Part Four

Osprey put Thursy back together at Coalise’s house. He wouldn’t let anyone else into the bathroom, so Yared sat on the captain’s bed with his back against the wall eating uncooked pot roast and trying not to show how tired he was. Secretly he was a little relieved not to have to watch. Recognizing Thursy’s scalp in a Tupperware container had been horrifying enough.

Scotch was pacing around the room. He had to dodge furniture with every step, but that didn’t deter him. Coalise was actually doing her statistics homework.

Maple was just sitting, in the same armchair she had been in that morning. She had changed into a button-down forest green sweater made of chenille and a pair of tight jeans. She didn’t speak and she didn’t eat, and as far as Yared could tell she had been exactly as much help during the trip to the village as a pre-teen tag-along on a first date.

She said she had been living in Galdwyn’s house for a month. It wasn’t just the deception that made Yared sick, it was the idea of evil seeding inside his village. No one came in, not lamia, not witches, not other shapeshifters, and certainly not humans.

Sometimes he hated living there, but at least he could always count on what he would get. Now he was sitting in this human town, eating meat that tasted nine years old and crinkled between his teeth with freezer burn, and he had no idea what might happen next.

So many unthinkable things had happened already.

"Maple," he said.

She turned her head in his direction but didn’t lift her eyes to his. She had this thing about looking people in the eye; it seemed to cause her physical pain.

"Did you fuck Galdwyn?"

Coalise’s pencil quit moving over her notebook and Scotch stopped pacing. The sun was setting outside and the room was full of red, hellish light.

Maple looked at him.

"Did you fuck Kiria?" she asked in the same tone.

He went still.

Maple smiled bitterly at his silence and said, "Grow up, Yared."

He felt his hands begin to change. His fingers rolled up into his palms and his skin thickened into fur. He tossed the pot roast aside and was shifting his weight into a crouch—

In the bathroom, Thursy screamed.

He leapt across the room, over the coffee table, over the loveseat, and by the time he landed his fingers were human enough to catch hold of the bathroom doorknob and throw it open.

Thursy was lying on the bathroom floor, naked, soaking wet and streaked with bloody water. She was shaking as Osprey gathered her into his arms.

The scene was so alien that for a moment Yared couldn’t respond. That was his sister – his sister – and she was all naked and in a strange place with a man she barely knew.

"I have you," Osprey told her in a voice that sent Yared shivering. "I have you now."

Most incomprehensible was the way Thursy nodded and put her head into the hollow of his shoulder. The way she calmed in this stranger’s embrace.

Osprey saw Yared and Scotch hovering in the doorway and drew a blanket off the top of a pile of them on the floor. He covered Thursy with it and murmured, "Look behind you."

She moved slowly, dazed, and then she saw Yared and her pale face melted into a cross between joy and panic. Yared was on the floor before he knew it, sweeping her up into his lap. Her eyes turned green as baby leaves and she hugged him until he couldn’t breathe, trembling all the time.

"You’re okay," she whispered.

"I’m okay."

"You’re fine."

"I’m fine."

"You’re not crazy any more."

"I am psychologically sound and USDA approved."

She started laughing and crying at the same time. "Oh, sweet Bast, thank you."

She sat back to look at him, pat him down for bumps and bruises the way their mother – and later, Kvyn – always had. She turned as Scotch crouched beside them.

Yared held his breath.

Kiss her, kiss her, you idiot...

But Scotch didn’t kiss her. They exchanged hesitant smiles and then Scotch backed into the bedroom.

Nothing had passed between them.

Thursy met Yared’s eyes. He expected her to flinch but she didn’t. She only shrugged and said, "Nothing’s the same now."

She smelled different. Like salt water and musty blankets.

Very carefully, Yared put her down on the floor and stood up. "Wait-" she began, but he was already walking into the bedroom.

Scotch was near the door as if ready to bolt. "The hallway," Yared said. "Now."

The hallway was wide and comfortable, with a potted plant sitting beneath the window. A thick red runner hugged the walls.

Scotch hovered near the stairs. Yared opened his mouth to shout and then saw him cringe. He knew what was coming. He was, despite the alternate universe they had stepped into, still Scotch.

The fire went out in Yared. "What the hell’s going on?" he asked.

Scotch came close to grinning sheepishly in his embarrassment. "There’s a thing between me and Coalise."

"I got that," Yared broke in. Just because he wasn’t going to beat the shit out of the guy didn’t mean he had to make it easy. "Funny thing is, I thought you were engaged to my sister."

"We were never engaged," Scotch said seriously.

"Who else would she have married? It was understood. You know that as well as I do. If you’re about to tell me that you’ve dumped her for some wispy little human, I’m fairly certain I have the right to kill you."

From the doorway to Coalise’s room, Thursy appeared, wrapped in a patchwork quilt. "Don’t be so patriarchal," she said. She stepped into the hall, leaving the door hanging open. "Scotch doesn’t owe me anything."

Yared looked from one of them to the other. "You slept together," he said. "I live in that house, I know what went on."

