Under the Bridge (7 page)

The drive to school was hazardous. She
probably shouldn’t have mulled over her problems while riding a
motorcycle in rush hour traffic, but she wanted a grip on them
before she saw the troll.

The thing was, she was not a blooded warrior.
She understood the justice to be found in death for those who
deserved it, but was uncomfortable being in the position of judge.
Who was she to say who died? Though she’d have hated to admit it,
she also suffered from a tender heart. She’d far rather nurture
life in her garden than dissect it with her knife.

Could she kill? Sure. She’d been taught
dozens of ways to do just that. Trouble was, she was beginning to
think it would be more costly than she’d been taught to
believe.

The ride to school was too short to wrestle
more than one issue to the ground. She parked her bike, glad to
pull the helmet off her aching head.

Jason was in the parking lot, talking with
his friends. He smiled when he saw her and trotted over. The front
half of his pale brown hair was braided into fat cornrows, and
three earrings dangled from one ear. Thankfully, he eschewed the
fashion of sagging, baggy pants, and his somewhat battered jeans
showed a body made the better for hours spent on a skateboard.

He stopped when he saw her and made a frame
with his hands. “Nice! That’s my Harley pinup girl.” His nose was
slightly crooked, but it lent character to his strong Welsh
features.

“Your girl?” She smiled slightly in spite of
herself. His flirting, though uninvited, was an improvement over
her tangled thoughts. “Had some magic mushrooms in your scrambled
eggs this morning? A little TLC in your OJ?”

He grinned. “Not today. Say, I was wondering
if you’d like to give me a ride home today? It’s on the way.”

She thought about wandering hands groping her
on the highway and frowned. “I’m not sure I’m ready for that level
of commitment.”

He spread his hands. “Hey, it’s just a ride
home.”

“And hell is just a sauna.” She slung her
book bag over her shoulder and headed for the school.

He fell in beside her, waving his friends
off. “So…saw you sitting with that exchange student at lunch
yesterday. You two got something going?”

She flicked her bangs out of her eyes,
irritated. She needed a haircut. “Definitely not. I don’t date
trolls.”

He liked that. “So, there’s this party this
weekend….”

They’d reached her locker, so she busied
herself opening it and riffling through the contents. “Can’t.
Working.”

“All weekend?”

“Yup.” She popped her lips on the word to
lend it emphasis, hoping he’d take the hint. She wasn’t going to
lead him on when his chances were zero. She just wasn’t interested
enough to take a risk on a relationship she could tell would go
nowhere.

Jason wasn’t the type to give up easily.
“Okay, how about we just make out right here?”

She snorted, ambushed by his directness. She
turned to share the smirk he’d inspired, and got ambushed by his
kiss.

Shocked, she stood there and just blinked.
She was so surprised, she couldn’t tell if it was nice or not. It
wasn’t just that she had nothing to compare it to; her brain was so
busy stuttering, it couldn’t wrap around the fact that she was
being kissed. Right now, in front of everybody. In front of the
flesh-eating troll, in fact.

Billy’s eyes landed on him, and she jerked
back. His amused disdain was enough to pull her to her senses. She
focused on Jason, not sure how to rebuke him.

He gave her a cheeky grin as the bell rang.
“Later, babe.” He sauntered off, obviously proud of himself.

She stared after him, pole-axed. What was
that all about?

“Very impressive—on his part. You need more
practice,” Ash observed dryly.

She started to say something, but lost the
thread of her thoughts. Grabbing her books for her first class, she
slammed her locker shut. “I wasn’t trying to practice! He surprised
me.”

“So I saw.” Ash fell into step beside her.
Casually, he added, “He just won twenty dollars. His friends bet
him he couldn’t get away with it.”

Her lip curled. “I’ll eat his liver!” She
glanced swiftly at the troll as she realized what she’d said. “I
meant that figuratively.”

He studied her thoughtfully. “For a girl who
has a C in English, you use big words.”

“How do you know what my grades are?” she
demanded. “You haven’t been here a week!”

“I know all kinds of things,” he said, his
voice dark and smooth. “I even know where you sleep.”

