by Abra Ebner
My anger boiled over. “It’s none of your business,” I snapped.
Jake leaned back dramatically, his hands floating in the air between us, his palm facing me. “Whoa there. Snappy much? Clearly you haven’t gotten the forty days of rehab under your belt. I’m just reading the information you’re leaving out for me to see.”
I glared, looking away from him and out the window. An owl landed on the gate in front of us, catching my attention. It was the same owl I had seen on Wes’s car, I was certain of it. My attention perked, my mind flooding with the incident.
Jake laughed. “Here, watch this.” He pressed a button on the visor and the gate began to lift.
The owl rode the gate as it lifted straight into the air until it could hold on no more and was forced to fly off. I was amused, realizing it was nothing more than a glorified security gate, meant to keep humans out.
“Where are we going?” I ventured to ask again, no longer within the comfort of the familiar streets of Glenwood.
“Where else? We’re going to Winter Wood.” Jake winked. “You wouldn’t stop thinking about it in class, and I’m one to keep my promises.”
Wes:
I drove out of the lot, wondering where the owl went and realizing that having my feathery girlfriend follow my real girlfriend around was rather shrewd, not to mention text book soap opera. How would I find either one of them? The day was testing me. I picked up my cell, trying to give Emily a call. It felt like ages went by between each ring, then her voicemail. I didn’t bother to leave a message.
Where are you?
I hung up and pressed down on the gas, angry with the world. I took off toward the abandoned road I’d found so comforting last quarter, thinking I’d park there and take to the forest on more ‘agile’ feet.
I put the car in park and stepped out onto the gravel road, overgrown with weeds. Almost immediately, I heard the cry of an owl. Looking to the sky with hope, my owl spiraled down, her markings like a name, in and of itself. Flapping her wings, she landed on the hood of my car. I winced, the sharp sound of it sending shivers down my spine.
“Would you stop that? You’re ruining my car.” I pointed to the scratches, but she didn’t seem to care, tilting her head at the sound of my voice and finding it more interesting. I shook my head. “Fine, have it your way.”
She chortled, hopping toward me across the hood, her every step like fingernails on a chalkboard.
“I’m going to call you Trouble,” I added. Lifting one brow and trying to glare. “You’re nothing but trouble.”
She chortled again.
“Did you see where Emily went?”
Her chortling continued on like a sentence, but it grew deeper in tone.
I laughed. “Jealous much?”
She stopped talking and her feather’s fluffed.
“You seem more like a Stella to me. How’s that? Do you like Stella? It’s a total heart-breaker name.” I stopped myself, the mere act of naming my stalker-owl a sure sign that I was officially loosing it.
She did nothing, just watched me.
“Stella it is.”
I shed my leather jacket, tossing it onto the front seat of the Camaro before shutting the door and locking it. I took my keys and hooked them under the front right wheel-well.
Stella’s yellow eyes blinked and I smiled, finding the fact that she couldn’t read my thoughts refreshing, even if she was just a bird. I stepped away from the car.
“If I fly with you, will you take me to Emily?”
Stella blinked a few times, but it seemed she was complying. I don’t know how it was she was able to understand me, or I her, but I figured my nearness with the animal kingdom made our body language speak words our mouths couldn’t. I studied her, taking in the essence of what she was.
My hands began to sting, the feeling spreading up my arm and moving faster and faster with each change I made. The feeling overwhelmed me as I caught myself mid-air, flapping my wings before I hit the ground. Whoa. I hadn’t attempted to be a bird since my first change into the raven. It was awkward.
Stella tittered excitedly, dancing across the hood. I squawked at her angrily, trying to get her to leave my car alone. She finally understood, taking flight along beside me, diving close and trying to nip at my feathers—she was flirting.
I squawked again, conveying that I also wanted to be left alone—I wanted to find my real girlfriend, and the one I actually had an attraction to. At least the love portion of the animal instinct didn’t carry over—I had no primal feelings toward Stella. Thank God.
Stella changed course, now seeming to concentrate on the task at hand, and not her crush. She dove sharply, and it took all my skill to follow, my wings shaking and moving rapidly, jostling me about. She was good at this flying stuff, but then again, flying for her was like breathing.
We ducked through a misty cloud, and the forest below us opened to a road. At first the road looked abandoned and useless, but as we followed it, the gravel slowly gave way to pavement and then eventually shrubbery lined sidewalks joined in. I was confused. How did a road go from condemned to gorgeous? It was then that I was further confused by a lavish iron and stone gate, a sight I’d never seen before.
Stella cut down through the air, fluffing her wings as she landed softly on the iron rungs of the gate, at least fifty feet tall. I tried to do the same but overshot, finding myself gripping the gate with one foot while the rest of me spun around and slammed into the planking below. Hanging upside down, I let go, dropping clumsily to the ground with a ‘whack’. My wings were little help when it came to trying to right myself. I cursed under my breath, but it came out as a squeak instead.
Finally finding my footing, I stood, looking up at the gate as Stella flapped her wings and re-settled them against her body. In thick block lettering against the planking, words read, ‘Winter Wood.’
