“What if we try talking first?” All I needed was for Roni to shift her focus enough that her magic weakened, then we could pull Harlow onto land and evaluate the extent of her injuries. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“I caught a fish yesterday, and he was hurt. Daphne threw him back in the lake, and I got mad.” Heat simmered in her voice. “She wouldn’t listen. He needed to see the vet. I sneaked out of the tent to find him.” As fast as her burst of anger came, it vanished, leaving her small and shivering. “I was walking around the edge of the lake. I was trying to find the fish when I heard it.” A shudder wracked her. “The horse was crying. Not like a person but... I wanted to help him, so I waded out in the water. He turned and kept going deeper and deeper, and I knew Daphne would be so mad at me, but I followed him. I touched him. Right beside his tail.” Her eyes went liquid. “I couldn’t get loose. I tried, but I was stuck. I was so scared my bubble just… And then he dragged me under the water.”

Her breathing grew faster as she recalled how terrifying that experience had been. I didn’t press her for a timeline. When the kelpie hauled her out to parade her around didn’t matter now. Only the whys did, and she wouldn’t know those.

The air around her distorted, and I pressed her harder while a crack formed in her defenses. “Can you tell me what happened tonight?”

“He was mad. So mad.” She blinked and shed tears. “The merlady found where we were hiding. She attacked him with a knife.” Roni reached under Harlow and produced the slim dagger with a shell-encrusted handle she had tucked into her neoprene top. “This knife.” She gulped hard, shut her eyes and lifted her arm. “S-s-she did this.”

My gaze zeroed in on her elbow, slid down her forearm, and I braced myself for a weeping stump that ended at her fragile wrist, a brutal amputation to match the other victims, but Roni’s hand was whole. More than whole, a cut of raw meat stuck to her palm where Harlow had sliced her free of the kelpie.

I swallowed hard and tasted acid in the back of my throat.

“The horse—he had a tail like hers—like a fin. He hit her in the head with it, and it cut her throat. She couldn’t breathe, so I made her a bubble like mine. Then we hid in a tunnel the horse couldn’t fit into until he went away. I waited for a long time before…” Her gaze dropped to Harlow sprawled limp across her lap. “She was bleeding so much…and then it stopped.”