Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

Anora and the Cercatore

Another scream tears from my throat, and I try to pull away, but the creature has my hands held tight in its own, and it’s pulling me closer. It turns its head upward toward the ceiling in an unnatural way, unhinging its jaw so its mouth opens wide. It no longer resembles my grandpa. It’s a tall creature made of darkness, with long limbs as pointed as its teeth.

Glass breaks somewhere in the distance, and something heavy knocks into me. I hit the ground hard, landing on my back with Natalie over me, hands holding down my arms, her legs clamped tight against mine. I recognize this control. She’s trying to incapacitate me.

“Get off me or I swear—”

“What? You’ll kill me too?”

For a moment, I go completely still and glare at her, then I realize something’s off about her appearance—most notably, the large black wings sprouting from her back. That’s when I lose it.

“Get off of me! Get away from me!” I thrash, trying to loosen her hold. The thread ignites between us, and Natalie springs away. I scramble to my feet and get a good look at her. She’s Natalie all right, but different. She’s leaner, but maybe I never noticed before because she doesn’t wear skin-tight black suits to school. Her hair is slick and straight, falling over her shoulders in a sheet. Then there are the wings—huge sweeping black-metallic things that surround her like a halo.

“Get her out of here!”

I freeze—I’d know that voice anywhere.

Shy.

I twist to find him, but he doesn’t look like the Shy I know—his blond hair is silver and falls to his shoulders, and black wings sprout from his back. He takes my place in front of the thing that looked like my poppa moments earlier, two long blades clasped in his hands.

What is going on?

“Go!” Natalie pushes me forward, and someone grabs my wrist. I try to pull away but recognize the voice.

“It’s me,” Thane says. “Do what they say!”

What the actual hell?Did he just tell me to do what they say? Shouldn’t he be helping me fight them?

Thane drags me toward the door, but the creature of shadow screams, and tentacles explode from it, stretching out and knocking us to the ground. Something flies past me—another one of the bird creatures. I scramble to my feet and find the three poised before the creature, blades exposed in the pale light filtering through the thin windows above.

They cut and stab at the creature, but their blades only make it angry, and the angrier it gets, the more damage it does, knocking into shelves and the concrete columns. Jars crash to the ground, choking the air with formaldehyde and dust.

“This isn’t working, Shy!” Natalie says, and my stomach knots painfully, but I don’t have time to comprehend what’s happening here, because the creature’s tentacles flail, and I have to duck to keep from being flung across the room. Thane’s in front of me again, pulling my arm.

“We have to get out of here!”

“Look out!” I push him forward and fall with him, landing as one of the creature’s tentacles rushes over us and crashes into a column. There’s a cracking sound as it comes loose from its place and falls toward us. Thane and I scramble to our feet and away, finding ourselves closer to the fight than we wanted to be.

“Jacobi!” Shy’s voice is harsh as Jacobi propels from his position on the floor. Scythe in hand, he cuts a blow across the creature’s tooth-filled face. Its scream grows louder, and one of its tentacles lifts, smacking into Jacobi and sending him flying against the wall. Shy twists, searching, until his eyes meet mine.

And something in my chest pulls so tight, I lose my ability to breathe.

I know him.

And not in the way I’ve gotten to know him the last week. This is different, deeper. It goes beyond his skin and blood and bones. It’s like my dreams.

I know his soul.

The knowledge shivers through me, and my mind strains to place him. I chase tendrils of memories, but they slip from my grasp, teasing, playful, brutal—and they smell like smoke and jasmine.

What did that witch do to me?

Shy’s harsh voice brings me back to the present. “Get her out of here! She’s making it stronger!”

“Shy!” Natalie warns, but it’s too late. He goes flying, his body flipping unnaturally as he lands in a pile of his own feathers. I don’t go to him, and I don’t run away. I stand, rooted to the spot. Anger, white and hot, washes over me, burning my eyes and skin. I want to smash this thing to pieces for giving me hope, for lifting me from darkness just to crush me.

I want to kill it.

And the thread responds, rising to fit my palm like the hilt of a blade. I don’t know what it does to creatures like this, but I unleash it anyway. It twirls through the air, lancing the creature, looping throughout its limbs. It writhes, jerking and hissing, its body splitting so that light pours through cracks in its shadow skin.

