"What's wrong with you?"
Abigail hesitated. "I'm fine. What's wrong with you?"
"You kicked me in the balls."
There was that. And then there was the other matter. "What are you doing here?"
"I was trying to rescue you, but I'm thinking it was bad idea. And damn, you're still bundled up. I'd hate to see what you could do with unrestricted access."
Likely story. Who would have ever questioned him coming in to save her? But she wasn't that stupid. "How did you know where I was?"
"I tracked one of the coyotes back here." He pulled a knife out of his pocket and took a step toward her.
Abigail backed up in trepidation. "I'd rather wait till Jess gets here."
He didn't listen. Instead, he sliced through her bindings and let them fall to the floor. "We don't have time to wait.... Are you sure you're okay? You're as skittish as a cat in a Doberman factory."
She hesitated. Was he leading her home?
Or somewhere far more sinister?
"Abigail?"
"I don't want to go with you."
He recoiled as if she'd slapped him. "You don't have to worry about your privacy. I won't betray you."
"That's not what I'm worried about."
"What, then?"
"Your loyalty. You want to talk to me about Coyote and explain why he looks just like you?"
Busted. It was written all over his face. She could almost see the gears grinding in his head.
"Yeah," she accused. "That's what I thought."
He shook his head. "No. It's not what you think."
"I think you've teamed up with your brother and sold all of us down Shit Creek. Paddles are extra."
"I didn't. You remember the story I told you about the warrior and the Gate?"
"Yeah?"
"I was the warrior."
Her mind reeled with that knowledge. "No."
He nodded. "My brother hates me to this day, and I don't blame him. I was out of control."
"But why?"
"I told you why. Jealousy. I'd spent my entire life living in Coyote's shadow. Others flocked to him. And for the most part, I was good with that."
Ren clenched his teeth. "Until the day he brought you home." He winced as if the pain was still too much to bear. "I'd never seen a more beautiful woman. For our people, butterflies are a symbol of hope. It's said that if you capture one in your hands and whisper your dreams to it, it will carry them up to the heavens so that the wish can be granted."
Sarcastic applause rang out from behind him.
Ren turned to find Coyote there.
"Nice, brother. You're still trying to get into her bed, eh?"
Abigail noted the pain in Ren's expression.
"I put it aside, Coyote. It's time for you to do the same."
Coyote shook his head. "No. The Butterfly belongs to me. I captured her. I tamed her. Most of all, I protected her."
"She's not a possession."
He smiled evilly. "Yes, she is. She's the most precious possession."
Abigail's head spun as the words they were saying now caused her mind to flash back to a time and place she still couldn't identify.
She saw Ren and Coyote in a meadow, where they were fighting just like now. Even the subject was the same.
Coyote sneered at Ren. "This is all your fault. You and your petty jealousy. Why couldn't you have been happy for me? Just once. Why? Had you left us alone, none of this would have ever happened. There would have been no Grizzly Spirit. No need for Guardians and he-" Coyote gestured to the floor with a knife. "-would never have come here."
Ren didn't respond. His gaze was fastened to the red on Coyote's hands. It went from there to the ground, where ...
Buffalo lay dead in a pool of blood.
Ren winced. "How could you do this? He was a Guardian." And my best friend in the world. The one and only person who'd stood by him without question.
Even when evil had claimed possession of his body and he'd served it willingly, Buffalo had stayed with him. Protecting him.
Now he lay slain by Ren's own brother.
My cruelty drove him mad....
Coyote spit on Buffalo's back. "He was a bastard, and he stole her heart from me."
Ren shook his head slowly as guilt and sorrow ripped him apart. "Hearts can never be stolen, Cy. They can only be given."
Coyote sneered at him. "You're wrong! That's your jealousy speaking."
But it wasn't. Ren had learned to banish that.
Now it was too late. He'd destroyed everything that was good in his life.
Everything.
Sick to his stomach, he went to Buffalo and knelt beside him to whisper a small prayer over his body.
A shrill scream echoed. Looking up, Ren saw Butterfly as she ran to her Buffalo. She sobbed hysterically, throwing herself down on top of him.
"Why? Why? Why would you hurt me so?"
Coyote curled his lip. "You tore my heart out."
"And you killed mine." She laid herself over the Buffalo and wept.
Ren rose to his feet and left her there to grieve while he confronted his brother.
That was his mistake. He didn't think about what would happen if Butterfly was allowed to cry her misery out to the gods and spirits. To wail and shriek for her lost Buffalo.
But it was too late now. A howling wind came screaming through the woods, dancing around their whitebuckskin-covered bodies. Those winds joined together to form two trumpeters who blew their horns to announce the most feared creature of all.
The Avenging Spirit. Something that could be summoned only by the cries of a wronged woman who wanted vengeance against the ones who'd hurt her.
Nebulous in form, he was bathed all in white. His hair, the translucent skin that covered his skeletal features. His feathers and buckskin. The only break from the color was the dark blue beadwork along his neck.
"Why was I called forth?" he demanded.
Butterfly looked up. Her beautiful face contorted by grief, she looked old and haggard now. Her hair blew around her body as her gaze pierced them with her fury.
"The Coyote killed my heart. So I want his as payment for what he took."
The Avenging Spirit bowed to her. Then he turned toward the men. His face changed from an old gaunt man with stringy hair to the face of ultimate evil. He opened his mouth and it dropped to the floor, contorting and elongating his features. Abigail shivered in terror.