Shocked, I stepped back, wanting to take it all in—this place was real. The gate was sturdy, arching cleanly in a half circle. Two giant stone obelisks held the hinges, and a simple latch fastened the gate shut. The sidewalks behind us continued under archways on either side, each fit with a door.
Stella chortled at me, pulling on the gate as though urging me to move onward. She took to the air as I did, following her over the gate where the road continued ahead. We flew low, and soon the trees parted and the road fed down into a giant bowl in the mountain. Timber buildings and small board and baton houses crowded the otherwise forested bowl, about three miles across. The main road we’d followed into the mountains cut right through the middle of the small town, ending with a large building that resembled the capital building in Washington, D.C..
There were perfectly manicured small evergreens lining the road, each sparkling with what looked like small white lights, though upon closer inspection, there was no wire. Windows were frosted with the cool air at this elevation, bodies walking the streets, looking no different than regular humans, at least from this distance. For the most part, the town appeared no different than any other town, but I knew better than to believe that.
How had no one ever seen this before?
We flew down the center of it all, cars bustling below us. I was afraid to look too closely, afraid to see too much too soon. Stella tilted to the side, diving onto a side street and cutting through an alley past a large red dumpster. Up ahead, something red caught my attention. In front of a grey row house with red shutters sat the car I’d seen Emily leave school in.
Stella fanned herself down onto a flowerbox outside one window, its flowers still blooming, also bright red, despite the fall weather. Stella’s feathers fluffed and she turned to me, expecting me to land beside her. I held my breath, trying to fan the air and slow down. I reached out for the edge of the box, tripping only slightly and grazing the window with the side of my body—thump!
Stella scratched at me, seemingly annoyed. If I could shrug, I would, hoping she’d finally seen me for what I really was—a klutz. Stella’s head t
wisted back to the window. I followed her yellow gaze. It was a kitchen, and in that kitchen sat a table. Emily was perched there, staring at the both of us with her mouth agape. A boy was at the table with her, leaning back, his arms crossed against his chest. The smirk on his face ignited a fire inside me, a feeling deep and untrustworthy. Analyzing him, I found that there was something vaguely familiar about his features, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I knew they had left from school, so, who was he?
Forgetting myself, I tapped my beak frantically against the glass. Emily stood, placing a mug she’d been holding on the counter. She pointed to the left, urging me to follow her direction. Stella shook out her feathers, looking bothered by Emily’s presence. I hopped down from the box, making my way to the left where I found a red door.
It swung open.
“Wes!” Emily gasped, her cheeks pink with embarrassment.
I couldn’t help myself as I let out an angry squawk, forcing back my desire to change into a lion and rip the boy with her into to pieces.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed in a hushed tone.
I wanted to ask her the same thing.
Max:
“Can I get two Buffalo Doubles with Munchers, please?” Max turned to me. “Anything else?”
Just hearing him say the words was bliss enough. “That’s not all for me, is it?” I knew Max never really ate, and I didn’t want to pig out on two Buffalo Doubles right in front of him.
“Of course not.” He smiled and turned away. “That’ll be all.” He finished ordering and sat back.
I tilted my head. “So you eat now?”
He shrugged. “Sometimes it sounds good, but it doesn’t satisfy anything because I’m not hungry. It’s like when you’re sick and you don’t want to eat, but sometimes you still want to. I’m not dead, Jane, just moving very slowly.”
I giggled. “That’s so unreal.” The car fell silent as my gaze remained on his face. He had a sexy half smile, his eyes looking across the lot and beyond. “What are you thinking about?”
Max’s blue eyes washed over me. It was as though an ocean breeze had fallen across my skin, though it was just a look. I shivered.
“I’m thinking about your question about soul-mates.”
I remembered then. “Right. You said they were real. What’s the story?”
He took a deep breath. “Well, a long time ago there was one being, the first being on Earth, so to speak. It was neither a man nor a woman, it just… was. Try to picture that, can you?”
I twisted my imagination, trying to see this combined beast. “Okay?”
Max went on. “According to Aristophanes, this being was strong, confident, agile and—well—cocky. Not a big fan of authority, this being tried to lash out against the Greek gods, thinking he could defeat them. The gods were angered by this, but knew that if they destroyed this being the live sacrifices the being had been providing them with would cease.”
I laughed. “Ah. Politics… always about what you’re getting out of the deal.”
Max nodded. “Well, the gods had a pow-wow and decided to weaken the being by splitting it apart, thus creating twice the number of beings for sacrifice, while also weakening them by half. This is when man and woman were created, but because of the split, they shared one soul. That’s where the term soul-mate comes from. We are destined to roam Earth, searching for our other half in order to feel complete again. Over the centuries, the task has become close to impossible.”
I blushed, thinking of us. “Like a puzzle.”
Max’s eyes skirted away from me and he smirked. “I guess you could say that.”
“So, do you think I’m your other half?” I touched his arm, sensing a sweet tingling in the touch. It was that reaction that told me we were soul-mates, but I wanted to know what he thought.