I see it all in slow motion: how the thread twists and tightens, moving methodically through each arm and then diving down into a mouth of teeth, only to burst from its stomach, spewing black oil, but it happens in an instant. The creature groans and falls into a puddle, and my thread reels back in, coating my hand in sticky black tar.

As I stand there, catching my breath, the anger melts, replaced with something far more urgent.

Oh God.What have I done?

I turn to find everyone staring at me—Shy, Natalie, Jacobi, all still in those strange, tight suits, feather wings sprouting on either side of their heads. Even Thane hasn’t managed to close his mouth.

Then the building groans, and pieces of the ceiling come loose.

“Go!” Another quick command from Shy’s lips.

There’s no hesitation this time. We spill outside into the streetlight, and for a moment, the only sound is our harsh breath. Then, Natalie’s voice.

“Shy…”

Growls sound from around us, and when I look up, we are surrounded by five large hounds.

“Oh, come on!” I hear Jacobi say.

While he and Natalie prepare to fight, Shy moves so the hounds have a clear path to me and says, “She’s not hurt. We’re not going to hurt her.”

He seems to think these things are protecting me.

They stay poised for attack, bent low, their jowls pulled away from sharp teeth. Shy cocks his head toward me but keeps his eyes on the hounds.

“Tell them,” he orders me.

These people are crazy.

But my heart is racing, my hand sticky with black blood from a creature that looked like my grandfather come back to life, and I’m surrounded by creatures with wings.

So what the hell.

“I…I’m not hurt. They won’t hurt me.” I repeat what he says.

“You could sound a little more convincing,” Natalie says sharply.

She’s probably right. Problem is, I don’t believe what I’m saying.

I move forward slowly, coming to stand beside Shy, and try again. “I’m not hurt. They helped me… Please…you can go.”

There’s a change in the rumble of their growl, and finally they go quiet and ease up. The five exchange looks and then meld with the shadows.

Well, that was weird.

“They’re not gone,” Jacobi says.

“Of course not.” Natalie’s glaring at me. “Haven’t you figured it out? They’re here for her.”

“Oh my God,” I say. My hands go to my head, and I stare at the four of them, Thane included, because he completes the arc in front of me, an extension of them, hands crossed over his chest, unaffected by their appearance.

“Uh-oh. Quick, shift before she explodes,” Thane says.

I glare at him.

“Can we just talk about the fact that you aren’t freaking out right now?” I ask.

“Oh, for Charon’s sake!” Natalie curses. “He already knows what we are!”

Of course. Lily must have told him this part too. Thane’s arms tighten across his chest. I guess that shouldn’t be surprising—they’re all former friends, right?

“So…did you have a falling-out before or after you discovered all your friends were crows?”

“I resent that,” Jacobi says. “We’re ravens. A little more graceful, definitely bigger.”

“Whatever. The fact is you have wings.”

“We need to get out of here,” Shy says, ignoring me. “The Order will send knights in. That creature consumed a lot of energy. It had to show up on their radar.”

“That’s perfect,” Natalie says. “We can turn her over when they get here.”

“What?” I instantly feel the thread rise to the surface of my palm.

“No,” Shy says.

Natalie gets that look about her. The one where I imagine she’s envisioning tearing someone apart limb by limb.

“Shy, she’s the Eurydice! The Order’s been looking for her!”

“So is Roth, and I don’t trust him.” He turns to me. “I want to hear your story first. Why you’re here. What happened in New York.”

I swallow hard. “New York?”

“We know you’re not from Chicago,” Natalie says. “Figured that out pretty fast.”

My fingers tighten into fists.

Thane looks at me. “I’m not a fan of any of them, but it’s not such a bad thing to have them on your side, especially as the Eurydice.”

It takes effort, but I’m able to uncurl my fists. I take a deep breath. “Fine. Where are we going?”

When I look at Shy, his face seems so severe, I flinch.

“My house.” He turns, spreading his large wings and taking flight. The sight is oddly beautiful. Natalie and Jacobi follow.

I’m left standing with Thane.

“That’s why you know their rules so well,” I say, sounding a little accusatory. “You never mentioned that they were frickin’ birds!”

He shrugs. “You didn’t need to know so long as they didn’t know you were the Eurydice.” He pauses, letting that sink in, and then says, “Let’s go. I hate to admit it, but Shy’s right. This place will be swarming with knights soon.”

Swarming.

Suddenly, all I can think is that I made a huge mistake coming here.