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What I did have was the cop car, whose red flashing lights suddenly went from annoyance to godsend, giving me a beacon in my rearview mirror, allowing me to stay centered in the road. It wasn’t easy, because it felt like we were hydroplaning about half the time, but it was all I had. And it was working!
Until he ran into a ditch.
Son of a—
I swerved to avoid doing the same, and a second later, broke through the deluge onto an open stretch of road, spluttering and blinking and very surprised.
And grateful as hell.
Until I looked to my right, and came face-to-face with a furious king of the fey.
I thought it might be because he was a soggy mess: the glorious hair was straggling around his face, the casual shirt and leggings were drenched and dripping, and the inch or so of water that the car had managed to acquire was sloshing around his feet. But all that was true of me, too, and you didn’t hear me complaining. I was just glad to be alive.
Although how much longer that would last was debatable, because a heavy hand had just descended onto my neck.
“We need to talk.”
* * *
* * *
I watched from the air as a large herd of deer simultaneously pricked up their ears and turned their heads. And then charged the long ribbon of road below, converging on the one spot of color fleeing through the night, the small white car my twin and the king of the fey were using. As fast as they were going, even a single impact might well prove disastrous. But the king must have done something, for they sailed over the car like a brown river, never touching it.
The creature’s trick hadn’t worked.
But it wasn’t the only one it knew. For I’d barely had the thought when a rain squall blew up, looking oddly like the herd, with every cloud in the surrounding area suddenly focused on one target. It utterly blocked my view, and I couldn’t imagine that my twin was having better luck.
She was going to crash.
So I sent my latest avatar diving through rain-battered skies, straight at the small eagle my prey had recently acquired. It was quick, just a dark smudge on the sky. But I was currently riding a peregrine falcon, favored hunter of the kings of old, which nested in abundance in this new city of glass and steel.
And was faster than anything in the skies.
I felt our talons sink deep, felt our prey struggle and fight and cry out, felt it start to fall—
And felt the rain cut out, abruptly, as the murderer’s concentration broke.
It was impressive, nonetheless. Just as whatever spell had been used on the herd had been. I could not throw spells; none of my kind could. But even had that been a possibility, I did not think I would have been able to manage it and hold an unwilling host at the same time.
But this one could, and could do it weakened.
I did not know what to think about that, like so many things today. It felt strange, to have a rush of new experiences after so long, to feel curious and off-balance. I spread my wings, feeling strangely exultant, free, reborn—
Until a shadow circled overhead.
And hunter became prey.
* * *
* * *
“What do you mean, your other half?” Caedmon demanded.
“Can we do this another time?” I yelled, because we were getting hit with scattered showers, as the big one broke apart, making me have to concentrate on the road. And because I didn’t know the answer to most of his questions myself.
“No! Explain yourself!”
It was like night and day: the amused would-be lover, toying with me because he was bored or because he wanted something, which had been most of my experience with Caedmon until now; and the sharp-eyed, serious, powerful king of t
