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I cleared my throat, distractedly mumbling, “Yeah.”
“And how are you finding the forest? Living here?”
I was grateful to move the conversation away from things I didn’t understand. “Nice. Still adjusting to my, um… fae skin, but Nua and Gillie are great. They’ve helped me so much.”
“Yes, I see that.”
He opened his eyes and turned onto his side, propped on one hip and elbow. The movement made my eyes dart down before I could stop them, then back up just as fast as my face heated. I fixed my gaze on a fat black toad squatting in the mud all the way on the other side of the lake instead.
“This is quite something.” He reached out and lightly touched my branch arm, jerking my gaze back down. “Does it feel right? Like it’s part of you?”
“I… yeah,” I croaked distractedly, staring down at his pale, long-fingered hand on my arm.
More false memories crowded my brain. A lean, pale body pressed against mine, lying beside me in bed. Long fingers trailing through my hair and down my chest. Black eyes gazing into mine, dark hair sweetly rumpled from my pillow, the delicate point of a fae ear poking through the strands.
“Did we ever…?” I burst out before I could stop it, frowning hard at Odran’s hand.
Why was I thinking these things? Why was I remembering being… intimate with a fae? One who seemed to have looked like Odran? I didn’t remember fucking Odran. But… the black hair, the black eyes. The pale skin. My throat closed up with panicked confusion. Why couldn’t I remember?
“What? Fuck?” He paused, then removed his hand from my arm.
My face on fire, I glanced over at him to see him gazing at me thoughtfully.
“No,” he mused, then quirked a brow. “Why? Do you want to?”
My furious blush travelled down to my throat, but before I could answer, a faint splash from the other side of the lake made me jump. I looked over in time to see the tip of a thick, sinuous tail slinking under the surface.
Odran stiffened instantly. “Something’s in my lake.”
My branch arm was already pulling my bow from my back when I jumped to my feet, slipping only a little on the flat rock before I steadied myself.
Odran was completely still, his black eyes staring hard into the water as I peered frantically, an arrow nocked and ready.
I saw something long and dark moving through the water towards us. I fired an arrow, gritting my teeth when it missed.
I jumped when Odran suddenly yelped, his body jerking before it was dragged under the surface.
“Fuck.” I was panting wildly, trying to see through the churning water as he thrashed with whatever had slipped into his lake.
“Jesus Christ,” I choked when Odran exploded from the water grappling with a jet-black alligator. It snapped its teeth at him furiously, thrashing and trying to roll him back under the surface.
“Face me in your true form, you fucking coward,” Odran gritted out as I nocked another arrow and tried to get a clean shot. They were moving about too much—I could have hit Odran.
I felt useless and angry. Something had invaded Odran’s lake. What did he mean, their true form? I remembered Caom telling me about spiritsmiths once in the tavern, but I couldn’t remember why the topic had come up in conversation. Was this a spiritsmith? But why had they attacked Odran?
I jerked back, almost slipping off the rock when the alligator suddenly vanished and was replaced by a fae with pale skin and black hair and eyes. His black clothes were sodden, his hair plastered to his face and dripping as he bared his teeth at Odran in a furious snarl.
The kelpie froze, staring at him. I quickly raised my bow and aimed.
“No, don’t,” Odran barked just as my fingers relaxed on the bowstring.
I panicked, jerking my arm as the arrow fired. It whistled past the fae’s face, less than an inch from his ear, but he barely flinched. He was gazing at me with big black eyes, but they weren’t angry. They were filled with sorrow to overflowing.
And longing. So much longing.
I jerked back a step, that look making me tense even as my throat closed up at the sight of it. I stared at the unfamiliar fae, my chest rising fast with my shallow breaths.
“Go, Ash,” Odran rasped.