“I do.” He caught my eye. “Like I said before, there was something about you that first time I saw you in the Truth, something I couldn’t let go of. I knew it before your father ever asked me to save you. I’d known it long before the Truth showed me who you were. In a way, I feel as though deciding to stay behind as an angel was advantageous to my goals of finding you, my soul-mate.”
My heart was pounding now.
“We live many lives, Jane, but very rarely do we find our true soul-mates. They say we continue coming back—reincarnating—in order to find each other. We do not really move on to the Ever After until we reach this goal.”
My words had been stolen from me. I suddenly felt a purpose, an intense connection to Max in a way I hadn’t before. I believed what he said because I felt it. “How do you know we don’t truly move on?” I whispered.
He touched my chin. “Peter told me that story soon after I saw you in the Truth. He had researched the validity of it extensively because he believed this was the case between him and my mother.”
“Do you think he was right?”
Max shrugged. “Sometimes I see people after they pass, in Seoul, just on the other side of the river that splits the In-between, or Seoul, from the Ever After. They’re waiting. Once a soul has met its true mate, it stops reincarnating, and if one life dies, they wait in the first stage of the Ever After until the other can join them. I’ve never seen Patrick there, though, or my mother. I believe they are no longer waiting and have descended deeper into the Ever After to their final place. I only hope it’s because they’re together.”
It was magick, the very essence of what we were.
Emily:
I heard Jake approach from the other room. “Hello, Wes.” He arrived at my side, looking down at Wes as an owl.
Don’t provoke him, Jake, I whispered in my thoughts, as though Wes could hear, but of course he hadn’t. “Do you have some clothes he can borrow?”
Jake looked at me with an annoyed expression. No, he answered, once again secretly.
Come on, Jake. Please? I begged.
He’s a shifter, he protested.
I tilted my head. Just do it.
Jake complied as he turned back into the house. I heard him climb the stairs. I stood alone with Wes, our eyes locked, his mind racing with a million questions.
“No, Wes. I’m not cheating on you. And no, he’s not hitting on me, either.”
Wes looked noticeably fluffed.
“No, Wes! He didn’t even touch me, okay? …Who is he?” Wes was flooding my mind with questions. “That’s Jake Santé. Can you believe that?”
Wes tilted his feathered head. His eyes were still the same, the very thing that had given him away.
“I know, right? It is crazy!” Wes shifted his weight “No, Wes. I’m positive he didn’t touch me. Besides, I can see you’re with that owl we saw on your car. What’s that about?”
Wes’s eyes narrowed, telling me his answer.
I laughed as hard as I could without alerting the whole neighborhood. “She has a crush on you?” I could tell Wes wasn’t too pleased with my mockery. “And you named her?” I tried as hard as I could to stop laughing. “Wes, that’s weird!”
Jake returned with a stack of clothes, looking at the both of us strangely before joining in with my laughter, learning all he needed by searching my mind.
Wes hopped into the house between our legs. Jake motioned him in the direction of the powder room, still chuckling. He placed the stack of clothes on the counter and shut Wes inside.
“Jealous boyfriend you’ve got there.” Jake lifted a brow, his suddenly sharp features accentuated in the dim light of the hall. His eyes glimmered with a veiled light as he walked past me, brushing my shoulder just enough to send a tingle down my spine.
I shook it off and slid up to the bathroom door. “Wes?” I tapped with one finger, figuring that by now Wes would be back in his human form.
I heard rustling—a feathery rustling.
“Wes, what are you doing? Hurry up.” I pushed my hands into my pockets and leaned against the door, waiting.
A few minutes later there was a gasp as though
Wes had just surfaced from water. I could hear him moving about inside the bathroom, human again.
“Wes? Are you alright?” I was trying to read his thoughts, but they were knotted. “Wes?”
“Er… yeah. I’m fine.”
I knew better than to believe him, but I also knew I was on thin ice as it was. Aggravating him at this point was relationship suicide.
Wes:
I was sweating, trying to think of a million things other than what had just happened, hoping that it would confuse Emily and leave her unawares. I looked at myself in the mirror.
“Get it together, Wes,” I whispered to myself, keeping my thoughts running in a constant stream of mediocrity so that Emily wouldn’t sense that something was wrong—baseball, homework, weather.
I heard a murmur from somewhere else in the house, recognizing Jake’s voice.
“Yeah, Jake. Be right there!” Emily yelled, still behind the door.
Baseball, homework, weather…
“Hey, Wes? I’ll just be in the living room, okay?”
“Sure.” I swallowed, trying to gather my voice once more. “Be there in a minute,” I forced the words.
“Okay.” There was noticeable concern in Emily’s voice, but I heard her footsteps walk away despite that.
I turned back to the mirror, leaning my hands on the counter. Why was it so hard to change? It was as though a voice was telling me not to. It was begging me like a chant—Stay. Stay. Stay.
I took a few more deep breaths. Distracting myself, I unfolded the clothes. As I fished my legs into each pant leg, I already knew they were three inches too short—Great, Capri’s. At least the shirt was loose, though clearly not adding to the fact that my ankles were showing like a woman. I grumbled and pulled on the socks, finding one had a hole that was beginning to unravel on the heel.
