“Sure,” Joanna said. “I’ll get back at Father,” she hissed.
The rest of the journey to Emily’s favorite tall building in Dallas was silent. Joanna kept her angry face, muttering to herself now and then. Emily allowed her to have her own space, hoping she would sort through her rage.
This was Emily’s first time coming to the building with her own car. She wasn’t sure of what to do, so she asked Joanna.
“They’ll have a valet who can park the car,” Joanna explained.
As soon as Emily exited the freeway and parked in front of the building, a man wearing a red uniform appeared at her side. Emily and Joanna shuffled out of the vehicle, and the man took the steering wheel, handed Emily a card, and drove down the road and off to the right.
“What are we doing here, though?” asked Joanna, looking up at the skyscraper.
“I’ll show you.”
She led them into the building. Emily waved at the ladies at the reception desk, who waved back with wide grins. They jumped into the next available car, which took them all the way to the top. Joanna remained silent all the while, which was a little odd. Usually she was plenty chatty. Emily wondered just what her dad had told her.
They found the service stairwell on the topmost floor, which led them to the skylight, and then they accessed the roof.
Emily marched purposefully for the ledge of the building, but Joanna hung back.
Emily paused. “Come on.”
“Oh, no, Emily, don’t tell me you want to do what I think you want to do.”
Emily smiled. “Yes. But it’s not what you think. We’re both jumping. You and me.”
29
“Are you out of your mind?” Joanna squawked as all color drained from her face.
Emily shrugged. “Maybe.” She was feeling particularly excited. For the first time in a long time, she accepted who she was. She didn’t come here out of a venomous desire to give Selena her five minutes and move on with her life. No, she was here to bond. She was here because she wanted to become The Owl. She finally felt ready.
It made all the difference. She’d swapped rejection for acceptance. She’d shed a desire to remain anonymous for a desire to show off. She’d replaced the fear of what the vigilantes would do to her if they found out for a boldness to do something about this damned warlock that was harassing her and possibly had something to do with her dad’s medical condition.
Oh, yes, she’d definitely lost her mind.
A strong wind came in from the east, swatting her hair to the left. Her clothes wriggled in the strong wind, and with it came an irresistible excitement. It was The Owl sensing the breeze and desiring to soar into the dark clouds. This time it wasn’t trying to pry itself out of Emily’s skin. No, this time it was subservient to her.
Emily sensed it. The change started to occur. As soon as she leaped off the edge, she was going to burst into Owl form. She planned for Joanna to jump with her, and she planned to catch her before she hit the deck.
Do you really believe you will catch her? came Selena’s undeniably cautious voice.
“Don’t make me second guess,” Emily muttered to herself.
“What did it just say?!” Joanna screamed at Emily.
Emily rolled her eyes. “Nothing interesting. Hey, it’s totally safe. You can do this. I got you.”
Joanna approached. “Are you sure about this?”
“Of course. Don’t you trust me?” She extended her hands to her friend.
“I—I—yes, I t-trust you . . .”
Emily took Joanna’s hands and led her to the building’s edge. Together, they climbed onto the ledge from which Emily had already jumped dozens of times. They were probably up to a hundred stories, if not more, up in the air. A fall from this level would be deadly; no doubt about it.
Joanna squirmed, holding on to Emily and burying her face in Emily’s shoulders. Emily, on the other hand, enjoyed the scenery. The way the city of Dallas glowed. With all its tall buildings, twinkling lights, and stretches of highways spread before her like a carpet up to the horizon. It was an expanse of metals and concrete and cars and honking and mad shrills and chaos.
Just like The Owl liked it.
Uh, I’m glad we’re getting time to bond, but eyes on the prize, okay? Selena sounded nervous. This is a training outing, not an adventure outing. We came here to train.
“Okay, Selena, what do I need to know? Lay it out for me,” Emily responded.
Joanna looked up at her. Ever intuitive. “The Owl’s name is Selena?”
Emily nodded.
“Cool.”
Thanks.
“She says thanks,” Emily replied with a smile.
The first thing you need to know about The Owl is that it is impervious to most forms of magic, Selena explained. That’s what makes it a powerful ally. Magic has little or no effect on it, and that includes most warlocks and witches and other creatures that can harness the power of the dead.
“Hmmm.” Emily wrinkled her nose.
“What did she say?” Joanna muttered. She had somehow temporarily overcome her fear of heights. Although she still clung on to Emily, she was standing with her face to the skyline.
Emily repeated exactly what Selena had said.
“Most is the operative word, there, Em.” Joanna sounded worried. “What kinds of magic affect you? What kinds of warlocks possess that magic? And is there any way to protect you from all forms of magic?”
Brilliant girl! Selena praised, sounding thrilled.
Emily rolled her eyes. “Um, buzzkill.”
Joanna didn’t seem amused by her comment. “This is real life, Em. You could die.”
“I got this,” Emily huffed, trying to regain her confidence.
The only way to become permanently impervious to all forms of magic and effectively all kinds of supernaturals is to become—
“Adopted by an Owl,” Emily said, cutting off Selena. Her mood had suddenly changed as she recalled everything she knew about the process. It wasn’t something she wanted to even think about. Because she had ruled it out as something she would never consider.
