Huntsman's Prey (11 page)

She was standing off to the corner, whispering furiously with Cheshire.

The purple and black-stripped cat shrugged before flicking a glance his way. “You’re screwed, hunter. Farewell both, and Lissa, do not be such a stranger. I positively cherish our tete a tetes.”

The cat vanished in a silvery plume of smoke.

Lissa sighed.

“What were you whispering about just now?” Aeric asked with an edge of distrust.

She shoved a thick curl out of her eyes. “I think I may know of a way to get you out of there.”

“How?”

“The broker.” She nibbled on the bottom corner of her lip, looking positively nervous.

His eyes narrowed. “The cat mentioned that name. And just what is the broker?”

And that’s when he noticed a small golden ball held in the palms of her hands. There was nothing particularly special looking about the bauble, just a small bit of gold. “This is the way out. I toss it and it creates a bridge for you to safely walk across.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

Her lips pinched. “I wasn’t sure whether you’d want me to. The Cheshire told me I should just do it, but I wanted to ask your permission first. After all you are a man and men are generally wont to save themselves in moments such as these.”

Her candor was refreshing and he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. He also couldn’t fail to note the slight widening of her cat shaped eyes, or the pretty blush that rose high upon her cheeks.

“I can assure you, I’m not fool enough to not seek out help when I need it.”

Blinking, as if she’d been momentarily thinking of something else, she nodded. “All…all right then.” She cleared her throat, definitely sounding nervous.

He wondered why.

The ball sailed through the air and as it did a fiery trail of flame coalesced into a burning bridge of orange and blue. The crackling snap and pop made him grimace as he waited for the heat to swamp him. He shielded his eyes.

“It will not burn you,” she said.

And for a split second he could have sworn he felt the sizzling flame beat against his flesh, but he soon realized it was just his imagination. Dropping his hand he stared at the bridge of flame. “I’m feeling like there is a
but
in all of this. What haven’t you told me, Lissa?”

“You’re right,” she nodded, “the broker does nothing for free. Should you use the bridge, then you’ve automatically agreed to his terms of payment.”

“And that is?”

She shook her head. “He did not tell me.”

“And how will he even know I used this?”

“He’ll know. The broker knows all.”

That sounded ominous. But as he looked around Aeric knew he was out of options. He was literally stranded on a small island of land with no food, no warmth, and no shelter.

So either it was take the devil’s bargain, or stay and slowly wither away. “This is why I never come to Wonderland,” he muttered, regretting his decision all over again. Damn Danika and her tears.

Rolling his eyes, he stepped foot on the bridge, muscles tense and expectant. Still expecting the fire to burn, or singe, or that perhaps the bridge wouldn’t hold his weight. So many terrible possibilities of what could go wrong confronted him, but even though the fire did curl around his pant leg, it did not harm him.

Taking a deep breath, he committed himself fully, trying to imagine that he walked across a standard drawbridge and not one that currently crackled with flame.

The breeze carried her scent of spring rain deep into his lungs. Lissa stood on the other side of the bridge, which had now widened to accommodate her. It had also shifted, no longer leading in a straight line to the other side where she’d stood just seconds ago. It was now turned toward the right and was zigzagging around, on top, below, and through the trees themselves.

And the second she stepped foot on the bridge, it sealed her opening. There was no way to get off the bridge now that they were on it either, not unless they jumped down to their deaths. This bridge obviously meant to take them somewhere.

He glanced at Lissa who now walked beside him. “Any idea where this means to go?”

“No.” She gave him an apologetic twist of her lips.

“I figured as much,” he said without any heat behind it. It wasn’t like he had many choices available to him.

She turned. “Are you mad at me then?”

“No.” He scrubbed the back of his mouth, wishing for his pack, if only so that he could brush his teeth. It was his one luxury he allowed while camping. Many hunters cared very little for personal hygiene; he was not one of them. “Frustrated, confused, curious, yes. But not at you. How did that creature do this to us?”

He assumed she must be shrugging since her head bobbed strangely, she’d once again grown transparent around her chest and shoulders. “I honestly have no idea. I woke up only to realize what’d happened to you.”

