Chapter 3

3

My head bobbed, threatening to drop right down in the center of the book I was reading as I teetered on the edge of sleep. Too many pages left and not enough hours in the night to get through them.

I had to make it to the next chapter or I’d start the next school term behind. Fancy that, my exhausted brain offered up the thought. Behind before you even begin. Never in my life had this been the case and yet it was a box I’d stayed stuck inside since coming here.

A tap at the window caught my attention. Insistent, three knocks in a row. I got the message immediately.

Let me in. Let me in.

Rising on stiff legs, I moved to flip the latch and push open the window, letting in a blast of wintry air as I did. A black crow perched on the ledge, beady eyes staring up at me. It clacked its beak once. Squawked. Then hopped down onto my desktop.

“I didn’t think anyone was going to show up this late,” I told the bird. “Talk about bad timing.”

A flash of magic filled the small chamber and when I recovered from the reflexive blink, a small-boned girl sat on top of the dresser with her legs dangling over the side. With a round face, a splash of freckles across her nose and cheeks, and slightly curling pine bark-colored hair, she was absolutely adorable.

“I know, I’m sorry. But I had to come and get you,” Bronwen Minuti told me in a sweet voice. “An emergency meeting’s been called.”

My stomach dropped and I glanced back at the textbook. “I can’t go.”

“What do you mean you can’t go? It’s an emergency.”

“Whatever it is, I’ve got classes starting tomorrow and a new tutor to meet. I have too many things to do tonight and then I’d like to get a little sleep if possible.”

“Tavi, you made an oath. You have to go to the meeting. You have no choice.” At least Bronwen sounded sympathetic.

“But—” I broke off with a sigh and knew I’d be running on fumes tomorrow, because she was right. Another choice I didn’t have. Arguing would get me nowhere.

I’d definitely made an oath to the Claw & Fang Society the very first night Bronwen showed up to take me to a meeting, stating there were others like me, like us, she wanted me to meet. I thought about the wolf pendant currently nestled between my breasts where no one would see it.

The society met monthly. A silly social club to me, but it did serve a good purpose. It united the half-shifters who had taken refuge in Faerie, those of us who weren’t supposed to exist in the first place because Fae and shifters notoriously hated each other thanks to a centuries old prophecy. Contact between the two races was pretty much forbidden, let alone interbreeding. And yet here we were. There were more of us here than I had originally thought. However, it was kind of nice having a support network nearby.

With a handful of shifter friends and confidants, people like me, I felt less alone.

Bronwen snapped her fingers to get my attention. “Come on, we’ve got to go. The club is waiting for us,” she said.

I shook my head, biting the inside of my lip and trying to order my thoughts. “What on earth could be so important they’re dragging everybody out of bed in the middle of the night?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Selene just sent me to fetch you.” Bronwen hopped down off of the dresser and stared at me. “Are you ready to go?”

I slowly closed the book I’d barely been able to read because my eyes were too blurry to make out the words. I sighed. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

We had to be careful no one noticed us leaving the castle. Even though the ankle monitor had since been removed, the king still kept a close watch on me after the disaster in the summer regarding not only my kidnapping but the rather mysterious death of the carnival gypsy. If he knew what I could really do with my powers, exile would be paradise compared to what he’d do to me.

Making sure no one outside the window saw us, and with a barrier in place to keep the guards in the hall from feeling the swell of magic, Bronwen and I prepared to transfigure into crows to fly to the meeting site.

I closed my eyes. I stood next to her, away from the open window, and breathed in a deep breath filled with ice and power. The image of the crow filled my mind until I envisioned every detail down to the individual feathers. I had to believe in the change to make it so.

Only half Fae, half shifters were able to manifest the power of transfiguration. According to most sources it was rare and didn’t often show up. For me, it had manifested during my last semester at the Halfling Academy during my inherent power test. Right alongside my cognitive manipulation. Which meant I could make people believe anything I wanted them to believe.

Another scary thought.

As it was, I knew of only one other half-shifter here with the same transfiguration power, besides Bronwen. And he happened to be the son of my fated mate.

It really was a small world. Or, well, two small and interconnected worlds.

The magic took hold and my body slowly shrank down into a smaller form, my arms folding in and black feathers bursting through my skin. The pain didn’t bother me anymore. My receding consciousness didn’t bother me anymore.

I knew how to take control of the crow’s mind, thanks to Onyx and his teachings, despite the last few months of me being unable to transform. With the king tracking my magic, it was a risk to do anything outside of school besides learn. At least Onyx had taken the setback in stride and switched his lesson plan.

