Its wings began to slow, and it appeared to split down the middle, the halves becoming two separate birds. Then those began to split until the stone circle was filled with a flock of tiny flying creatures with their shapes defined only by their shadows in the darkness.
A few minutes passed and I took a step back, gauging the distance between the circle and the wall we’d scaled to get in. They were just birds. I could make it out.
The moment I turned to leave, their eyes lit up like tiny red flares, and they flew out of the circle and swarmed me in a riot of feathers. I covered my eyes when I felt their claws sink into my skin and lift me up. They carried me to the circle and hovered over it as the center stone began to glow and shift to the right, revealing a black hole. When they let go, I tumbled into the dark abyss, eventually hitting bottom.
I lay on the ground, squeezing my eyes shut from the pain of the fall and the burning gashes they’d left on my skin. When I reopened them, I was back where I’d started, staring at the stone circle under a dark sky. But this time it wasn’t filled with tiny birds. Standing in the center was a strange figure with a set of wings that opened and closed with the rhythm of its breath. Crouched behind it was a smaller creature, dark and submissive, the tips of its wings dragging across the stones as it moved.
The light around us grew brighter, allowing me a better look at them. The larger one was no more than three feet tall, and its head was covered with long feathers that trailed down its back and reached the stones, mimicking a mane of hair. Its eyes were difficult to look at. They were almost clear with a faint hint of blue, without pupils. I was staring into pits of ice. The only thing human about its face was its pale skin and its thin lips, which were curled into a mocking smile.
“Who are you?” I asked, even though I had a good idea.
The trees filled with the sound of a thousand blackbirds congregating above us.
“Silence!” The creature’s voice was female, confirming that it was the queen. Who else could it have been? She looked me up and down and lost her smile. “Who the hell are you?”
“Morgan Winterborne,” I replied, trying to steady my shaking hands. “Queen of Clan Winterborne.”
The park went completely quiet. The trees no longer buzzed with chatter, and the Flyer queen herself seemed a little lost for words.
“She’s lying!” One of the birds swooped down from the trees and grazed my cheek with its talons.
I hit the ground and felt the spot as it burned, my fingers bloody when I pulled my hand away.
She looked unconvinced. “There is no queen of the House of Winterborne anymore. Only a king.”
So my uncle had lied to the Flyers. Made them believe he was in charge of the clan now.
“He’s been lying to you,” I said. “Katherine Winterborne was my mother, and she named me her successor, not my uncle Cabot.”
Her thin lips formed into a wicked smile. “Then I guess all you have to do is prove it.”
“Or what?” I asked, my fear skyrocketing as I wondered what they’d done to Hawk and what they planned to do to me.
Her eyes flashed black, and for a second I got a glimpse of something just beneath the surface of her skin that chilled me to the bone. It was the moment I realized she had no intention of letting me leave.
My palm began to tingle as the magic started to build into a glow. She caught a glimpse of it and her mocking turned to anger.
“Or this!” She raised her arm and commanded the army of creatures to descend from the trees.
The sky filled with a flurry of wings and talons until they formed a death squad over my head and blocked out the moonlight. The energy in my hand was so hot it burned. There were too many of them, but if it came down to it I’d fight them, setting as many ablaze as I could until they plucked my eyes out or ripped me apart.
“Hawk will tell you who I am!” I blurted out, praying she’d trust a shifter who, for all I knew, lived among them. “Your army took him right after we entered the park.”
She got a curious look in her eyes when I mentioned his name. “I was wondering what that hawk was doing with you.” After giving it some thought, she gave a command to the cowering creature behind her. “Spatza! Fetch the hawk.”
The creature disappeared into the trees. A few seconds later, Hawk fell from the sky. I thought he was going to hit the ground, but he shifted just in time, spreading his wings and flying back up toward the death squad. Eventually he landed next to me and shifted back. He shot a menacing look at the queen, but he was smart enough to hold his tongue.
“Is it true?” she asked him. “Is this woman the daughter of Katherine Winterborne?”
He glanced at me while he replied. “Yes, she is. She’s the queen of Winterborne House.”
With a wave of her hand, the birds vanished from the sky. “I should kill Cabot Winterborne for lying to me. But that would trigger a war and ruin a beneficial alliance.”
I took the opportunity to get what we came for. “I know a way for you to get a little revenge without ruining your relationship with the clan.” She was intrigued—I could see it in the way her strange eyes flashed with light.
Hawk gave me a warning look, but I was through backing down. She didn’t dare threaten me now.
“Go on,” she said.
“Cabot’s wife was attacked yesterday morning in front of the Winterborne Building. It happened just before dawn, and it was all caught on the security camera. The video shows her being jumped and dragged to the side of the building. Her attacker got away by shifting into a bird, and she swore it was Hawk. We believe the attack was staged, that they paid a shifter to frame him.”
The queen’s curious look turned suspicious. “What does this have to do with us?”
“It’s the reason we came here tonight.” I glanced at Hawk with complete trust in him. “Hawk is innocent.”
“Are you suggesting it was one of us?”
“Possibly,” Hawk said, sparing me from insulting the queen.