She frowned at the implied threat, even as
her mind flashed on the rose. Could he have left it? “It’s not like
it’s a secret where I live. Lots of people know that.” Though he
was the first troll. Privately, she admitted it wasn’t a happy
thought.

The corner of his mouth curled up in a smile.
“You could have simply punched him in the kidneys. He wouldn’t try
it twice…at least not without the safety of a dark alley and five
or six friends to hide behind.” He looked thoughtful.

Guessing his thoughts, she said sharply, “It
wouldn’t make him fair game, especially since I’d pulverize him for
trying it. I don’t need you to eat my enemies for me.”

Ash gave her bland look, but didn’t
comment.

She saw him again as she slid into her seat
in English Lit. Eyrnie had heard what happened and cornered her,
demanding to know if she’d lost her mind for kissing a puke like
Jason. By the time she’d explained herself to his satisfaction, she
was late for class.

Everyone else was seated by the time Billy
entered. Carrie didn’t look up as Billy passed her, to all
appearances the dutiful clan member. Maybe they were making
progress.

Ash glanced at Billy as she sat beside him.
She didn’t like doing it, but a deal was a deal. It felt somewhat
like sitting next to a slumberous polar bear; at any moment he
could wake and decide he was hungry. She didn’t want to be near at
hand when he gave into the munchies.

Her whole left side prickled in protest at
his proximity, and she had to work not to edge away in her seat. It
wouldn’t do any good if she were a mere inch farther away.

She hadn’t forgotten last night. The boring
lecture gave her ample time to brood over it, but too much had
happened to reclaim the full horror she’d woken up with. It was
difficult to see Ash sitting there, looking human and…well, not
harmless
, but not8 carnivorous, either.

She could smell the soothing fragrance of the
rosebud, so she turned the page to look at it, holding the book so
Ash couldn’t see. She ran a finger over the smooth stem, wondering
again who’d left it. If it hadn’t been Gran, then someone had come
into her house, into her room. Bypassing all of Gran’s wards and
locks was fey work. A human couldn’t have detected most of them,
let alone disarmed the wards.

She glanced at Ash. It would have helped if
he hadn’t talked to her this morning, as if he were a normal guy.
She’d seen him at his worst and knew him for a monster. In the
dream she’d seen his true self, and it was hideous. She tried to
picture it now, superimposed on his human form. If she squinted,
she could almost see the horns….

She forced herself to listen to the teacher’s
droning. She really hated doing this, being here. Not for the first
time, she weighed the pros and cons of paying for four years of
stuff like this. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted to do after
college. In light of that, her tuition suddenly seemed like an
enormous drag. She didn’t want to be a doctor, lawyer or any of
those white-collar types. The only reason she was here was because
“everybody knew” that education helped people to earn more
money.

Unfortunately, she knew plenty of people
who’d graduated college and had to move back in with their parents
because they couldn’t find a high-paying job. She’d also read
online that most culinary school grads had to start at the bottom
and work their way up like everyone else, sometimes making only
eight dollars an hour washing dishes. With a student loan to pay
off on top of that…well, she’d rather just start with her hands in
the dishpan.

There were other ways to educate oneself
other than college. Some jobs paid employees to go to classes, like
Ernie’s dad’s mechanic job. Apprenticeships were good, too.

She didn’t want to go to school; had zero
desire, in fact. Where did that leave her? What did she want to
do?

Billy’s hands twitched impatiently. She
wanted her hands in the dirt, tending flowers and herbs. It didn’t
take much thought to realize it was the
only
thing she
wanted. A full time position at the Flower Pot would give her a
comfortable living
right now
.

Her hands got cold as she realized how she’d
placed herself in artificial poverty by choosing school over work
at this juncture of her life. Was she insane?

Billy was not prone to nerves or panic
attacks, so at first she wasn’t sure what was happening to her. Her
heart raced, and her breathing became choppy. An overwhelming need
to flee possessed her, made her stiffen in her seat. To counter it,
she curled her fingers over the edge of her desk…and pushed it all
down
. Really hard.