“What’s that?” asked Joanna.
Emily explained what Selena had said and then what she knew about the Adoption.
Joanna didn’t reply for a long time as she mused over everything Emily had just told her. Emily wasn’t surprised. The chances of death were too high. And just because Granddaddy had done it didn’t mean she could do it. Why hadn’t Mom done it? Could it have been that she knew she couldn’t make it through?
“Something the warlock said,” Joanna muttered, “about you being the Adopted.”
Emily heaved a sigh. She’d tried not to think about that particular phrase. She’d somehow convinced herself that it meant she wasn’t the one in the vision because she’d decided she’d never even consider the Adoption.
“Em, I think you’re going to have to go through the Adoption process,” Joanna said in one of those Eureka! moments. “I think it’s fate.”
“It’s not that simple,” Emily growled. “Right, Selena?”
Right. You’ll need a very powerful warlock or witch to perform the ritual.
Emily repeated The Owl’s words.
“Could that be the warlock in the vision?” Joanna tapped her index finger on her chin. “Could that be why he had you on the altar?”
“No,” Emily replied point-blank. “By then I was already Adopted. This was the actual ritual where he sacrifices the Adopted.” Emily frowned. “He talked about my brother. He said he and I were the key to Nadarog Maragog.”
Selena’s terror exploded in Emily’s mind, causing her to flinch.
Joanna held on to her, lest she fall of the ledge. “What the heck was that about?”
Emily explained about the term and how it makes Selena feel. Then she concluded, “But I don’t have a brother,” and folded her arms. “I’m sure of that.”
Joanna was silent. Even Selena had nothing to say.
Remember what Anastacia said about the warlock and witch gene and the Owl gene being passed down from generation to generation?
“Yeah? What about it?”
Your mum was an Owl . . .
“But Anastacia is definitely no witch,” Emily scoffed.
Are you so sure?
Emily growled. “Please, let’s get on with the training—if she’s a witch, how come the vigilantes don’t burn her at the stake? They’ve grilled her more times than I care to remember. She openly professes to be a supernatural. If she truly was, she’d have been put down a long time ago.”
It’s either she’s a fraud or she’s an incredibly powerful rove, Selena continued. One that could help you defeat this warlock.
“I choose option one,” Emily said. “She’s a fraud.”
Joanna remained silent throughout the whole conversation. When Emily noticed she was being rude to her friend, she apologized, “Sorry about that. Selena can be crazy sometimes.”
Selena’s feeling of anger was strong in Emily’s mind. Emily just rolled her eyes.
I just have one more question, Selena said. Remember when you first told your dad about the message? What did he say? One word.
Emily didn’t have to think hard. “Anastacia.”
Good, Selena cooed. Why?
Emily could feel it in her bones. That Selena was onto something here. Could Aunt Anastacia really be a powerful rove? But how?
I suppose you’ll have to ask her when you see her next weekend. But you’ll need to be careful. If she’s really a rove, then you can’t trust her. And she’s not your dear aunty. She’s an incredibly powerful force of both good and evil.
Emily was still stuck at the part where Aunt Anastacia could be a powerful rove. If this was true, it meant the witch gene had been passed down to her. And if that part was true, then who knew what else was being kept from her? Emily might have a brother. The very thought of this was unravelling. Could she somehow have a brother who was a warlock?
Emily could see how the vision could play out. Anastacia—if, and this was a big if, she was a rove—could perform the Adoption ritual for Emily. If Emily survived, she would be strong enough to defeat the other rove. But if she went up against the rove, she was bound to get captured.
But a brother? Where the heck did that fit in?
Emily didn’t know how she’d feel if she found out that Mom and Dad had another son whom they’d given up or something. Maybe he was in foster care somewhere. Maybe he was even older. Maybe he was the warlock after her!
Focus on your training today, Selena chimed back in. Tomorrow you can worry about the vision.
“Right,” Emily concurred.
Let’s perfect your flight skills and your transformation duration, Selena said. Now, let’s get going.
“Okay.” Without thinking or questioning, Emily shoved Joanna off the ledge.
30
Joanna’s scream pierced through the night sky first, just before The Owl’s whistle rang true as Emily yielded to her true form.
Within seconds, she was diving underneath Joanna.
Joanna grabbed at The Owl’s feathers, and The Owl broke their fall and ascended with a great swoop. Joanna screamed some more as she scrambled to settle on The Owl’s back.
This wasn’t such a bad idea, Selena said. The weight of Joanna on our back should give us the extra muscles we need. Great thinking.
Although that wasn’t the reason she’d asked Joanna along, Emily couldn’t turn down praise.
She took Joanna on a trip around the city first. It took them about thirty minutes to circle the whole of Dallas. When they completed the run, Emily returned Joanna to the building and then swooped straight for the stars while Joanna waited for her on the roof top.
Selena taught Emily a few maneuvers, which Emily performed easily. She then taught Emily a few tricks, like swooping mid flight, dodging, and even commanding the wind.
