Chapter 28

Ugh. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Wait, why am I the stupid one?!

Natasha stomped over the muddy path, the wet dirt squelching beneath her angry tread. She wasn’t the one who’d stood someone else up for a date, and then, instead of just being honest about it, had concocted some ridiculous lie about being a… a…

What did he call it again? A shifter?!

She shook her head, anger shooting through her. She’d barely been able to sleep last night from her agitation about what had happened after she’d – foolishly, as it turned out – allowed Kieran to try to explain himself to her.

If he’d just told the truth, like telling her he’d had car problems or that he’d forgotten the time while he was working on the place he was staying in, or even that he’d gotten his days mixed up and had thought they were supposed to be meeting at some other time, she probably would have given him a second chance, despite her swearing at Sylvie’s that she wouldn’t.

When he’d turned up at her BB, though, with his apologetic face and his frankly amazing bouquet of flowers and his thoughtful gift of pie, she’d found herself reluctantly melting – for some reason, her heart had told her to at least listen to what he had to say.

Life happened, after all, and she didn’t have a heart completely made of stone. He’d seemed so genuinely like he wanted to apologize that she found herself almost hoping he’d have some kind of explanation, no matter how lame, just so she’d have an excuse to forgive him and suggest they could go out for dinner instead.

But I wasn’t expecting… that!

Why had he made up such a stupid, obvious lie? Just to mess with her?! He had to have known that he wasn’t going to be able to turn into a mythical creature right in front of her eyes, so what had been the point in any of it?!

Maybe he was just some weirdo who got his kicks playing pointless practical jokes on people – maybe there’d been some hidden camera somewhere, and he was trying to go viral on social media or something, doing pranks or trying to get attention in order to sell something. Natasha worked in marketing so she was obviously aware of these things, but she had to say she didn’t really agree with the ‘all publicity is good publicity’ maxim – she never advocated for any client to do whatever it took to go viral, no matter how stupid, ridiculous or cruel.

That must have been what it was,she thought, shaking her head. She really couldn’t think of any other reason why Kieran would have said something like that. Maybe he was hoping she would believe her, so he could put up a video of her to make fun of her for his followers.

He just really, really didn’t seem like the type,she thought, shaking her head. But she supposed that was the point – if he’d been an obvious prankster right from the beginning, she never would have fallen for him in the first place.

She’d done her best to tell herself that she wasn’t really interested in him, that this was just going to be a bit of fun on vacation. But Natasha hadn’t really been able to stick to that, even as she’d tried to tell herself that was all it was. Damnit, she’d really liked him.

No – more than that.

She’d felt drawn to him. It had been an almost instant connection – something she’d never felt with anyone else in the past, where, even if there’d been nothing obviously wrong with the guy, there’d just been no spark there at all.

With Kieran, she’d felt that spark, for the first time in her life. It was the first time in years she’d felt excited by something that wasn’t her job.

But she’d been very, very wrong.

Ugh. Well. Chalk that one up to experience.

She’d know better the next time a tall, gorgeous, seemingly adorably goofy guy hit on her over a can of beans in a supermarket. She wouldn’t be fooled again!

Despite her knowing now what Kieran really was, and despite her determination that she’d never fall for anything like that ever again, Natasha still couldn’t deny to herself that there was a part of her heart that still felt… sore. She didn’t really understand it, she had to admit. Obviously, she felt humiliated, but this wasn’t quite the same thing. It wasn’t just romantic disappointment at having thought she’d found a nice guy, only to discover he wasn’t quite what he seemed.

It was a feeling she couldn’t explain to herself, as if, somehow, something had gone wrong, and she had to do something to fix it – that there was something unfinished between them, and now it was going to rub away at her like a stone in her shoe until she dealt with it.

Maybe I’m just so mad I feel like I need to go give him a piece of my mind, since I didn’t do that before he left yesterday,Natasha thought, dramatically shoving aside a low-hanging branch as she continued on up the mountain trail. Maybe I just feel like I let him off too lightly, and that’s what I left unfinished.

That seemed likely. She’d never been one to not speak her mind. Maybe she should have really given him a good piece of it before she’d let him go.

Well, too late now, unless I want to track him down and yell at him in the middle of town,she thought grumpily. But even as she thought it, she felt her stomach turning over slightly, as if in protest at the thought.

She shoved the feeling aside. She’d come here for rest and relaxation, not to stew over some guy. In any case, he probably wasn’t even in town anymore – he’d probably left, now that his prank had either failed or succeeded, depending on what his goal had even been in the first place.

