“Fine.”
The kelpie lowered her front legs again and I scrambled onto her back as the goon ran toward us. I had time to see him lift a gun. Aim it at me. Then the kelpie went from standing to an unnatural gal op and the world flashed by standing to an unnatural gal op and the world flashed by me.
I clung to the reins with one hand, my purse and PC with the other, and kept my knees pressed hard against the kelpie’s sides. I’d never ridden bareback, and I expected to fight to keep my seat, but the kelpie’s scales were sticky, holding me in place. Well, how else would she keep her riders locked on her back while she drowned them?
The trees blurred as she gal oped past, and then the giant arch of the bridge loomed ahead of us. She slowed to a canter and then stopped at the base of the bridge. I slid down to my feet, my legs trembling with more than just exhaustion.
The kelpie shook her head and the bridle slid free. She looked at me, and huffed a breath smel ing of rotted fish in my face. Then she turned, stepping into the river.
“You have not made a friend this day, feykin,” she said as she sank under the water.
“I know.” But I didn’t apologize.
She stopped with just her dark eyes and pointed ears above the water. “Perhaps your pursuers wil desire a ride.”
Then she vanished.
Maybe I’d grown jaded, but I couldn’t force myself to care if she ate the goons.
The colectors were waiting for me in the center of the bridge. I didn’t see the cops as I made my way along the bank, but I imagined that wherever they were they could see me. Wonder what they thought of that entrance?
I put PC and my purse under the bridge, tucked away out of sight behind a support pil ar.
“Stay,” I said, pointing at him. He whined, but lay down, the bag shifting with his movement.
If I had to get out of here quickly, it was going to be hard to reach him, but he’d been through a lot tonight. If things to reach him, but he’d been through a lot tonight. If things went badly, I wanted him out of harm’s way.
Death smiled as I climbed the bank, relief making his hazel eyes brighter. I didn’t bother fighting the answering smile that his summoned in me, but joined him and the other two col ectors. The center of the bridge seemed as good a place as any to draw my circle. A circle that I actual y planned to use this time.
“Looks like you made it just in time,” the gray man said, and pointed with the skul that topped his cane.
The water on the far side of the bridge bubbled and whirled as a large shadow expanded under the surface of the river. A giant green head emerged. It looked like the head of an al igator with a long, leathery snout stopping in a flat forehead and thick eye ridges—but the head alone was the size of an al igator.
Sea serpent?
Then another head emerged. And another. I stumbled back against the railing of the bridge as two more heads on long, scaled necks emerged. How many of these things are there?
Seven. Heads, at least. Then the first huge taloned foot grabbed the side of the bridge as the creature hauled itself up, and I realized that al the heads were attached to one beast. Hydra.
And another construct. How many souls are fueling that thing? The mist under its glamoured form was solid, completely obscuring the charmed disk in the jumble of souls.
The police, whom I hadn’t seen, shouted into radios, cal ing for backup. I glanced at the edge of the bridge, wondering if I even had a chance of making it to the bank—
this thing’s reach was massive. Then my senses picked up on familiar magic that was not part of the construct.
I let my eyes fol ow my senses. There, around the center head’s neck was a large col ar, and dangling from the col ar was a ruby saturated with Hol y’s magic. I’d never seen her was a ruby saturated with Hol y’s magic. I’d never seen her without the charm.
The police surged forward, opening fire on the hydra.
Their bul ets were too smal in caliber to do much against the hydra’s thick hide, but the col ectors were a lot more effective as they lunged at heads and jerked souls free.
“Wait! It’s wearing one of Hol y’s charms. Maybe it’s supposed to take me somewhere,” I yel ed, staring at the head with the jewel strapped to its neck. I met its red eyes, looking for a sign of intel igence, of intent.
It blinked large, reptilian eyes at me. Then lunged.