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“I’m fine,” Pritkin said, and took a nose-dive into the dirt.
I pulled him up and picked wet grass off his face. “You’re still in one piece, right?” I asked, just to be sure.
“You tell me.” His eyes focused on my reddened sleeve. “What’s that?”
“A gift from Skinny.”
“Who?”
“The other guy.”
“Where is he?” Pritkin’s gaze flashed around, although with my eyesight I doubted he could see much.
“He’s out cold. At the moment, I’m more worried about this one.” I toed the mage, but he didn’t budge.
“You needn’t be,” Pritkin said shortly.
I gazed down at the utterly still form and realized what was odd about it. Even unconscious bodies breathe, but I hadn’t seen this one’s chest rise and fall once. “You killed him?”
“I certainly hope so.”
“But he’s a war mage.”
“Ex-war mage. He has served other interests since leaving the corps.”
“But . . . you’re in my body!”
Pritkin wiped gunk out of his eyes. “You have magical ability. The fact that you haven’t been trained doesn’t negate that.”
“I don’t have that kind of power!”
“You have sufficient,” he said tersely. “And knowledge is half the battle. That particular spell was esoteric enough that he didn’t know it—or how to counter it.”
I hunched Pritkin’s shoulders against the chill night air and stared at the body at my feet. The guy had tried to gut me, something that tends to erode my sympathy. But it was still frightening to think that my magic could do something like that, could kill a man with a few muttered words. I shivered; my adrenaline was running low and the sweat under my clothes was drying cold against my skin.
“Come on.” I got an arm around Pritkin and was surprised at how little he weighed. I really wanted my own body back, but I had to admit that I envied Pritkin his strength. “We need to get out of here.”
“Switch us back first,” he said. I hesitated, wondering how to phrase this. “You said you could do it!”
“I can! At least, I’m pretty sure, with some time to think about it—”
“Get us back where we belong!”
“It’s not that easy!” I wasn’t exactly an expert at out-of-body experiences, but I’d done it enough times by now to have the basics down, at least as far as getting my spirit back in its rightful place. The problem was Pritkin, or, more precisely, his spirit, which I didn’t know how to stuff back inside his skin. And until I figured it out, I couldn’t leave his body unattended. It couldn’t live without a soul in residence, and mine was the only one currently available.
I explained this, but it didn’t seem to improve his blood pressure. Neither did the fact that I couldn’t shift. “Why not?” he demanded, glaring at me. The expression was eerily familiar despite being on my features, but it wasn’t as intimidating as usual. Possibly because he currently looked like a very wet, very pissed-off Kewpie doll.
“I don’t know.” My head was throbbing in time with my elbow, and the wet, matted grass was starting to look really comfortable. “Maybe even your energy levels are too low.” But that didn’t feel right. It was more like something had blocked my attempts.
“Try again.”
“If I end up with a bra
in aneurysm, it’ll be in your head,” I reminded him.
“I’ll take the risk,” he said immediately.
So much for the gentler sex. Pritkin as a woman was exactly like always—prickly, demanding and paranoid, looking at the world through narrowed eyes. “What does it matter if we rest for five minutes first?”
