"Web," Colin repeated as he stared at me. "Caught."
I looked at Bird Lady but she appeared as shocked as Colin. "I always assumed I was the only one," she admitted.
"Me, too," Shosha added as she peeked out again.
"I had never thought about it, which means I never considered that there might be others. How many? Do we need to find a way to free them of the web?" I asked. "I really wasn't looking for a quest."
"But --" Colin began.
"But I appear to already be on one. Especially since I keep getting pulled into these situations and Colin has to come and rescue me."
"That may be true ... and I wonder if that's because you killed her."
"The fall killed her, not me. She should have looked where she was walking." I looked him in the face. "I had done it before when we were still together. She had never fallen."
"That makes --"
"It makes sense if you have to worry about a coven suddenly showing an interest." I looked at Bird Woman, who nodded slightly. "I know I have taken credit for killing her. In truth, I had hoped she would trip, and I could get help there before she recovered. I wasn't sorry she was dead, but I wouldn't have purposely tried to be rid of her -- not on my own."
I had taken her reading right. Now that everything else dark and overlain with magic had been blown away, I could tell her powers came from natural sources. If she was not a witch, she was very akin to them.
Bird Woman gave another nod. "I would not think anyone will be sorry that she's gone, especially those of us still caught in her web. However, there is the possibility that she had an ally or another familiar after she trapped Neko. Oh yes, I know about her trick. I just had not realized you were that cat. I thought you were still trapped."
That made sense out of why others met my statements about Maude with such disbelief. First, they didn't realize she was gone, and second, they didn't know I was Neko.
I looked back at Colin. "You should have said something."
"It didn't occur to me that Maude might have her ephemeral hand in this trouble until now. I checked the body and found nothing to make me think she would still be in trouble. She worked with human-based magic, though. I might not have sensed something that wasn't close to fae magic. I also recall that she evaded fae hunters for a long time. She had some powers we didn't understand."
I hoped he wasn't trying to make me feel better.
Bird Woman took the admission more to heart than I did. I had never thought of the fae as being all-powerful. Maude had beaten them in the game of hide and seek. They had only found me by chance.
"Neko?" Colin said.
I started to snarl an answer and stopped myself. Was I really mad at the fae because they hadn't found me sooner?
No. I was mad because Maude was interfering with my life again. Ghost or just memory didn't matter. It was her work.
"I am annoyed," I said when Colin started to speak again. "I haven't minded helping others, but I preferred the ones that were not connected to Maude."
"I would prefer not to be involved in her messes again," Colin admitted. He looked as annoyed as I had felt a moment before. I supposed Maude did that to everyone who encountered her. Colin and I- and maybe even Shosha- probably had the same feelings toward her and the entire mess.
I couldn't be as confident about Bird Woman, although at least she looked happy about the flowers blooming around her. The birds sang, and I wondered if any of this was her work or if she was more akin to the dark and mud.
I had gotten too judgmental. And it more than angered me -- it enraged --
"Colin, we have a problem! Rage, despair -- tell me it is just me --"
Colin caught on quickly. He spun his own threads around me, not as a web, but as circles of power. We both knew when he touched the thread that linked back to Maude.
The single thread brightened and grew longer, and something on the other end tried to pull me away from my friends. I gave a startled cry and leapt at Colin, the thread slowing my movement. Colin understood and grabbed me out of the air, but Bird Woman stepped forward, grabbed the thread, and drained it of power. Colin did his best to remove the link from me, but it would not release me. He was dangerously depleting his energy, too.
"Stop," I gasped. "You --you need power for battle. It will come for me, no matter if we are tied or not."
"Yes," Bird Woman agreed as she still fought with the thread. Then, with a snarl of anger, she set fire to it, and the thread burned all the way to me, singing my fur but cutting me loose for the moment.
"Away from here!" Colin shouted. "Fast. Will you come with us, Lady?"
"Yes."
She put her hand on Colin's shoulder. He held me tighter, and Shosha meeped from his pocket, but we were already on our way.
I could feel the thread catching hold of me, and I feared it would drag me into the mist, and I would never see my friends again. My claws dug into Colin's arm, but he made no show of it except to hold me tighter.
Something was wrong. We were moving too slowly, and I had no idea where Colin was headed. I only knew that the thread -- glowing even brighter now -- would pull us all to our doom. I feared the others were about to die for me.
So I let go.
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