Emily learned that she had a limited ability to command the wind. It was part of her magic. Naturally, Owls rode on the wind, as did other birds of prey. They could flap their wings, though, but it was speedier and more efficient to work with the wind.
For supernaturals, like The Owl, there was an element of magic to their natural ability. For The Owl, her nature of flight was accentuated with her limited ability to control the wind.
It’s part of your magic, Selena was saying. And if you are Adopted, it is multiplied a thousandfold. You literally become a sky lord.
Emily loved the sound of that. In fact, so much so that it tingled in her nether regions. She thought about the vision and how Selena was visibly missing from her mind.
When I had that vision of the sacrifice—Emily could only speak internally in the form of The Owl—you weren’t in my head. Is there something else I should know about being Adopted?
Selena was quiet for a moment as Emily did a few backflips in midair. She trained so close to the building that Joanna could watch her and cheer her on as Emily bent the laws of physics in the night sky.
The Adoption process is so powerful, or rather makes the human very powerful, because it blends the two aspects of The Owl—human and Owl—into one. That’s why it’s very dangerous. Because you’re basically blending two entities, two parts of the same person, into one. It has a very high likelihood of leading to the destruction of both parts.
But should it work, should the two entities be merged into one, then you have a super being. One whose powers are incredibly magnified.
Emily could observe that Selena still hadn’t answered her question. So she decided to ask it in a different manner. So what happens to The Owl part during the Adoption?
Her very essence is absorbed into the human soul, Selena said in a sad tone. Her individualism is lost within the soul of her human.
Emily felt her heavy sorrow. She could sense that Selena didn’t want to be lost in Emily. And it wasn’t a question of distrust or disgust. It was a matter of wanting to be there for Emily. Wanting to speak into her mind.
We don’t have to do it, Emily responded. I won’t do it.
We might not have a choice, Emily. He might not give us a choice.
Emily had no argument for that. This warlock individual was hell-bent on accomplishing his mission. And here she was playing Superman in the clouds. Emily uprighted herself, even though she knew she was not wasting time but improving on her chances of winning against the warlock.
But what were those chances if she wasn’t Adopted? Only the Adopted stood a chance against a rove.
Emily might have started out hating The Owl—Selena—for even existing. She definitely felt differently now. She wasn’t about to murder Selena, because that was what it was—murder.
Don’t look at it that way, Selena cautioned. It’s an important ceremony for every Owl. If successful, you are literally top of the food chain. You can enforce your right to rule.
Or my right to be sacrificed at an altar to unleash Nada— Emily stopped right there before she invoked the apocalyptic term.
Selena didn’t say a peep.
After this little conversation, Emily had little zest to fly anymore. She did one more run around the city and came back to her starting point in about fifteen minutes. She swooped over the building and dived for the roof where Joanna was standing.
Then she threw her claws forward as if trying to snatch something from the rooftop. Before her claws touched the concrete, they turned to legs. The transformation back to human form was completed in seconds. When she landed, she was fully human again. No feathers were lost. No skin patches were strewn around.
It was an absolute smooth transition.
“Wow! That was sleek and fast!” Joanna applauded.
“Well, it was not always like that.” Emily widened her eyes and shook her head. “It used to take me about three to five minutes j
ust to change back, and it was SO GROSS!”
Things become easier the more you accept who you are, Selena explained. You always struggled with the transformation because you always struggled with your true identity. Now that you’ve accepted what you really are, your struggles are over.
“Right.” Emily pursed her lips.
Joanna had a puzzled look on her face. “Look, I get that you and Selena are constantly having conversations in your mind. But could you, however, not do that when there are other people around? It makes you look like you should be in a padded room.”
“Hey, it’s just you, and you understand.”
“Yeah, it’s still creepy.”
Their drive back to New Haven was filled with excited jabber. Joanna was still thrilled about the trip she’d taken through the clouds, while Emily chirped about doing all those maneuvers in the air and her final race round the city that took only fifteen minutes.
Selena was silent throughout the whole exchange.
Just as they crossed the town limits, Emily told Joanna about what the Adoption process would involve and the sacrifice it would require. She told Joanna she was going to do everything she could to defeat the warlock without becoming Adopted by The Owl.
“Maybe Anastacia can take the rove—if she’s a rove,” Emily thought out loud.
“Yeah, what’s with that, though? Anastacia’s a witch?” Joanna looked confused. She’d heard Emily’s part of the conversation, but not Selena’s.
Emily took her time to fill Joanna in further.
Joanna heaved a sigh, leaned back into her seat, and stared out into nothing. Emily could tell that her friend was deep in thought. She allowed Joanna her space to think.
Finally Joanna said, “This presents an opportunity for us.”
“How so?”
“If Anastacia really is a witch, then maybe there’s no need to involve my dad or the vigilantes to protect you.”
Emily swallowed hard. They hadn’t yet talked about Joanna’s intentions. Emily had thought maybe if she took Joanna on this wild adventure, she’d drop the silly notion. She was wrong.
Adopted by The Owl: The Owl Shifter Chronicles Book One Page 15
