Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1)(28)

I shivered in my cotton pajamas, terrified as only one asleep and unable to wake can be. I was too afraid to speak, and my legs didn’t seem to work. I struggled against his words, even covered my ears with my hands. He didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he certainly didn’t care.

Finally he seemed to tire of his stories, as a hint of sunrise blossomed on the far horizon.

“Time to go,” he said, checking his pocket watch and planting his hat upon his head. He stood and stretched his skinny frame in a theatrical yawn. “I have enjoyed our chat, Magdalena. Have you?”

I was bug-eyed with horror, afraid for him to leave me there in the dark alone, but equally afraid that he would never leave.

“We are friends,” he comforted me, favoring me with the smallest of smiles. “Would you agree?”

He stared at me, eyes demanding an answer. I nodded a yes, which seemed to please him. He patted my leg, his claw catching on my knee and drawing blood. Turned dull brassy eyes on me and through a howl that made me throw my hands back over my ears, left me with a final warning. Or threat, I still don’t know.

“Prepare, Magdalena. The monsters are coming.”



The same creature, looking mostly like a man and wearing the same outlandish Western costume, now sits drinking tea in my favorite chair in my living room.

“Magdalena, dear, is this really all you have? Tea?”

“Hello, Ma’ii,” I greet him. He’s the only person, or non-person as it were, who calls me by that name. But it would be useless to correct him.

“Yes, yá’át’ééh, good morning, or, evening, really. Now, could you . . . ?” He waves a hand across his cup and then at me. Long gray fingernails spark sharp as moonlight.

I sigh. Lean against the wall. “There’s coffee and sugar in my truck.”

Ma’ii brightens, ruffling his shoulders and setting his topcoat swaying. “Excellent. Could you? And while you are there, tell that handsome man in your motor vehicle to come inside.”

I grimace. He’s seen Kai. Of course he has. But I have no intention of having Kai join us before I know what Coyote is up to.

I walk back to the truck to grab the canister of coffee and the sugar. Kai’s eyes are wide with curiosity as he stares at me through the window glass. I shake my head and mouth “fifteen minutes.” I spare a glance at the setting sun. I’m not sure it’s a great idea for Kai to be out here alone in the dark, but it’s not such a good idea for him to be inside with the trickster either. The danger known, or the danger unknown. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. I know how to get Coyote to talk.

I come through the door and go straight through my small living room, past my small bathroom, to my equally small kitchen. Coyote hasn’t moved except to set his teacup down on the table at his elbow and to wrap his long fingers around the handle of his walking stick. He taps those grotesque claw-nails against the wood in irritation.

“Why didn’t you bring your friend in?” he asks over his shoulder.

“He’s not my friend,” I call back from the kitchen. “He’s my guest for the night, and the less you have to do with him, the better.”

“You could at least make the appropriate introductions. Where is the harm in that?”

“Not until I know what you’re up to, Ma’ii.”

“Oh? All these years, Magdalena, and you still do not trust me.” He doesn’t sound offended. If anything, he sounds amused.

Coyote’s already boiled water for his tea in my one good pot, so making the coffee is easy. I throw the grounds into the steaming water and let it steep before I pour us each a cup. I hesitate a moment before dumping a good teaspoon of sugar into Ma’ii’s too. Only then do I join him in the living room.

My living room is less than fifteen feet across, and all I’ve been able to fit in the space is a sagging loveseat and two mismatched armchairs, all clustered around a makeshift coffee table made of plywood and covered by a thin sheet of patterned blue fabric that’s trying for cheery but, even I have to admit, fails. At least it matches the homemade curtains I’ve strung over the windows, my only real attempt at housekeeping despite being holed up in my trailer for months now. Truth is, I’d take being on the road over spending time at my place. Being here just makes Neizghání’s desertion all the more real. Better to stay busy somewhere else doing something else.

I sit across from Coyote in my other chair, my back to the entrance, acutely aware that Kai will be coming through that door with a shotgun soon, and I want to be close when he does.

Coyote takes a sip and smiles. “The coffee is excellent, Magdalena. I hope you made enough for a second cup.”

“You’re not staying long enough for a second coffee.”

His face droops, and for a moment I think I see the flick of a long lupine ear behind his human facade. “So rude.”

“Why are you here, Ma’ii?”

“Tell me about the handsome man you are hiding in the truck. Who is he? Is he your new lover?” He widens his eyes suggestively and flicks a thick-veined tongue over thin lips.

“No.”

“Too young for you?” he asks. “All the better for a lover, no? Young and eager. I find that what the young lack in skill they make up for in enthusiasm.”