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The Dobhar-chú closed in on us. Now that they were out of the water, I could see them more clearly. They had four webbed feet that had helped propel them through the water. Each toe had a menacing black nail that looked liable to shred human flesh with ease.
Their beady red eyes were a vertical slit, and they stared intently at us. The closest Dobhar-chú yawned, displaying an open maw full of teeth, with pronounced canines on both its upper and lower jaws. The flared fins on the side of their faces bristled as they shook the water from their sleek forms.
In stark contrast, I felt like a freshly crumbed steak. Having rolled arse over earlobes across the beach, my drenched form had collected every particle of sand on the beach. Wiping the gritty sand away from my mouth I turned to Naerine.
“A little more warning next time, perhaps?”
“I said ready yourself, didn’t I?” she said, her golden eyes tracking the circling Dobhar-chú.
“Yeah, as you abandoned ship,” I replied, still chafing from my landing.
“So, you must move faster. You are as swift and graceful as a bowlegged buffalo.”
I spat out a mouthful of sand and turned on her. “One more of those and I’m going to forget about them and set to work on your prissy little ass.”
Naerine grinned. “Good to see there is still fight left in you. We’ll need that.”
“What’s the plan?” I replied. “Have you faced creatures like these before?”
“No,” she said, “but we’re out of the water and on the most favorable ground that we can hope for. Let us sell our lives, dearly.”
I blinked, a little taken aback by her candor. “Any plan that doesn’t involve us dying terribly?”
The third Dobhar-chú poked its head out of the water, the boat coming in fast behind it.
“I’m open to suggestions,” Naerine replied as the Dobhar-chú started circling us. They were twenty feet away but making no effort to close the distance.
“Through the Veil?” I suggested. “Surely you can get us out of here?”
“From here our choices are limited. If we seek refuge in Summer’s domain I cannot guarantee your safety and my own kind would have my head for bringing a Winter scion through our borders without leave. With tensions between our people, we are better off taking our chances with them.” Naerine pointed at the Dobhar-chú.
“What are they doing?” I asked, motioning at the two hunters staring us down.
“Probing for weakness,” she said. “I imagine their companion’s wound is giving them pause. They are opportunistic predators. They will seek for an opening and exploit it.”
“Like that boatload of warlocks?” I asked.
The boat was closing fast, not to mention the warlocks running down the beach toward us. While the party on the beach were still well out of range, we would be contending with those on the boat at any moment.
Were the Dobhar-chú simply corralling us until their reinforcements arrived?
The wounded Dobhar-chú glanced over its shoulder and started for the shore. A small wave washed over its back as it dragged its wounded mass into the shallows.
Or they could be waiting for their companion to join them.
I gathered my will, ready to lash out at the creatures of Winter. The roar of the boat opening its throttle distracted me. What had at first appeared to be a reckless charge toward the beach was now meandering dangerously close to suicidal. The boat hurtled straight at the Dobhar-chú.
The wounded creature’s ears perked up, its head whipping around as the boat bore down on it. The creature dove forward, but in the shallow water, there was no depths to dive into. Wounded as it was, it wasn’t nearly as nimble as its fellows.
The boat caught the Dobhar-chú beneath its prow. The beast let out an almighty howl. The boat struck shore, grinding the deadly hunter between its hull and the sand. The creature vanished as the boat rolled over it, beaching itself with its momentum.
A shriek of twisted metal signaled the boat’s engine being torn off the back of the vessel.
And then there were two. I looked back to the Dobhar-chú closest to me, only to find it wasn’t there. My pulse quickened, and I continued my circle. The hunter was crouched low, dashing at my right leg.
I leapt to the side, diving out of the way of the webbed foot with its sharp claws. I hit the sand. Better that than being hamstrung by the biggest damned otter I’d ever seen. My bruised ribs growled in protest, but I ignored them. I couldn’t afford the distraction. My Dobhar-chú padded away, then turned to face me once more.
The Dobhar-chú nearest Naerine darted toward her. A blinding light poured from her outstretched hand. It was so bright, I had to turn away lest it blind me. The Dobhar-chú hissed and darted away.