The floor lurched. Startled, still panicky,
she would have thought it was her imagination, but others noticed,
too. They were looking down, wondering at the source of the
quake.

Another shot of adrenaline-fueled power shot
into the earth, making the room quiver. Billy gasped and tried to
reel it in, but it was like trying to stop a rainstorm with only
bare hands to catch the drops. The energy kept slipping, flowing
into the earth in time with her heartbeat.

Ash reached over and grabbed her arm. “Get
your stuff,” he said calmly in her ear. “We need to leave.” People
were streaming out of the class already; some cowered under desks.
Carrie made for the door without a glance for her aunt.

Frightened, Billy didn’t argue, blindly
following Ash’s lead. He was excellent at pushing through a crowd;
far too sturdy to budge, strong enough to plow through a herd of
rhino. In moments they were outside, safely parked under a shady
oak. Panting, she dropped to the grass, one hand braced against the
bark. Crouched between the roots, she closed her eyes and tried to
govern the power that buckled and strained within her.

Such power! It flowed wild and strong, a
river she’d never suspected flowing through the deep caverns of her
mind. She dipped mental fingers in the current, shuddering at the
cold power. It was pure energy, like the sap flowing through the
bark under her hand….

She experimented, channeling the cold, clear
light into the tree. It went happily, a torrent directed by the
slightest touch of her will. As it flowed into the tree, she felt
the change. The tree stretched and grew, sparked with life. She
felt its roots grow so deep they anchored in another world
entirely.

She slowly eased the flow of power, and
removed her hand. The tree remained changed, a living pillar
between the mundane world and…elsewhere.

She frowned. What had she just done?

“Hm,” Ash rumbled. “You have some interesting
blood, pixie. Blue blood, I think.” He touched the tree briefly.
“This is an elven pillar. My home under the bridge is like that,
when I have lived there for a very long time.” He saw her blank
look and grinned. “You just connected this world and Underhill. Do
it enough, and you could make this whole campus a part of our
world.”

She scowled. “My world is here.”

His expression was enigmatic. “Spend enough
time here, and it will be.” His gaze tracked something in the tree.
He smiled, scary and satisfied at once.

She looked, and blinked. A newly woken dryad,
a tree nymph, slowly blinked. She stretched within the tree and
looked around with slumberous eyes. As they watched, a tiny sprite
peeked through the branches before ducking out of sight.

Billy snatched her stuff and backed away from
the tree. She doubted anyone else would see through the tree’s
glamour. “I pulled them here?” she asked nervously. How could that
be?

“Some old ones, strong ones, can do that,”
Ash said, his voice still deeper than a mortal’s should be. “A
king’s blooded-kin can, too.”

She looked at him sharply. She tried to
decide what to say to that. After all, her mother had taken such
pains to keep her heritage a secret.

“The eleven kings and queens are the pillars
of the world. They
are
Underhill. Where they go, Underhill
follows.” He seemed to lose interest as he watched the students
milling around. “How am I supposed to finish this class if we’re
all outside? I doubt he’ll resume his lecture out here. Pity.”

She shot him a look as she hoisted her bag
over her shoulder. “I can’t believe you’re worried about that. I’ve
got to go.” She was too shaken to stay and see what became of the
chaos she’d caused. No doubt classes were finished for the day.
They certainly were for her. She wasn’t coming back.

Ever.

9. The White Stag

“You’ll have to protect her yourself. I’ll be
working full time from now on.” Billy spoke coolly on the phone,
unwilling to bother with her sister in person. She listened to
Maura’s rant for a moment and then said calmly, “I don’t care. It’s
not my problem anymore.”

The sound of Maura’s breathing became tight,
strained. By the sound of things, she was red-clawed and furious.
“Are you renouncing your leadership?”

Billy laughed scornfully. If she did, Maura
would seize the chance to attack. Renouncing that magic would let
Maura use it, and that could prove fatal. Billy might not want the
hill, but she couldn’t give up kingship, either. “No. I’m telling
you that I rule here, and I’m delegating your petty problems to
you, where they rightfully belong.”