Free The Morrigan: Damaged Deities by Kennan Reid Page B

brother. 
    “He was here, I swear it.  I found him last night, down by the lake.  I caught him and—!”
    Morrie cut herself off. 
    The only valid explanation for the horse’s absence was she had bee right in her assumptions.  If the horse were really a kelpie, the stall wouldn’t hold him. 
    She narrowed her gaze on Kamden, suspicions filling her mind.
    A sympathetic expression passed across Kamden’s face as he studied her. 
    “He wouldn’t be such a pest,” he grated, “if he were so easy tae catch.”  The hard lines of his face softened. “I didna expect ye tae catch him quick.”
    Resigned to her annoyance, Morrie leaned back against the inside of the stall. 
    She’d never let a horse get the better of her before, mystical or otherwise.  Her mind could barely comprehend it.
    “Ack, that’s a shame,” Kade said, shaking his head as he held the apple up before his mouth.  “Guess ye’ll be staying awhile longer then, aye?” 
    He took a big bite, filling his cheek, and grinned at her.
    Narrowing a glare on the cocky Scotsman, “Yes, I guess I will be.”  Morrie sighed and straightened up.  She turned to Kamden. “Will you still take me to the lake, though? I’d like to get a look at the area in the daylight.”
    Kade straightened, frowning at his brother.  Kamden stepped back to let Morrie pass and said, “Tis Sunday.”
    So?   Morrie turned to Kamden, eyes inquisitive, hoping further explanation would follow.
    “We have church tae attend this morning,” Kamden explained.  “Do ye wish tae join us?”
    “No, thanks,” Morrie replied with a snort and barely contained derision. 
    Humans and their superstitions.
    “I’m afraid we’ll have tae make that trip tomorrow, if the weather allows.  Make yerself at home around the manor and if there’s anything ye need in town, Lorna can take ye.”
    Morrie watched as Kamden dropped a hand on Kade’s shoulder and led him away.  She stewed in her rage and spent the next hour scouring the fields around the manor for any sign of the beast.
     That horse was dead. 
    Or at least as good as.  Morrie did not like being made a fool and the horse had made a fool of her. 
    She had caught the damn thing.  She had overpowered and controlled him and somehow he’d escaped.  She wasn’t going to let it happen again. 
    Knowing the manor’s lack of Dr. Pepper was making her grumpy, Morrie found the old truck in a shed with the keys inside and decided to take a trip to town without the company of the chatty and odd Lorna. 
    The roads were muddy and the trip arduous and it had been a while since Morrie had driven anywhere or anything—she had never trusted the mechanical beasts of the modern age.  The clutch screamed in protests as she shoved and yanked on the gearshift, unsure how it really worked so she just pressed the pedals at random. 
    With a little shock and amazement, Morrie managed to get the old heap into town, bringing it to a staggering stop in front of a small grocer at the edge of the village. 
    She wrenched the keys from the ignition, anxious to be out of the truck.  Taking a calming breath, she grabbed her bag, threw her whole body into opening the heavy, metal door and slipped out.
    After slamming it shut, she glanced over her shoulder, and started to walk inside the grocer only to stop and turn back around. 
    Just across the street was a small cemetery lined with a low, crumbling stone wall, willows dipping their heads low over the graveyards.  Cracked and black headstones rested at crooked angles, partial angel faces of statues mourned in their decrepit state. 
    But past the graves and markers, Morrie spied the hulking frames of the MacLeod brothers.  Their backs were to her, but she would know them anywhere, even if she’d only just met them. 
    Guess church was over.
    Kade stood before a grave, head bent and Morrie frowned, wondering for whom it was he mourned.  Looking around beside him, Kamden seemed less