“I do not understand how I slept through all this. I’m a very light sleeper. It’s an occupational hazard to not be.”

More than anything Aeric was aggravated with himself. Ever since stepping into Wonderland, nothing made sense anymore. All his skills had seemingly disappeared. Being the queen’s huntsman meant something. He was the best at what he did.

But it was as if the very land itself toyed with him. He’d failed at all he’d tried thus far.

His molars ached from clenching them.

“You shouldn’t be too hard on yourself, Aeric…”

He turned at the sound of his name on her tongue, hating to admit that he enjoyed the way she said it. Not with a hard ‘e’ sound, but a lilting ‘ah’ sound. She made it sound exotic. He grunted.

“…this world is not for the faint of heart. The mere fact that you’re still alive, hale, and relatively sane still speaks highly of you. You can never trust what you see or hear here, it is utter madness to do it.”

“So you do admit it,” he laughed, wondering if she knew she’d just confirmed his argument of before.

She shrugged with a secretive smile.

“Can I trust you?” he asked softly, fluttering his fingers along her cheeks, not knowing why he did it, only that she was so close and her scent so strong and she was very, very naked.

But again, as with so many other things here, what appeared to be firm flesh, was nothing but smoke and mirrors. His fingers slipped right through her.

Even so, she paused as if she had felt the touch, and her breathing hitched just a little.

For a moment their gazes locked and what’d seemed nothing but black when he’d first seen her eyes were now twin pools of indigo ink, bottomless and viscous and indescribably lovely.

He opened his mouth, ready to say… something. But then she blinked and reality crashed in on him. What the hell was he doing?

Taking a giant side step away from her, he glanced to his right. Pretending to study the forested landscape.

“I can only warn you that things will get harder,” she continued on, this time sounding a little breathless. “I will help you find her, if I can. But now you owe the broker a boon, I fear I may have gotten you into a worse mess than ever.”

“But can I trust you?”

“You shouldn’t.” She shook her head, a long blue curl slipped from the knot at her head, laying enticingly upon one rose tipped breast that’d reappeared.

She was so translucent now she was very nearly invisible. But it was easy enough to imagine her whole, to recognize that she was a beautiful woman if she could ever maintain her form long enough.

“I told you where to make camp, look what happened to you.” Her look was defeated, almost humiliated and Aeric scoffed.

“I was an ass yesterday, I think we can both admit it.”

She neither denied it nor agreed.

He chuckled. “It’s okay, it won’t hurt my feelings. Look, Lissa, twice now you’ve bailed me out of perilous situations. I was arrogant to believe I could stroll into Wonderland and do here as I’ve done everywhere else. I would die before I admit this out loud to anyone else, but I’m pleased to have you around.”

Her smile was radiant and he clenched his fingers.

As beautiful and alluring as she was, he did still have questions. Who was the broker? How had she managed to escape the obvious trap? Was she really being honest about this with him? That was perhaps the one that bugged him most.

But she was practically skipping along beside him and he just wasn’t in the mood to spar today. He’d ask his questions soon enough.

The path they walked seemed to stretch on into infinity, they were still within the shadowy forest, and every so often when Aeric looked down there were holes. At some point they should exit the trees, and yet, it almost seemed to him as if they walked a giant circle. Rather than going out, the bridge was subtly looping in on itself.

So what initially appeared to be a straight shot out was actually not.

Stopping, Aeric grabbed the pocketknife out of the sheath in his boot he always carried and cut a notch into the thick branch of the tree nearest him.

“What are you doing?”

Flipping the blade down, he shoved it into his pocket. “Does any of this feel familiar to you?”

She looked around them. “How so?”

Jerking his chin for her to keep walking with him, he licked his canine. “Like we’re moving in circles.”

“I’m not sure actually.”

“Maybe not.” He shrugged. “So tell me, Lissa, how is it that I was able to touch you that first day? I felt your kiss?” Her face turned a bright sheet of scarlet. “Now you’re as solid as shadow.”

