift and you will be healed.”
Yeah. Sounds so easy. I didn’t believe the shape-shifting creature in the water and neither did Beast. Soul wasn’t quite human right now and I had no idea how that might affect her brain, her instincts, her mores, or her personality.
“There will be a price,” she said, “no matter which method you choose. And danger. There always is. But there are ways and methods that make either path less dangerous. Take me with you and I will show you the safest way in.”
People who wanted something had a way of bending the truth to suit them, and Soul had just made this a bargaining session. We had made a number of deals in the past. Sometimes she held up her end. Sometimes an agreement with her meant nothing. I didn’t have long to negotiate. After dark, Soul would be able to see the magic of the rift through the trees anyway. Of course, she didn’t know that yet. I hated politics and the half lies that came with political maneuvering, but I’d clearly learned a lot from Leo—and from Beast—because I knew what steps to take. A game of cat and mouse.
Not cat and mouse, Beast thought. Beast and boar.
None of my swift thoughts showed on my face as I asked a question I already knew the answer to. “Are the local PsyLED agencies going to help me destroy the Flayer of Mithrans?”
She frowned and the winter-cold water swirled as if fish swam with her. “I was not able to obtain their agreement. If those hunting the Flayer of Mithrans locate him, they will target him with missiles. They will claim a gas leak or a terrorist attack. But they will make certain that he is no more.”
Which was exactly what I had figured. Still, hearing it spoken in Soul’s not-quite-human tones was a shock. Fear crawled up my spine on tiny clawed feet. “So no bargain. Tell you what,” I said, thoughtfully. “I’ll take you to the rift, but not until the Flayer of Mithrans is dead.”
“I cannot command the others. I am not their empress.”
Something about that pinged on my subconscious, but nothing swam to the surface. So I went on the offensive, just a little. “You and the arcenciels owe me. No matter what you say, your kind are foresworn. And so are you personally. You gave your word. You may have done the best you could, but your best . . .” Not sucked. That was too emotionally charged. The right word eluded me for a moment. “Your best was insufficient to repay the boon you owe me personally and the contract agreed upon—that the arcenciels would help Leo in the Sangre Duello.”
The pool was no longer icy. In the moments I’d been negotiating, the small pool had begun to churn and steam. To bubble. To simmer. Soul was either mad or excited. Maybe both. Her emotional state was heating the water.
Soul said, “I, perhaps, can get Opal, Cerulean, and Pearl to assist. The others are unlikely to fight for you.”
Four dragons. If she followed through, that might be enough. And then other possibilities popped into my brain. “The arcenciels you named already owe me personally,” I said, not adding that I’d have to find the rainbow dragons first. “You’re bringing nothing to the table.” I leaned closer to the water. “This is what I want in return for taking you to the rift. I want eight dragons, you