Scotch looked at the floor and Thursy bit her lower lip. "Maybe the humans don’t care," Yared went on, "but at home that still means something. You made a promise to her, Scotch, even if there was someone else, I don’t know that he would have her."

Suddenly Thursy was smiling. "Osprey will."

Scotch’s head snapped up. She laughed breathily. "That connection you have with the human, Scotch, Osprey and I have. It’s like finding the person I’ve been sending thoughts out to my whole life."

There was a look on her face Yared had never seen before. Thursy had always been beautiful, now she looked girlish and caught in a romantic haze. Like she might giggle.

He thought he might suffocate in the pink cloud around her.

But Scotch was delighted. "Oh, Thursy," he said, and closed the space between them. He didn’t hesitate before hugging her and she hugged him back without pause. Yared could see him planting kisses on her ear and her chin.

From behind him came a sniffle. He turned and saw Coalise in her bedroom doorway, one hand pressed over a smile, tears in her eyes. She shook her head at Yared, laughed with embarrassment, and said, "Sorry. I’m a sucker, I know."

Thursy heard her and lifted her head from Scotch’s chest. She gestured Coalise over. Yared watched her scramble forward until she was an arm’s length from Thursy.

His sister thought for a moment, and he knew she was looking over the girl her boyfriend had given up everything for, sizing her up. She must not have seen what he saw – an insignificant bird who had mistakenly taken rest in their village – because she stuck out her hand.

Coalise ignored it and threw her good arm around Thursy. "I know you don’t know me," she said, "but I am so glad you’re okay."

Thursy gave a stilted laugh, overwhelmed, and Coalise was smart enough to recognize that it was time to let go. Scotch caught her hand before she could leave. To Yared, he said, "It’s the same thing between you and Maple."

Without thinking, Yared said, "There’s nothing between me and Maple."

"She says-"

"She helped kill Kiria. She was right there, with Tish and Galdwyn, and she didn’t do a damn thing."

Thursy’s eyes widened. "What?"

"Maple has been hiding out in the village for the last month, helping Galdwyn plot against us so that he can take over the pack."

"But she helped me." Thursy tightened the blankets around her shoulders. "Before the execution, she injected me with a pain-killer. So I couldn’t feel it."

"I don’t care," Yared said, but no one was listening.

"She helped me and Coalise escape," Scotch said. "And she came with us today to get Thursy."

"I don’t care," he said again.

"She’s helped us whenever she could," Thursy said, "if she didn’t stop Galdwyn, she must have had a good reason."

"I don’t care if she’s Bast incarnate," Yared all but shouted, and then a memory flashed in his mind, blacking out the entire world around him.

It wasn’t a scene, just a color. Honey, amber, burnt gold. So much love buried under so much fear...

Good reason.

He shook himself and the hallway came into view again. Thursy was on her knees in front of him, her blankets dipping indecently. His head was pounding as if he had hung upside down and held his breath for three minutes.

"Yared, can you hear me?"

Her hands were on his face. He pushed them away slowly, and sat up straighter. "What happened?"

"You collapsed. The wall sort of broke your fall." Her eyes had turned olive green.

"I’m okay now."

She shook her head. "You always say that."

"I am. Really."

"He’s exhausted," Scotch said, taking one of Yared’s arms and helping him to his feet. "Coalise, is there a place where he can-"

"I don’t need to lay down," Yared said firmly. "This has just been...this is..."

The amber rose up in his mind, a liquid wave of it crashing all around him, and beyond the wall of color there was sunlight.

"Here’s the plan," he said. He had to force each word out. Even his thoughts threatened to stick in that amber sea.

"I’m going back to the village. I’m going to sneak in and talk to your parents, Scotch, since they obviously aren’t helping Galdwyn. I’ll tell them what’s going on, they’ll tell Simone, and hopefully by tomorrow this whole thing will be worked out. Maybe tomorrow it will be Galdwyn’s turn to be executed."

He wasn’t even sure Thursy was listening. As soon as he finished she said, "Okay, but don’t go tonight. You need to sleep. We’ll leave first thing in the morning."

He wanted to fight her on it, but the fatigue that had been with him since he woke up was becoming overwhelming. He nodded reluctantly.

"Thank you," Thursy said. She rose up on tip-toe to kiss his forehead. "Coalise-"

"I’m on it," Coalise said, already moving down the hall.

Thursy smiled as she turned back to Yared. "You’ll feel better tomorrow," she promised.

He didn’t respond. Scotch stepped beside them and Yared fought the urge to push them both away.

"Whatever it is that’s going on with you and Maple," Scotch started to say, and then Yared did push him away and stumble in the direction Coalise had gone.

"Nothing’s going on with me and Maple," he swore. "So just quit talking about it, okay?"

Thursy and Scotch glanced at each other. He could see them silently agreeing to humor him. Thursy nodded.

Yared sighed and headed for the stairs. No one was listening to a damn word he said.

He wondered suddenly if Maple would listen. The amber rose in his throat like bile and he knocked the thought of her away.

Not even if she was Bast incarnate.