But I’d forgotten what undines lived on. Before I could get away, sharp claws pierced my gills. She’d skewered me like a shrimp on a spit and now she was lifting me into her gaping, needle-toothed mouth. I thrashed to get out of her grip but her claws only sank deeper into my skin. Her eyes glowed with malice and delight as she squeezed … but then suddenly they widened with surprise. Something jarred her. I felt the reverberation in my gut. I looked up and saw the shadows of branches spreading over her head – then another jolt. Lorelei screamed and turned to face her attacker, flinging me aside in her panic. I hit something hard and dry. I was on land, gasping to breathe like a fish out of water … no, that wasn’t the image I needed. Like a drowning person dragged ashore. I pictured myself – my own human body – and then I was retching up water, my limbs bruised and battered, but once more my own. I was on a large flat rock that hung over the stream. Duncan, still in his deer form, stood a few feet from me, his head lowered to ward off Lorelei with his antlers. Her hair was wild and matted, her green eyes flashing, her lips curled over her sharp teeth in an angry snarl. Blood ran down her pearl-slick skin, pooling in crimson swirls around her slim legs. When I sat up, her eyes snapped from Duncan to me.

“I see you didn’t waste time finding another male to protect you, Doorkeeper. Is that why you don’t want the undines free to come to this world – because you want all the men to yourself?”

“I’m trying to keep the door open!” I cried.

Lorelei laughed. “By running naked in the woods?”

I looked down at myself and saw with horror that she was right – I was naked.

“And copulating with that handsome buck?” She gave Duncan an appreciative look.

“I was not …” But before I could finish she raised her arms and summoned a thunderclap that would have drowned out anything I was going to say. The boom was followed by a torrent of rain that came down like a curtain on the last act of a bloody and tragic opera. Lorelei dove into the water and swam away with the current. Duncan lifted his head and turned, becoming a man again. A rather nicely built man, I couldn’t help noticing as he waded naked through the water toward me. That linen suit had been hiding a muscular chest and strong arms. And lovely hands, I noticed as he laid them on my ribcage.

“You’re hurt,” he said. “Lie back and I’ll work a binding spell to heal your skin.”