With a growl to do Anunit proud tickling the back of my throat, I didn’t think, I just shoved him.
Right.
Off.
The.
Cliff.
Agleeful whoop split the air, jerking me back from the edge, but I couldn’t tear my eyes off Ankou as he fell, hitting every rock on the way down.Allthe way down.
“I can’t believe you did that.” Josie leaned over so far Carter hooked a finger through her belt loop, just in case. “I can’t believe you didn’t letmedo that.” She pumped her fists in the air. “God, I wish phones worked here. I would have recorded the shit out of that, rewatched it a million times, and never gotten tired of it.”
There was no satisfying smack when he hit bottom. He got lucky, well, luckyish, and bounced off a ledge. His broken body got wedged in a shallow crevasse before he could hit the barren stone plains where the mirashii roamed in search of me.
“I didn’t plan it, or I would have let you do the honors.” I could kick myself for causing the delay. “He pissed me off, and I reacted.”
“Like when you reacted earlier and punched his lights out,” Carter drawled, her eyes alight with the thrill of secondhandviolence. “I’ll go out on a limb and guess he was talking about your sister.”
“Something along those lines.” As tempted as I was to climb down, unstick him, then toss him the rest of the way to the bottom, I had to be practical. Too bad I hadn’t come to that conclusion three minutes ago. “Now what do we do? We can’t just aimlessly wander. Do we go help him?”
“Nah.” Josie lifted a shoulder then dropped it. “He’s twitching, so I’m sure he’s fine.”
“I will fetch him.” Anunit whipped her tail. “I do not wish to wait.” She smiled at Harrow, all teeth. “The Harrow has agreed to feed me crawfish we will hunt together and then boil alive.”
“You claimed you only highjacked Harrow so you could savor tastes one last time before you passed on.” I eyed her with a healthy dose of suspicion. “Has that changed for you here?”
“Yes.” Her dark eyes sparkled with ravenous delight. “These flavors are not as rich as foods at the buffet of eat it all, but it is invigorating to experience these sensations with my own tongue.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.” I didn’t get out more than that before she began leaping nimbly down to Ankou’s level. “So.” I speared Harrow with a look. “You agreed to take your kidnapper fishing then feed her from your crawfish boil.”
“She kept licking my fingers.” He suppressed a shudder. “It weirded me out, okay?”
Not as much as it would weird him out if she body snatched him again for the sake of tasting her food.
“And your knee-jerk response to having your fingers licked was…” Josie snickered, “…to reach for your fishing pole?”
“Josie, behave.” Carter, still gripping Josie’s belt loop, yanked her back to safety. “I know it’s hard, but you can do it.”
“I bet Harrow’s fishing pole is hard,” she cackled, waggling her eyebrows at Harrow.
“Stop sayinghard.” Harrow smoothed down his shirt. “And quit talking about my fishing pole.” Shivers rippled through his shoulders as he shrugged off his unease. “Besides, I set traps for crawfish.”
“I bet you do.”
“She should have been spanked more as a child,” Carter informed me like it was my fault.
“I’m willing to make up for lost time.” Josie shook her butt at Carter, who rolled her eyes skyward as she released her with a long-suffering sigh. “Your face.” Josie dissolved into laughter. “You’re adorable.”
“I’m a redcap.” Carter glowered at Josie. “I’m not adorable.”
“Agree to disagree.” She tweaked the grumpy redcap’s nose. “Hey…”
“Hey what?” I dipped my gaze to Anunit, expecting the problem to be there. “What is it?”
“Do you guys hear that?” Josie stepped around Carter. “It sounds like running water.”
“I haven’t seen any water sources since I got here,” I admitted, “but there must be one somewhere.”