Her eyes filled with anger, but Hawk tempered the situation. “We’re not here to point fingers, but I swear on my mother’s grave that I didn’t do this. All we’re asking you to do is rule out your people. Then we can move on to the next suspect. And once we find him, we can prove that Cabot and his wife staged the attack.”
She gave it some thought and reluctantly agreed. “Just to clear our name.”
“That’s all we ask,” he said.
I glanced at Hawk, relieved that we’d accomplished what had begun to feel like the impossible. When I looked back at the circle, the queen was gone.
After finding our way out of the park, we headed back toward the apartment. “Do you really think there’s another suspect out there?”
His face went stone cold. “Hell no. One of those bastards did it. Let’s just hope the queen can ferret him out.”
Chapter 26
I woke to the sound of faint tapping. Hawk was sound asleep next to me when I rolled over and noticed a shadow cast across the bedroom wall. It floated back and forth as the tapping grew louder, and it was coming from the window.
Climbing out of bed quietly so I wouldn’t wake Hawk, I crept across the room, nearly yelping when I saw the winged creature hovering on the other side of the window, eight stories above the street. It was the queen’s cowering servant. Spatza, she’d called it.
Fiddling with the window lock, I finally managed to get it partially open. But instead of entering the room, the creature stuck its hand inside and dropped something on the floor that landed at my feet.
“You were right,” she said in a raspy voice that was barely above a whisper and clearly female. “The traitor has been found and punished.” She nodded to whatever she’d dropped on the floor. “That was his payment, and now it has been paid back.”
I pushed the window open a little more and stepped aside. “Come in.” I wasn’t keen on inviting the strange creature into the apartment, but I was hoping to get more information out of her.
&nb
sp; Spatza let out a bitter laugh before expanding her wings and disappearing into the night sky.
“Morgan? What are you doing?” Hawk climbed out of bed and walked up to me. He grabbed my shoulders and shook me gently when I just stared at the glass without speaking. “Are you awake?” he asked as he shut the window.
“She was just there.” I pointed to the spot where the creature had been hovering.
He glanced out the window and scrunched his forehead. “Who?”
Slipping out of his grip, I stepped up to the window and looked in the direction where she’d flown. “The queen’s servant. The one who dropped you from the sky.”
“What’s this?” He lifted his foot and bent down to see what he’d stepped on.
When I saw the necklace in his hand, I stopped breathing for a moment. “It’s a black opal. The queen’s revenge.”
I took it from his hand and headed for the kitchen to get something to drink. My throat had gone completely dry.
Hawk was right behind me. “Morgan?”
“Have a seat, Hawk. This is your lucky day.”
With a glass of water in my hand, I sat down and dropped the necklace on the counter. “That’s not just a black opal. Rebecca’s father had it custom made for her. She said the stone is rare.” He still seemed confused, so I clarified it for him. “I wasn’t dreaming. Spatza, the queen’s minion, just hand-delivered it to me. She was tapping on the window. Scared the shit out of me when I saw her hovering on the other side of it.”
“Tell me exactly what she said.”
“She said we were right and that the traitor had been punished.”
“Killed,” he said. “That’s how they deal with traitors.”
I continued with the incriminating part. “Then she dropped that necklace on the floor. She said it was his payment and now it was being paid back.”
“That makes sense. Flyers have no use for money, but something like this is worth a fortune.” He picked it up and dangled it against the light. “I bet it was a crow or a raven who did it. Shiny little objects are their obsession. In fact, they’re notorious for stealing jewelry.”
“The necklace is the equivalent to paying off a hit man with a bag of cash.”
“That’s right!”
As excited as I was about the new evidence, we still had a very big problem. We needed the queen to testify that she recovered the necklace from the guilty Flyer. Without that, it was our word against Rebecca’s. She’d probably accuse me of stealing it from her to save Hawk, and since my integrity was already in question, I had a good idea who they’d believe.
“How likely is it that the queen will come forward and testify in your defense?”
He groaned and scratched the side of his neck. “About as likely as a cold day in hell.”
I’d had a feeling he’d say that. Unfortunately, it meant I couldn’t go home until I found a way to convince her to come forward.
Hawk got up and headed down the hallway. “Come back to bed. There’s nothing we can do about it at five a.m.”
For once I was glad he’d be leaving in an hour or two. As soon as he was gone, I was going back to the penthouse to get the journal because sooner or later they’d tear the place apart looking for clues of where I’d gone. I could have kicked myself for forgetting it, and if Cabot got his hands on it, I was as good as dead.
As Hawk sailed into the sky, I vowed that this would be the last morning I said goodbye to him without knowing where he was going. He liked to change the subject when I brought it up, but if he was sleeping with me and hanging around for breakfast, it was time he told me where he lived.
Now that he was gone, the first thing I planned to do was retrieve the journal. If I’d told him I was going back to the penthouse, he would have tried to stop me. Or worse, he would have insisted on going with me. But I would never let him go anywhere near the Winterborne Building before this was settled.
