Chapter Three - Ketill
My fists clamp around the wet railing as rain and wind blast into my face. The shifter who dragged me down is lost somewhere on the tracks, his cut-off scream followed by a sickening crunch.
I bounce against the slick, rattling body of the train, and with each impact, a pained groan is punched from my chest. My reliable old steel-capped boots turn into my worst enemy as I try to gain purchase, but skid away with every attempt.
So, when the water between my fingers begins to loosen my grip, and I start to believe my luck can’t get any worse, I spot the tunnel. One barely wide enough for the train itself, with very little thought to anyone who might be hanging off the side, and I nearly burst into laughter.
Fate, it seems, wants a show, and if I’m dying, it’ll be far more spectacular than this.
Letting free a string of curses, I jerk my knees up so that when I’m beaten against the train’s frame, it’s the soles of my boots that meet metal instead of my bruised torso.
The tunnel’s mouth is closing fast—my grip on the railing coming loose—and with a mighty shove, I leap off the surface, swinging toward a window just as my grip falters.
Just before the tunnel swallows us, I crash through a window.
Then glass flying everywhere as I collide with something—someone—and topple to the ground in a tangle of limbs.
There’s a beat of silence, my heavy breathing trying to fill it, then I bark out an amazed laugh. “Sometimes, I surprise myself with how clever I am. I really didn’t think that’d work.”
“Get off me!”
I glance down to where the voice came from and nearly swallow my tongue. Well damn, and here I thought angels weren’t real, turns out I just needed to crash through the right window to find one.
“You’re stunning…”
“You’re heavy!” he bites back.
I once stole a natural black diamond, and staring into this man’s eyes reminds me of that perfect jewel. It didn’t matter how dark the exterior or the angle it was held at; pure reflected light ran through it, like the diamond couldn’t help but shine.
“What’s your name?” I ask, low and a touch too eager, leaning closer to count the barely noticeable freckles dotted over the straight ridge of his nose.
“Where the hell did you come from?” His English accent is lovely, his umber skin dewy in the warm glow overhead. “Get. Off!” he demands, while beating me over the head with a book.
The train bolts out of the tunnel, and as glittering rain fills the cabin, and thunder roars above, a connection snaps into place, directing me to the rarest treasure I’ll ever come across, and I happen to be lying on top of it.
‘Soulmate.’
The truth of it is as exciting and terrifying as standing on top of a moving train, and I inhale to fill my lungs. How fucking exhilarating he smells—the earthy, mineral scent of fast-moving rivers, the comfort of leather-bound books and…more, like more life and more chances and more mistakes.
I’ve only ever encountered a few immortals with soulmates, and without fail, when their eyes meet, one of them always says, “Have we met before? I know you.” Said as if they’ve woken from a dream, or high as a fucking kite.
“So…” My mouth stretches into a grin, even as the corner of the book he’s been beating me with catches my temple. “Do you have something you’d like to say to me?”
“GET. OFF. ME!” he screeches.
“Maybe you need some more time for the shock to pass.” I jump up from my little mate before he can hit me again. I pat the bag at my side to ensure the large egg is still there and undamaged. Looks like I’ve found two precious things on this journey, and one I plan on keeping.
“Finally!” he scrambles up, and I find he’s not that little after all. He might be shorter, but he’s tall enough to comfortably meet my eyeline. “What kind of madman crashes into someone’s cabin? On a moving train! In a storm! IN SCOTLAND!”
I’m mesmerised by his face.
“You really are a looker. Do you feel our connection yet?” I shout over the wind gushing through the broken window, pointing back and forth between us and wiggling my eyebrows.
“It can’t just be me—whoa!” I duck as he swings a long black umbrella at my head that he’s snatched up from the floor. “Feisty, aren’t you?”
He glares. “I’m going to call the conductor! Or the police! Or…or…”
I grin widely. If this sudden burst of connection didn’t mark him as my soulmate, then wielding an umbrella like a sword certainly does.
I wink up at the ceiling. ‘Well done, Fate, you picked me a good one.’
“You better not be bloody winking at me, you lunatic!”
“I’m pretty sure you need to say something, like you’ve met me before or—” I duck, “that you know me from somewhere.”
“In this very moment,” he shouts, his tight curls whirling around his pretty face, “I can certainly say I wish I’d never met you!”
The grin stretching across my face widens. “You really are meant for me.”
My soulmate opens his mouth to say something, but instead, he lets out a scream as a new shifter swings into the cabin through the smashed window, landing on two feet and scowling. “Ketill, you rat bastard, give us back what you stole!”
“Can’t you see I’m busy?” I swing my fist around, slamming it into the shifter’s face. His nose cracks, and blood sprays out like a smashed watermelon; the shifter falls back and crashes into the table, giving me enough time to grab my soulmate. “We'd better get outta here, treasure.”
“What the hell is happening—WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!” he shrieks, outraged as I pick him up and sling his solid weight over my shoulder.
“You ask a lot of questions.” I rip open the door, snatch the umbrella my treasure is holding and use it to bar the door closed.
“Help! Help! I’m being kidnapped!”
Laughing, I run down the corridor, one treasure bouncing at my side and the other on my shoulder. “More like rescued.”
“Let me go, damn you!” he says, his fists meeting my back.
There’s a crash behind us, and I look over my shoulder just as a spotted leopard skids out of the barred door, ploughing into the opposite wall.
“W-what…” my treasure stutters out.
“I know, right?” I scoff. “I was hoping the umbrella would hold for longer.”
The cat shakes away the confusion, then swings his heavy skull our way before it bolts towards us, closing the distance on powerful legs.
“Faster! Run faster!” treasure cries.
I let out a hearty laugh as I speed up, sprinting down the long corridor towards a glass and wood partitioning door. “This is the start of a beautiful relationship, treasure.”
I slide open the partition and step into the other cart, then once inside, slide it back.
“That won’t stop anything!” my mate yells.
My reply is a smirk as I move backwards, the leopard charging at us through the glass like I’m watching it on TV until he comes leaping through it in a shower of glass and wood.
I drop my mate, regretfully, not-too-gently to the carpeted floor, and shield his body with mine. He screams out for help, but whoever soundproofed these rooms really did a good job.
The shifter misses us by centimetres, so when he lands, I dart forward at incredible speed, wrap my hands around the leopard’s thick, furry neck, and with a single, satisfyingly loud CRACK, he drops like a sack of potatoes.
“There we go,” I announce, dusting my hands off as I turn back to my mate. “All dealt with.”
My treasure isn’t where I left him; he’s further back at the broken door, unsuccessfully rattling at the handle to force it open.
“We aren’t going to get out that way,” I tell him.
“I’m not going anywhere with a kidnapper who fights…fights…big cats!”
“He’s not a big cat. He’s a shifter, see.” I nod to the body behind me, and my treasure reluctantly looks over, eyes huge and wobbling, to find that the big cat has turned back into a man.
“This can’t be happening…”
“Now,” I say, stepping forward and grinning at him, “I saw in the cabin your cup of tea was ruined. How about I get you a new one. Then you can fall in love with me, eh?”