I open the browser app and enter a few words into the search bar:sharp teeth water horse.
The first entry is titled “The Legend of the Kelpie.”
I tuck one arm under my head and settle in for some reading.
4
I lie in the undergrowth next to the road, screaming my pain and anger. If my right back leg wasn’t broken, I’d have sunk my jaws into my sister’s hide by now.
I can’t speak to her in this form, and I can’t switch to human shape until my leg has healed. That’s how it goes with us water horses—we heal quickly, but we have to stay in the form in which we were injured until the healing is done.
Valeria is barely hurt, just a few cuts and bruises from my hooves. She heals swiftly, then transforms into her human shape—taller and curvier than me, and prettier too, according to my mother. The golden second daughter, charmingly murderous, adored by my parents for her wildbeauty and for her complete acceptance of our species’ violent way of life.
She might have gotten the best of me this time, thanks to my miscalculated leap across the road. But I’ve always been stronger, both in this form and my human one.
“Look at you.” Valeria stalks around me, bare naked, clad only in her abundant dark hair. It’s longer than last time I saw her, reaching nearly to her knees. “You’re pathetic.”
I snarl at her. Mentally I urge the bones of my broken leg to heal faster so I can change, so I can express to her how much I detest her presence here.
“When I saw you with that fisherman, I thought maybe you’d changed,” Valeria says. “I thought, just maybe, you had matured into the person you’re supposed to be. Someone I can look up to. Someone Mother can be proud of. But you didn’t kill him—younibbledat him. You should have ripped his head off, Lowe. Why didn’t you?”
Another snarl ripples through my throat.
I’ve been asking myself the same question. In the past, when I’ve gotten to the point of licking flesh and tasting blood, I haven’t been able to hold back. From the moment my fangs puncture skin, my prey is doomed.
But I didn’t kill the scruffy diner-fisherman, maybe because he spoke to me differently at the pond than he did in the Toast & Tide. His tone was deeper, gentler. Growly and soft at the same time. I can still hear him saying,You’re a sweetheart, aren’t you? You’re just starving. It’s okay, beautiful. Better me than someone else.
“You’re wondering why I’m here.” Valeria steps onto a fallen tree and walks lightly up its slanted surface,grabbing a nearby branch to steady herself. “So I’ll tell you now, while you can’t talk back or walk away. Mother needs you, Lowe. She’s not doing well. Her mind is failing. She’s changing more often, and she’s not being careful with her kills. It’s becoming a problem. Someone needs to take charge of her, watch her, supervise her when she hunts.”
I snort and toss my head.
“You wantmeto do it, right? Me or Anson?” Valeria vents an irritated little laugh. “But why should we have to? We’ve been by her side this whole time, part of the herd, upholding the legacy and following the traditions while you’ve been off doing your own thing. It’s about time you stepped into your place. You’re the oldest daughter of the alpha mare. There are duties that go along with that, and responsibilities.”
My leg is nearly healed, but I don’t dare try to stand on it yet. I turn my head away from Valeria, indicating what I think of this one-sided conversation.
“When she becomes a liability to the herd, it will be your duty to perform the bloodletting and the lykewake. You must oversee the devouring, and you must assume her position as alpha mare. Sterling is the new lead stallion since the leviathan killed Father. He’ll take you as a mate, even with your history of wandering, as long as you swear fealty to the herd.”
I roll my body and struggle to my feet, testing the back leg. I give it another minute while Valeria lectures me about how selfish I’ve been, how much pain I’ve caused our mother, how my absence has been an embarrassment and a blot on our family line.
“Mother nearly lost her position to another mare,” Valeria says. “Even now, years after you left, the others still whisper. Mother has told so many lies to cover for you.”
My body adjusts itself, condenses, and resolves into my smooth-skinned human shape. “Lies? She didn’t have to tell lies.”
“What was she supposed to tell them? The truth? That you spend your days fighting against your identity, resisting what makes us special, as if it’s something wrong and dirty?”
“Itiswrong. Eating human flesh is wrong.”
“It’s our nature,” Valeria insists. “God, Lowe—I thought I had you back tonight. I wanted us to devour that man together. But you tasted him, and then, when I came in for a bite, you turned on me. Why would you do that? We always used to share kills.”
“That wasbefore.”
“Before you closed yourself off from the truth of who you are.”
“Before I decided I didn’t want to be a psychotic monster who gnaws the flesh off people’s bones,” I snap.
“You don’t have a choice.” Valeria tilts her head, her expression almost pitying. “You can fight it all you want, but tonight is proof that you can’t win. The scent of blood, the flavor of flesh, the crunch of bone—the whole experience still calls to you.”
“Maybe. But I have a choice, Val. I’ve got systems in place to help myself stay human, to purge negative emotions without having to transform and hunt.”