The first thing I had to do was figure out how to get in without being seen. I considered calling Jakob with the burner phone Jules had given me, but the deeper I dragged him into this mess, the greater the danger he was in. If the clan caught him helping me, he’d be gone. I would die before doing that to him.
I headed for the edge of the roof and looked over the wall, considering my options. I had to practice if I wanted to learn how to travel at will, but diving off a building in broad daylight with a sidewalk full of people below would have my fellow New Yorkers calling 911 in droves. I’d find myself in Bellevue for evaluation if the NYPD showed up.
After heading back down to the apartment, I walked over to the living room wall and flattened my palm against it for the hundredth time. As usual, it did nothing but stop when it came into contact with the solid surface.
“What am I doing wrong?” I muttered, pushing harder.
Glaring at the wall, I tried to remember exactly what we’d done the other times when we left for a hunt. Was I missing something? Maybe I was supposed to walk right through it without hesitating. To get a good start, I stepped back to the center of the room. “Have a little faith, Morgan.” I walked straight toward the wall this time, not slowing down a bit, but all I did was slam into it.
“Ow!” I winced, letting the sting subside. “What the hell am I doing wrong?”
Stop trying to walk through a wall.
The familiar voice filled my head. I sat down and went completely still to see if I could hear it again, but my mind went quiet.
You have to let the wall disappear. Visualize your destination before you step.
I jumped up and nearly cried as Monoclaude’s words filled my head again. Had he been there all along? I got a sudden recollection of what he’d said to me the day I found him in the conservatory after all those years of thinking he was dead: I feel dead sometimes. But I’m always here, Morgan.
“Thank you,” I whispered, looking at the wall with a completely different set of eyes. It took a while, sort of like learning how to properly meditate for the first time, trying to find your still point, that point when everything falls away except for that exact moment in time. All the mind clutter disappears and you’re left with the here and now.
Focusing on a spot in the center of the wall, I let the living room fall away and visualized the conservatory full of beautiful blooms. I reached out toward the bright pink flower on the top shelf and had almost touched it when the sound of the ice maker in the kitchen broke my concentration and brought the living room rushing back.
“Damn it,” I groaned, waiting for the sound of falling ice to cease.
When the room went quiet, I tried again. This time it worked. At first it was like walking into a thick fog that resisted me as I tried to go deeper and enter the conservatory, but then I took another step and I was inside.
It felt like I was dreaming. But when I closed my eyes for a few seconds and reopened them, I was still there. I was actually in the conservatory, staring at the wall that used to lead to Monoclaude’s realm.
“I owe you, my friend. I’ll make it right.” I intended to keep that promise when this was all over and I hunted down that murderous crow.
The awe of finally traveling at will was suddenly replaced by anxiety. I had no idea what or who I’d find inside the penthouse. I could be walking into a trap.
My hand began to clench as I stoked my power. If Cabot or one of his spies was in there, I was prepared to use it and get myself declared a traitor. I just prayed I didn’t run into the twins.
I headed out of the conservatory and crept toward the terrace door. The living room was vacant, and I was thankful that the door was open so I wouldn’t have to practice my traveling skills again. I needed to save that for getting out of there as soon as I had the journal.
After slipping inside, I checked the kitchen and found it empty. The coffeepot was still half-full, just as I’d left it, which meant they probably hadn’t invaded the place yet. After a quick look in the other rooms, I headed for my bedroom to get the journal.
As I approached the door, I heard Otto’s voice. “You have a visitor, mistress.”
Already hopped up on adrenaline, my heart started to pump faster, the flow of my blood roaring in my ears. I ran into the bedroom and pressed my back to the wall behind the door, peering through the small gap at the hinges. No one entered the living room.
I muffled a scream when I turned around and saw a figure sitting in the wing chair in the corner of the room. It was Ryker Caspian, and the journal was lying in his lap.
He glanced at his watch and looked up at me. “I was beginning to wonder if I was in the right apartment.” His voice was deep, and he took his time with his words. Then he patted the journal. “But then I found this and realized I hadn’t forgotten the address at all. Where have you been, Morgan?”
“What do you want?” I asked, nervous about someone walking in on us. If they found him here with me, I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, especially with the evidence right in his lap.
He laid the journal on the table next to the chair. “I’m here for you. I would have come sooner, but your mother made that very difficult. She was quite a force of nature, wasn’t she?”
“Give it to me,” I demanded.
He glanced at the journal and cocked his brow. “The journal?”
Trying to hide my nerves, I inched closer and held my hand out. All I wanted was to take the journal and disappear the way I came.
“If you want it so badly, take it.”
I gave him a wide berth as I reached toward the table, his eyes trained on me like a snake poised to strike. But I knew he wasn’t about to let me leave with it, so I opened my hand to give him a good look at the blue light getting brighter as my fear surged.
A smile appeared on his face when he saw it. “Are you planning to use that on your own father?”
“If I have to.”
He threw his head back and laughed, and I used the moment to snatch the journal and run for the terrace. I yanked the door open and ran to the edge, hesitating as I looked nine stories down at the sidewalk below.
Dark Legacy (House of Winterborne Book 1) Page 20