Maybe he’d come out here in the hope of ensnaring people he thought of as backwater yokels – an idea that made her blood boil, even as she privately admitted that she hadn’t exactly always described Girdwood Springs in the most glowing of terms.

But that’s different! I’m from here! Just because I can complain about this place doesn’t mean any old out-of-towner is allowed to!

Shaking her head, Natasha stomped onwards. She didn’t know this part of the trail well at all – carried by her anger, she’d walked quickly beyond anywhere she’d walked before, and she had to admit, this part of the forest looked a lot denser than anywhere she’d ever been before.

She knew she should be careful – it was incredibly easy to become disoriented in thick woods. It was a message she’d had drummed into her by her parents when she’d been a child, and with good reason.

But now, it seemed, she’d forgotten all about things like Pay attention to where you’re going and Always take note of landmarks and other distinguishing features about the terrain and other sensible ideas that would assist her in not getting lost, or, at the least, make it easier for her to find her way back if she did temporarily lose her way.

Glancing around her, Natasha felt her stomach sink. She was still, technically, on a trail. But it had grown thinner and thinner the farther she walked, and now, looking back the way she’d come, she realized it was barely visible at all beneath the dense undergrowth that had started to spring up now that the weather was getting warmer.

She’d clearly gone beyond the approved hiking trails – and she really didn’t have anyone to blame but herself, for getting so carried away with her angry internal monologue.

Okay. Well, number one thing to do in this situation is not to panic,she thought, as, cautiously, she turned and headed back the way she’d come. The mud she’d stomped through still held the impressions of her boots in its sticky surface, so she could definitely follow her own footsteps back. She had plenty of water in her bag, and some sandwiches too. Not that she expected that she’d be lost for long enough that she needed to conserve food and water, but she knew it was pretty easy to get dehydrated, even in a short amount of time.

At the moment, however, there didn’t seem to be anything to worry about. Her footsteps were obvious on the ground, and the day was sunny but cool.

I’ll be fine, Natasha thought as she made her way back through the thick, green bracken. I’ll be completely –

“ARGH!”

Natasha let out an embarrassing squawk as, without warning, her feet shot out from under her, slipping in the mud, sending her sprawling and landing heavily on her hip – which would have been annoying enough by itself, but it didn’t stop there. As she landed, a soft, water-logged embankment, hidden by the thick ferns and bracken, suddenly crumbled away beneath her, leaving her to roll down its side, completely unable to stop herself.

Oh… oh no…

Natasha grabbed at the bracken stalks as she slid, but in the soft earth, all she succeeded in doing was uprooting them – they didn’t even slow her down as she slipped and slid down the muddy slope.

This is what I get for letting a guy go to my head,Natasha thought desperately, as finally, she managed to grab hold of a fallen branch that was stuck deep into the earth. Her shoulder wrenched painfully as she desperately held on, her palms burning as they chafed against the rough bark of the branch, but at last her descent came to a halt – and not a moment too soon.

Glancing over her throbbing shoulder, Natasha realized if she hadn’t managed to grab on to the branch, she would have shot out over a small ravine – not very deep at all, but filled with some extremely unfriendly looking rocks and boulders. If she’d tumbled down there and landed on any one of them, she would have been lucky to escape with anything less than a broken leg.

Natasha gasped for breath as she looked around, searching for some way to haul herself back up the bank. But the only thing in reach to hold on to was the branch she was already holding – everything else had slid away with the mini-avalanche she had caused when she’d gone tumbling down the slippery slope. A few ferns were still barely clinging to the soil, but if she tried to use them to climb up they’d undoubtedly come away and leave her to fall the rest of the way down onto the rocks below.

Nor could she gently let herself down any lower – after the lip of the muddy bank, there was a long drop onto the rocks, with no safe way of climbing down. She was, for the moment, stuck where she was.

Except that… uh-oh…

The branch she had managed to grab gave a little jerk, and Natasha realized that, even as deeply as it was buried in the soil, the ground was soft enough that now, with her full weight resting on the branch, it was slowly but surely beginning to slide free. If she didn’t find some way out of her predicament, she’d fall onto the rocks no matter what she did.

Okay. No point in panicking. I just have to dig my fingers into the wet soil, find a toe hold, and then slowly, carefully, climb back up to the trail…

But that was easier said than done. The earth was so wet and crumbling that it fell away as soon as she tried to dig her fingers into it. There was no way of creating any kind of secure hand or toeholds that she could reliably use to climb, not even if she was careful to always make sure she was distributing her weight evenly.