The moment Bronwen and I finished changing, we took off through the open window. The snow-covered ground stretched out around us, the town covered under a blanket of pure crystalline white. We soared high over the buildings in the village, the castle behind us and the Elite Academy in front. The twin buildings flanked either side of the valley, with the school built into the mountainside and the town spread along the swell of land between them.

Instead of heading toward the peaks of the sleeping academy, Bronwen and I banked to the right. Heading for the forest and beyond. The huge meadow beyond the castle melted into a line of darkness, the tree trunks thick and old and rising into the wintry sky. Though no moon showed through the thick clouds, we didn’t need one to light our way. I drew on the crow’s keen eyesight and animal instincts tonight, drew on the inherent intelligence guiding me toward our destination.

The Claw & Fang met in a secret place high in the mountains outside the king’s town. The geography rolled in a way that naturally hid the small clearing of outcropped rocks from view, and unless someone was a serious hiker—with a crazy amount of magic to break down protection wards—they wouldn’t be able to reach or see us.

Bronwen and I crested the last hill before we saw the stone circle begin to take shape. Naturally cut from the top of the mountain itself without any magical aid, the boulders speared into the sky like the teeth of some great beast. There in the center gathered my people.

We dropped down next to Selene, the reporter who’d hounded me my first semester at the Elite Academy, now the woman I looked to as leader of this ragtag group. Bronwen transfigured on the way down so that when she landed, she did so in her normal form.

Exhaustion made it impossible for me to do the same. My crow feet clawed against cold stone. A focused thought and a final push of magic had me changing form. Slower than I should have, yeah, but there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. I followed Bronwen toward one of the natural stone outcroppings, lichen covering the surface even during winter. The others were already gathered around a small crackling fire, their hands outstretched for warmth, waiting for the two of us to arrive.

These people, though we were few, had opened their doors to me once I arrived in Faerie. They reminded me what it meant to have a community and a group of like-minded people sharing the same kind of messed-up bloodline. I’d had that sense of community once with my wolf pack, under my uncle’s rule as alpha, but things hadn’t been the same since he’d announced my betrothal to a murderer.

So I’d run away. What choice did I have?

I sat cross-legged next to a fellow member and let out a labored sigh. “How are you tonight, Lisbet?”

She smiled and inclined her head. “As well as can be expected, Tavi. Thank you for asking.”

Selene paced beside the flames and greeted me grimly the moment our eyes met. Gone was her normal sly smile and the snarky attitude she affected when she was reporting. She stood several inches taller than me, and more when she donned high heels. Tonight, her chin-length black hair curled beneath her jaw, pointed ears hidden beneath a fluffy red cap. A long black coat hid most of her honey-colored skin from view. Selene gave us precious few seconds to settle in before launching into her speech. The flames reflected off the odd silver hue of her eyes.

“I’m sorry for dragging you all out of bed on such short notice,” she stated in an oddly somber tone, “but this was an emergency. It left us little time to prepare and even less time to wait until our regularly scheduled meeting.”

The air stilled around us. The tension thickened until it mingled with the wood smoke from the fire. “What’s going on?” one of the older shifters finally asked, a grizzled gray-haired man with a long beard.

“Well…” Selene trailed off and for a moment I almost thought she was nervous.

No way. It didn’t work with the image of the reporter I always kept in my head. The woman who dogged my every move during the Summer Games, like a shark in the water going after wounded prey. But tonight was definitely different.

At last, she let out a breath. “There’s no sense in wasting more time trying to find a way to put this mildly. A body was found about two hours ago. A pure-blood Fae ripped to pieces by a wild animal.” Selene let her words hang for effect before declaring, “This is the third pure-blood found dead this way. This week.”

Thatgot the desired effect. As a group, the ten of us leaned forward. Bronwen cried out, “What do you mean the third one? This week? Impossible! We would have heard about this.”

Selene shook her head. “No, you would not have. The king does not want anyone to know about the discovery. He’s been working overtime to keep these deaths a secret because he knows the general populace of Eahsea will be thrown into a panic. Only a select few around him, and now us, know about these deaths.”

“This week?” Lisbet clarified.

“This week. Sadly, it’s true.” Selene’s expression turned even more grim. “I was there. I saw the last one before the guards rushed the body away.”

It didn’t seem to surprise anyone how the king was working hard to cover up the murders. I stared around the circle at my fellow half-shifters.

“I’m sure no one wants to hear the gory details,” Selene stated, walking around the fire. “However, trust me when I tell you this is cause for concern.”

The gray-haired man harrumphed. “If the pure-bloods want to kill each other, then let them have at it. It’s no business of ours. Better for us to stay out of the way and let the monarchy chase its own tail.”

Selene clearly had more to say, and she silenced the man with a sharp look. “It is most certainly our business, Reginald, as there are those who think it’s a half-shifter committing these crimes. And I’m inclined to agree.”