Naerine hurled spheres of blazing golden arcana after it. The first two went low, slamming into the sand, but the third struck the Dobhar-chú in its meaty midsection. The Dobhar-chú pitched sideways into the sand, twisting and howling.
Based on the punishment I’d dealt its companion earlier, I suspected it was going to take a lot more than that to put the creature down. If only we had a spare boat to drop on it.
My Dobhar-chú lunged at me once more. I knew I couldn’t just keep trying to evade it. Sooner or later, the massive predator was going to catch me and I’d be in a world of hurt.
Raising my hand, I sent a blast of Wintry sleet right at the creature’s face, hoping to blind it. As Naerine had so tactfully reminded me, I was slower than the Dobhar-chú and couldn’t hope to outrun it even on land.
So I needed to outwit it.
The blast buffeted the Dobhar-chú, but the creature closed its eyes and mouth, its thick coat proof against the fine sleet. It charged on, swiping at me with its meaty webbed paws. I watched the wicked claws, sidestepping out of its reach, narrowly avoiding another strike that might have hamstrung me.
This time, the Dobhar-chú didn’t give me a chance to regather myself. It shifted its weight before reversing course and pouncing back at me.
The weight of the pouncing creature knocked me into the sand.
I tried to roll away, but the Dobhar-chú was all over me, using its weight to pin me down.
It lunged forward at my face, and I twisted away. Its leering maw hit the sand mere inches from my face. As it shook off the sand, I fumbled with my belt. The wetsuit wasn’t going to do anything to protect me against those three-inch teeth. Each tapered to a point and appeared more than sharp enough to strip flesh from bone.
The Dobhar-chú pressed harder on my chest and I worried it was going to crush my rib cage. Opening its mouth wide, it let out a howl of guttural triumph before lunging at my neck.
I slid the knife from my pouch and brought it up into the creature’s stomach. The creature groaned in rage, but its widening jaw continued to descend.
Petrified, I watched in slow motion as the saliva dripped from those great teeth.
“Nora!” a voice called, snapping me out of it.
I yanked my knife to the side. It would have to fight the blade to get at my face and neck, but it was simply too big. Nonetheless, if it wanted a piece of me, it was going to have to bury the knife all the way to the hilt. I’d gone for where I hoped the creature’s heart might be. Unfortunately, they didn’t teach Dobhar-chú biology in Year Ten science.
The creature snapped at my shoulder, its teeth puncturing my wetsuit—and me—with ease.
I screamed as its teeth tore into my shoulder. Pain and adrenaline coursed through me. My eyes bolted open, my right arm seizing up completely as the creature shook me.
“Nora,” a voice bellowed again from somewhere behind the Dobhar-chú. It was deep and had a familiar Scottish drawl. On any other day, it might have felt good to hear him say my name. Only now I could hear the panic in his voice.
But he was miles away, at the Summer Court.
Great, now the delirium was setting in.
The Dobhar-chú rose up, its teeth dripping with my blood. I felt woozy, and the sight made me worry I was going to pass out.
If I did, I was as good as dead.
A series of angry barks filled the air.
The Dobhar-chú turned. A streak of gray shot up the beach from the water. It was Bran; I’d recognize my good boy anywhere. His jaws were open, a steady growl rising from his throat as he charged the Dobhar-chú perched atop me. Where on earth had he come from?
The creature turned to face my hound.
“Oh no, you don’t,” I groaned. My right arm hung uselessly at my side, but I couldn’t just lay there and do nothing.
I focused my mind on my left arm, channeled all the arcana I could muster into it, and drew on the wrath of Winter that boiled up inside me.
The creature had shaken off my earlier attacks, and I realized that if the Dobhar-chú lived in mountainous lakes in the heart of Winter, a little ice and snow was not going to deter it. So shaping my will, I drew the moisture from the air and water and layered it around my left hand, encasing my wrist and forearm in a massive, jagged dagger of ice.
My skin embraced the cold as the column of ice formed. I grabbed a fistful of the Dobhar-chú‘s hair. It stopped, looking down at me in disdain. Or at least it did until it saw the icy dagger where my left arm had been. Lunging forward, I punched at the creature’s throat, putting everything I could behind the blow.