I really have gotten myself into a situation here,Natasha thought grimly, as with a small slurping sound, the branch slid even farther out of the soil, jerking her bodily, and sending pebbles and bits of dirt rushing past her to fly into the void just below her feet.

But she refused to give up. There had to be something she could do. She couldn’t twist around to reach her phone in her back pocket and call for help, since any movement would probably just pull the branch all the way free. Nor could she take off her backpack and throw it down onto the rocks, just in case she might somehow be able to land on it and somewhat break her fall.

There has to be something… I can’t believe that –

But even as she thought that, the soil finally gave up its hold on the thick branch she was clinging to, and Natasha felt herself begin to slide the last of the way down the bank, picking up speed as she went, way too fast to stop herself when she finally flew over the edge and went sailing through the air, the rocks lurching sickeningly up at her as she fell, flailing, toward them –

Only to land on something solid, warm, and soft.

Am… am I dead, then?

Natasha didn’t dare to open her eyes. She must have fallen onto the rocks – there was literally nowhere else for her to fall. But, she decided, she must have hit her head when she fell and died instantly, because she definitely wasn’t lying at the bottom of the ravine now after breaking probably every bone she’d ever heard of, and most likely some she hadn’t.

No… whatever I’m lying on, it’s… it’s…

Maybe she had died, and now she was in Heaven, lying on a soft fluffy cloud.

Because there was literally no other explanation for the softness she felt beneath her cheek and palms, the warmth, the wind rushing through her hair…

Finally gathering up her courage to open her eyes and peek out at what was happening around her, Natasha couldn’t say exactly what she was expecting to see – the Pearly Gates? A choir of angels? – but what she did see didn’t actually look all that out of place. Just blue sky, trees, an enormous pair of feathered wings on either side of her, spread wide to catch the updrafts of wind –

Wait… wait… WHAT?!

Blinking, Natasha shook her head, and forced herself to actually take in what was going on around her.

Beneath her palms was soft, golden fur, which became lighter-colored but equally soft feathers beneath her fingertips.

And, uh, yeah, those are definitely wings…

Wide, broad wings, their feathers gently ruffling in the wind as she was carried higher and higher above the ground, the canopy of the forest laid out in brilliant greens below her.

Natasha could feel her heart thudding wildly in her chest as she tried to make sense of this situation. But her head was spinning, and no explanation she could come up with made any sense whatsoever. When she looked to her left, she could see a broad, golden-furred back and a long tail streaming – a tail that looked exactly like a lion’s tail, with a little puff of slightly darker fur at the tip.

Turning her head and looking right, she found herself staring at a feathered head – the feathers were a lighter gold where they met the fur that coated the rest of this… this… whatever it was, but became white as they continued upward, to the head of what was very very definitely an eagle, judging by the large, hooked beak she could just see from around the back of the feathered head.

Okay. So. It’s… a lion. With wings. And the head of an eagle. And I’m flying on its back. It swooped down out of the sky and caught me just as I was about to plunge to possible death, and now it’s carrying me on its back. Okay.

Natasha’s head spun.

Now that I think about it, isn’t there a name for a kind of creature that’s half lion, half eagle?

Of course there was, she thought, even as she felt like she might be going just the tiniest bit crazy.

They’re called griffins. I’m riding on a griffin’s back.

She swallowed.

A griffin just like the one Kieran told me he turned into.

Natasha felt a strange kind of hysterical laugh trying to bubble up inside her. Was it possible she’d gone crazy? That the fear of falling onto those rocks had made her start to hallucinate a world where everything had actually worked out wonderfully – a world where Kieran wasn’t a liar and had in fact told her the whole truth about everything, and was now here to save her from some pretty nasty injuries, at absolute minimum?

Yeah, that must be it,Natasha thought, as she looked dazedly around her. I’ve just imagined my ideal world. And now I’m dreaming. I guess I better enjoy it before I wake up and find out what really happened.

And to be honest… enjoying what was happening wasn’t actually all that hard.

Gripping on to the griffin’s fur to make herself more secure, Natasha had to admit that soaring through the air, all the world laid out below her, was pretty exhilarating. This was definitely better than her usual dreams, which were usually stress-induced nightmares about missing important deadlines or pissing off important clients. Here, in the crystal-clear air, the white sunshine on her face and the forest below, riding on the back of a griffin, Natasha couldn’t imagine ever caring about either of those things ever again.

