"I think you've teamed up with your brother and sold all of us down Shit Creek. Paddles are extra."
"I didn't. You remember the story I told you about the warrior and the Gate?"
"Yeah?"
"I was the warrior."
Her mind reeled with that knowledge. "No."
He nodded. "My brother hates me to this day, and I don't blame him. I was out of control."
"But why?"
"I told you why. Jealousy. I'd spent my entire life living in Coyote's shadow. Others flocked to him. And for the most part, I was good with that."
Ren clenched his teeth. "Until the day he brought you home." He winced as if the pain was still too much to bear. "I'd never seen a more beautiful woman. For our people, butterflies are a symbol of hope. It's said that if you capture one in your hands and whisper your dreams to it, it will carry them up to the heavens so that the wish can be granted."
Sarcastic applause rang out from behind him.
Ren turned to find Coyote there.
"Nice, brother. You're still trying to get into her bed, eh?"
Abigail noted the pain in Ren's expression.
"I put it aside, Coyote. It's time for you to do the same."
Coyote shook his head. "No. The Butterfly belongs to me. I captured her. I tamed her. Most of all, I protected her."
"She's not a possession."
He smiled evilly. "Yes, she is. She's the most precious possession."
Abigail's head spun as the words they were saying now caused her mind to flash back to a time and place she still couldn't identify.
She saw Ren and Coyote in a meadow, where they were fighting just like now. Even the subject was the same.
Coyote sneered at Ren. "This is all your fault. You and your petty jealousy. Why couldn't you have been happy for me? Just once. Why? Had you left us alone, none of this would have ever happened. There would have been no Grizzly Spirit. No need for Guardians and he-" Coyote gestured to the floor with a knife. "-would never have come here."
Ren didn't respond. His gaze was fastened to the red on Coyote's hands. It went from there to the ground, where ...
Buffalo lay dead in a pool of blood.
Ren winced. "How could you do this? He was a Guardian." And my best friend in the world. The one and only person who'd stood by him without question.
Even when evil had claimed possession of his body and he'd served it willingly, Buffalo had stayed with him. Protecting him.
Now he lay slain by Ren's own brother.
My cruelty drove him mad....
Coyote spit on Buffalo's back. "He was a bastard, and he stole her heart from me."
Ren shook his head slowly as guilt and sorrow ripped him apart. "Hearts can never be stolen, Cy. They can only be given."
Coyote sneered at him. "You're wrong! That's your jealousy speaking."
But it wasn't. Ren had learned to banish that.