The Dobhar-chú tried to cry out for help, but the keening wail died abruptly as my icy punch dagger tore out its vocal cords. Blood poured out of the wound. The creature tried to run, but ended up collapsing on top of me, its head and neck pinning me to the sand. I was trapped beneath its weight, staring at the clear blue sky. I tried to push the creature off me, but my right arm wasn’t moving and my left was still encased in a gauntlet of ice and slick with the creature’s blood.
The pain in my right shoulder intensified as I tried to get it to budge, but I couldn’t do it.
Then, Bran was beside me, trying to help drag the creature off me.
The last Dobhar-chú issued a keening cry. The beach went still.
I needed to know what was going on. Had the Dobhar-chú gotten Naerine, or had she put it down for good? Where had Bran come from and had I really heard Alasdair’s voice?
I tried again to shift the weight on top of me, but even with Bran’s help, I wasn’t making any headway.
“Easy there,” Alasdair said. “Let us get this thing off you.”
His head appeared above the Dobhar-chú, deep lines of worry etched in his forehead and at the corners of his eyes. He grabbed the Dobhar-chú by the scruff of its neck with both hands and dragged it off me.
I released my will, and the gauntlet of ice around my left arm dissolved, the water running down into the sand.
I looked down at myself. I was a complete mess. My wetsuit was shredded and covered in blood. Some of it was mine, but a lot of it was the Dobhar-chú’s.
“Nora, you’re bleeding,” Alasdair said as he looked at the wound.
“Yup, but we’ll all be dead if you don’t deal with those warlocks coming down the beach.” I pointed in the direction of the half dozen warlocks still trudging toward us.
Clearly, they’d been hoping to catch us while we were busy with the Dobhar-chú. Six of them alongside the three beasts of Winter would have dealt with us faster than Sleet took care of a chocolate cookie, but now it was six against four including Bran. And they’d just watched us dispatch the three Dobhar-chú.
Part of me hoped they would simply turn tail and run. As brave a face as I was putting on, I was hurting and as the adrenaline faded, my shoulder was on fire.
The warlocks were dangerous, but they were only human. The real question was, were they more afraid of us or the Leanansidhe? I sat up, aided by Alasdair. I cracked my neck and started rising to my feet.
The warlocks’ stride slowed, as they raised their hands in preparation for the coming fight.
Well, that answers that, I guess.
I should have expected as much. I looked like a stiff wind could blow me over right now.
“We need to see to that wound,” Alasdair said.
“Them first, then me,” I replied. “I won’t need first aid if I’m dead.”
The pain in my right shoulder was excruciating and making it difficult to focus. If I couldn’t concentrate, my magic would be useless.
Passing my hand over the wound, I willed a breath of Winter into it. The icy touch cooled the wound and numbed it, which was a tender mercy. Part of me hoped it would help staunch the flow of blood, but if it did, it wouldn’t last long.
“You’ll be of little use to us when you pass out,” Alasdair replied. “At least let me take a look at it.”
“I know you’re better at killing things than fixing them, but didn’t anyone ever teach you first aid?” I said. “First, you have to check the area for other dangers. I see six of them right there.”
Alasdair’s mouth curled up into a grimace that could almost be termed a smile. “Nora Byrne, you’ll be a smart arse until the day you die. But if you’re not careful, that day might be here sooner than you think.”
“Let it come,” I said through gritted teeth.
My pain was a dull but persistent throb. I’d come too far to give up now. These warlocks had framed me for a crime I didn’t commit and when that hadn’t worked, they’d tried to burn me and my family alive.
Justice needed to be done, before anyone else could be harmed by them.
My temperament shifted from indignation to anger. I’d been running for my life, terrified and afraid, but as I stepped over the Dobhar-chú‘s head, a whole new emotion welled up.
Rage. It coursed through my veins like the wrath of Winter itself.
I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, the world was lit with brilliant purple. The dark forms of the warlocks glowed red as I beheld them through the true sight of the Winter Sidhe.
“Nora,” Alasdair said slowly, “what are you doing?”