The sky somehow seemed even more blue, and the mountains around them even more spectacular and beautiful. This early in spring they were still slightly snow-capped, but Natasha had never imagined how they’d look from this angle before.

Even though the air was chill, the warmth of the griffin kept her from feeling it. It was the perfect way to travel, Natasha decided, as the griffin dipped its wings and turned in a wide circle, slowly and gently so as not to jostle her with any sudden movements, and then gradually began to descend back down toward the forest.

I guess this is where the dream ends and I wake up,Natasha thought, as the trees below grew larger and larger. She wasn’t sure why she felt that she’d be rudely awakened as soon as they reached the ground, but somehow, it just seemed like the logical thing to think. Up here, she was held safe in a bubble of unreality. Down below, she was probably going to be in urgent need of medical attention.

The griffin at least did seem to know where it was going – it guided them down to an obvious clearing in the canopy, where its massive wings wouldn’t get snagged on any tree branches. It drew them in slightly, dropping them through the gap in the trees, and Natasha saw once they got lower that by the clearing there stood a house.

It was old and stately, and clearly in its prime it would have been a magnificent residence. It was old and run-down now, though, the paintwork fading and flaky, some of the beams of the porch and steps obviously sagging, and it was missing quite a few roof tiles. But still, it was beautiful – if someone ever wanted to give it some tender loving care, it could be restored to its former glory.

It must be – it must be the house Kieran said he was staying in, the one that belonged to his great uncle…

Natasha swallowed, as she remembered that it was also the house that Eula had told her was haunted. It definitely did look like the kind of house that would be haunted – old, stately but worn, with generations’ worth of secrets locked up in its nooks and crannies.

But I don’t believe in ghosts,Natasha told herself as the griffin came in gently to land a few feet from the house. But then, I guess until about fifteen minutes ago, I didn’t believe in shifters either.

And to be honest, she still wasn’t sure she actually did. She wasn’t sure at all that this wasn’t a dream, and sooner or later she was going to wake up in a hospital, after having actually slid onto the rocks and hit her head.

But again, I guess I better just enjoy the dream while it lasts,she thought, as she slid down off the griffin’s back, not without a little reluctance, and not only because the griffin was warm.

Once her feet were back on solid ground, Natasha found she wasn’t really sure what to do next. She supposed it wasn’t every day that someone was rescued by a giant mythical creature, dream or not. What was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to say? And was this griffin really actually Kieran? If so, why didn’t he turn back into the hot guy she knew?

“Uh,” Natasha said, after a few moments of silence. Things were getting a little awkward after all, with the two of them just staring at each other. The griffin’s golden eagle eyes definitely had a kind of human intelligence that made her think it’d understand her if she spoke to it. “Thank you for saving me. I was pretty sure that was it for me. I mean, if you actually did save me, and this isn’t just some kind of weird dream.”

The griffin let out a low, urgent crooning sound at that, as if it were trying to reassure her. It shook its massive head, feathers rustling, and extended its wings – as if trying to show her exactly how it had rescued her.

“That – that’s very impressive,” Natasha stuttered out. She got the distinct impression that the griffin was showing off to her – as if trying to show her just how impressive it was. And it was pretty magnificent, she had to admit. It was much bigger than she thought a regular lion was, and its wingspan was enormous. In the sunlight that broke through the trees, its wings glistened like gold. It was, in a word, beautiful. And clearly, it was strong. It had carried her all this way as if she’d weighed nothing at all.

“I, uh, I definitely owe you one,” Natasha continued after a moment. She knew she sounded stupid, but for now, her head was completely empty of thought. But then, what was she supposed to be thinking at a time like this?!

“So… are you actually Kieran in there after all,” she said, inspiration finally striking her. “Because if so… I guess I owe you an apology for not believing you. But on the other hand, can you really blame me? Why didn’t you just turn into a griffin yesterday, when you said you would? Or were your powers really not working then?”

The griffin shook itself, letting out another little croon, before clucking a little, as if it were trying to explain something to her. Natasha had never really thought about what a frustrated eagle might sound like before, but now that she heard it, she definitely thought this was it.

Can he now not turn back or something? she thought – just as, at last, the griffin began to… to shift.

Natasha gasped, her eyes flying wide.