She sighed. “It is like that with me sometimes. I cannot control this body and I’m not sure why. It is why I switch to feline, that one stays fully corporeal. Does this bother you?” She glanced down at herself.

“Not as much as it did. I just find it different,” he admitted truthfully.

A puff of smoke enveloped her, until she was once again the powder blue ball of fur. Her tail swished sensuously back and forth. “Better?”

Not really. He actually preferred the woman to the cat, regardless that parts of her were sometimes missing. But he shrugged instead, not wishing to put those thoughts into words.

“Look.” She pointed with her paw, when he turned to look, he immediately noticed the notch in the wood.

He traced the roughened edge of it. “We’re lower.”

“What?” She jumped onto the railing of the bridge, shoving her black little nose closer.

“See.” He tapped his finger to it. “When I cut into it, I did it at eye level.”

“It’s at your jaw line now.”

He nodded. “We’re not actually walking in circles. We’re going down.”

“Like a spiral staircase.”

“Similar. Come on,” he started forward, “let’s see where this leads.”

She trotted alongside him for a while before he asked again, “Who’s the broker?”

“A man.” Her eyes looked shuttered.

“Just a man? No, I don’t believe that. Not here. He’s called the broker, he’s important. So who is he?”

She sighed and hung her head, her whiskers twitched as she said, “legends call him many names. Trickster. Coyote. Loki—”

“Bloody hell, you made a deal with Rumpelstiltskin?” He wanted to smack his forehead. Hard. “Why would you go to him? Of all people, Lissa, not him.”

It made Aeric sick to even think of what he’d owe the devil in exchange for freedom from the pits. No one ever made a deal with that imp and walked away unscathed.

Many stories in Earth, about the lore and truths of Kingdom were mostly bald-faced lies. But not his. Rumpelstiltskin was as nasty as they came.

“It was the only way to get you out of there. Would you rather I’d just left you to rot?”

“Yes!” he glowered, and immediately felt contrite when she sank on her haunches and curled into herself. “No. Damn, Lissa. I am not one who enjoys being beholden to anyone, but especially not him. It is dangerous to owe him anything.”

“I’m sorry, but when I saw you trapped that way, I panicked and he was the only way I could see us getting out of there.”

She had already been out. Truth was, she could have left him at any point. But she’d just referred to them as an
us
. He wondered if she even realized her slip of the tongue. And why did it make his pulse speed at the thought?

“Why didn’t you at least wake me? Maybe we could have figured something out?”

“Oh come on, Aeric, we couldn’t figure out anything just now, an hour earlier wouldn’t have made much of a difference, surely?”

But Rumpel, of all people. She didn’t know his history with the imp. How could she, they’d only just met. Fire churned in his gut and he snorted when he gazed at the fiery bridge, that right there should have told him everything. Stopping, he rested his weight on the bridge. The minor technicality that Aeric hadn’t known who the broker actually was wouldn’t matter. Not to the imp.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and he wanted to rail at her, but doing that wouldn’t make him feel better. It would only make things worse. All he could do now was give her a strained smile.

After a second, she twined her body through his arms.

Sighing, he couldn’t help but pet her spine. Marveling at the silky texture of her strange hued fur. Her body stretched beneath his touch and a vibrating purr rumbled through his palm.

He huffed. “I can’t deny that I’m angry. If I’d known who this belonged to, I would never have stepped foot on it.”

“Then you would have eventually died.” She shook her head. “And that’s not what you came here to do, Aeric. You came here to rid us of a scourge. I’m sorry, but I can’t say I wouldn’t choose to do this again.”

And when she put it like that, he could hardly argue.

“Then we may as well hurry up to where we’re going, because I’m not going to be catching anything while stuck here.”

“Indeed.” She nodded emphatically and took off at a gentle trot.

They didn’t speak again for a while after that. But now that Aeric was aware of their course, he kept his eyes peeled to the tree branches, waiting to see his notch. He didn’t have to wait long.

But this time it was above his head. They were definitely going down.

Filled with a mixture of both relief and dread he wondered about his companion. Why she continued to stay with him. This was not her quest. And yet, she was treating it as though it was. Did it have something to do with her being a guardian of the woods?