It was like nothing she’d ever seen before – a shimmer ran over the full length of the griffin’s body, before its fur and feathers began to disappear, its body getting smaller, its wings vanishing before her eyes. It all took only a heartbeat or two – and then, Kieran was standing in front of her, looking exactly as he had the day before when he’d come to see her: the same broad shoulders, long, muscular legs, and floppy blond mop of hair.

Right now though, the dazzling smile was missing – instead, he wore an expression of concern.

“Natasha – are you all right?” he asked, frantic worry clear in his voice. He took a couple of steps toward her, arms raised as if he meant to pull her against his chest in a tight embrace, before he suddenly stopped, letting them fall back down to his sides. “I mean – I hope I didn’t scare you. There was no other choice. When I sensed you were in trouble – or rather, my griffin sensed it – I didn’t really have any time to do anything else. I just shifted and flew to where you were, and then I saw you –”

Kieran cut himself off, his face going even more pale. It was clear that he was frightened, his eyes roaming over her body, but not in a way that told her he was appreciating her curves – he was clearly looking at her mud-stained leggings and jacket, which now also had holes torn in them, and checking to see if she had any obvious injuries.

She didn’t think she did, aside from a few cuts and scrapes, but that was all thanks to him.

“No, I… you didn’t frighten me,” Natasha said, shaking her head, and she was mildly surprised to find that it was true. She had to admit, however, that she did feel just a little light-headed, her knees wobbling. “I just… I mean, this really isn’t a dream though, is it? This is real. You really are a griffin.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Natasha realized that she was actually starting to believe it.

“No, Natasha, I swear it’s not a dream,” Kieran said softly. “I was trying to tell you yesterday that this is what I am – but lately, me and my griffin… we haven’t really been seeing eye to eye, I guess you could say. Either it takes over my body when I really don’t want it to, or else, just when I do need it, it refuses to come out.” He swallowed, looking at her in a way that was almost pleading. “I really was telling the truth – that was why I missed our date yesterday. My griffin really did take over my body, and I didn’t think it’d be a great idea to turn up for the date looking, uh, well, like I did a few moments ago.”

Natasha shook her head, a small, incredulous laugh bursting from her lips. “Um. No. Maybe not. But I can definitely say I’m glad you showed up looking like you did just now. I was pretty sure I was a goner. I was just too mad to look at where I was going, and, uh…”

She trailed off, embarrassment making her face flush as she remembered just why she’d been so mad.

“You were mad about me missing the date, and then, as far as you knew, lying about the reason,” Kieran said, his eyes widening. Maybe he could tell by the look on her face that he’d guessed correctly, because he took a few halting steps to her side, and this time, he really did put his arms around her – well, Natasha thought he was going to do that, but in the end he just rested his hands on her shoulders, gazing into her eyes with a stricken expression on his face. “Then it was my fault you almost –”

“No! No.” Natasha shook her head. “No, it wasn’t. I wasn’t looking where I was going. You weren’t to blame for that. I should have been keeping my wits about me, no matter what kind of mood I was in.” She took a deep breath, suddenly very aware of how close his face was to hers, and just how warm his hands felt on her shoulders. “And as it turned out, you were telling the truth all along.”

“But I can see how you would have gotten the idea I was lying,” Kieran said, his eyes still searching her face. “I mean… it does sound pretty ridiculous. And then I couldn’t shift. So it wasn’t like you were being unreasonable in thinking I’d made it all up.”

“Well, whether that’s true or not,” Natasha replied, “I guess I really do have proof now that you weren’t lying at all. But you said that you and your griffin, uh, haven’t been getting along recently? But you shifted just now, when you needed to save me.”

Kieran nodded. “Yes. To be honest, that was the first time in weeks I’ve really felt in sync with it – the way I always used to be. It sensed you were in danger, and I told it to do what it needed to do. We were working together again. I guess when it was something important enough, we could come together. I don’t know if things will stay that way, though. Not until I…”

Kieran trailed off, glancing at her. Natasha frowned, intuiting there was something he wasn’t saying – but after telling her that he was a griffin, what else could there possibly be to know about him?

“Not until you what?” she prompted him, curiosity simmering within her. Suddenly, she realized, she wanted to know everything. If this really wasn’t a dream, then she had about a million questions she needed answered. Kieran had said there were other people like him in the world – but how many? And where did they live? Were there other griffins? Were there dragons?!

Kieran pulled in a deep breath, letting his hands drop from her shoulders – and Natasha found herself missing the contact immediately.

“Maybe we’d better go inside,” Kieran said, after a long moment. “I feel like I have some explaining to do.”