Authors: Kaye Thornbrugh
But he
was interrupted by
a sharp rapping on the window.
A
glossy black crow
was perched on t
he outside sill. It hopped along the sill
, flapping its wings and pecking at the grimy glass.
Filo
hurried
across the room and heaved the window open. The
crow
fluttered inside, landing on the floor between Nasser and Filo. Its
black eyes glittered
and its feathers shone.
There was a soft rushing noise, like a gust of wind, though no breeze stirred the musty curtains.
In a whirl of shimmering air
, the
crow
became a tall, strong-looking
woman who stood with her arms crossed over her chest, eyes narrowed at Filo.
Black wings arched from her shoulders, partially spread.
Her face was hard and angular, and her short black ha
ir looked almost like feathers. A
thick,
jagged scar ran from her left temple to her chin; on her face, it looked more like a decoration than a disfigurement, a badge of some kind. She was dressed in a tight-fitting black tank top and black trousers that fell just past her knees. Her hands were clawed like
Neman
’s
,
but Lee barely had time to notice that before she began to scream.
The short-haired woman looked startled. Then her expression hardened into fury. She whirled toward Filo.
“What’
s this?” The woman’s voice was as harsh as her gaze. She pointed toward Nasser and Lee in turn, making quick, stabbing motions in the air that Lee almost felt.
Her limbs were slim but powerful; Lee noticed the
taut,
wiry muscles of her arms.
“
Morgan
,” Filo stammered. He
was very pale. “T
his isn’t
wh
at it seems like
—”
“Don’t lie to me, Filo Shine!” the woman,
Morgan
, squawked
, in an accent like
Neman
’s
. She shot one
clawed
hand out and grabbed
him by the throat
,
hard
. He just squee
zed his eyes shut. “Stupid boy! Did I not punish you enough the last time you let the traitor in here?”
Morgan
released Filo
, then shoved him so that he fell ont
o his knees.
Filo
raised his arms, as if expecting a blow.
Instead,
Morgan
kicked him sharply in the
ribs
, hard enough that he
yelped
in pain. She rounded on Nasser then, seizing him by the shoulders.
“
You
,” she snarled, shaking him roughly. Nasser was
a head
taller than
Morgan
, and
broad-shouldered
, but he didn’t struggle against her. In fact, he didn’t move at all. “Filthy urchin! Do you think
you will
go unpunished again?”
Nasser’s gray eyes widened
as
Morgan
’s talons sank into his shoulders, and his mouth opened, but no sound escaped. Dark patches spread across his shoulders,
staining his burgundy shirt almost black,
but he remained motionless, paralyzed.
Lee’s screaming was endless, but she heard herself only dimly, as if from very far away. She scrambled across the bed, pressing her back against the wall, as if sh
e could melt into it
.
“I saw this days ago.”
Neman
’s dreamy voice reached Lee, and her screa
ming faltered
, quieting to whimpers and sniffs. “I didn’t say anything for precisely this reason. I would have hated to miss your display,
Morgan
. You have such a fascinating temper.”
Blinking,
Morgan
stepped back from Nasser and
stared at
Neman
. Her tal
ons were bloody. “
This is
your
doing?”
“It’s hardly my work,” replied
Neman
. “You’re the one who frightened the girl, and now Filo will be flinching all day.”
“Meddler.”
“No more than you. Is this not the fun you’ve been missing?”
“Filo,”
Morgan
growled
. “Stop
the girl’s
crying
. It bothers me
.”
Filo hesitated, as if unsure of what to do.
“Do it now!”
Morgan
barked. Filo flinched a little.
Shoulders braced, Filo stood shakily and edged to
ward Lee. She
shrieked and flailed at him. He retreated to the window.
“You freaks!” she
shrieked
. “You sick freaks! All of you!”
Her vision blurred, but whether it was from the tears burning in her eyes or from the dizziness threatening to overcome her, she couldn’t tell.
Neman
crossed the room and perched on the edge of the bed. Lee drew her knees up to her chest and
hugged
herself, wriggling as far away from
Neman
as she could.
“Would you go this way,
Neman
?”
Morgan
asked, frowning. “Is this the road you choose for us now?”
“I see no other road, sister—at least,
not one so interesting
.”
Morgan
said nothing. She simply nodded once, and that was it.
Lee tried to speak, her eyes fixed on
Neman
, but her throat
was too tight
for any sound to escape
. She didn’t resist when
Neman
took
Lee’s
left arm with surprising gentleness, and turned it over.
With one talon,
Neman
traced a curious shape into Lee’s palm and the base of her wrist. Blood welled to the surface, outlining the shapes in striking red that glimmered in the sunlight. But Lee felt no pain, only a glowing sensation that spread through her whole body.
The glow filled her, washing everything else away
, until Lee’s fear and confusion and anger were gone
. Looking so closely, Lee saw that
Neman
was
beautifu
l after all, beautiful like
broken
glass: She was sharp and dangerous, but also exquisite. Dark universes revolved in her eyes. Lee’s every cell quivered.
Black and white flashes, like clips from old movies, tugged at Lee. They grew brighter and more detailed, coming faster and faster, and Lee had seen the
m all before. The world had
torn itself apart
, and she
watched
the fragment
s rain down like a shredded film reel.
Lee
felt as if someone were cutting carelessly through her brain, jabbing at the backs of her eyes,
without thought
of what was disrupted in the process.
Her
eyes fell shut, and everything changed. The film pull
ed together and played backwards
, too swiftly to comprehend. Whole scenes were omitted. Frames jumped wildly.
People
were trees, and trees were
people
, and the grass was alive. Fantastic flowers towered over Lee’s head as she strolled through a garden all in colors she didn’t know, a canvas of bark tucked under her arm. Paintings flowed effortlessly from her fingertips. Music made her dance. The shadows shifted, the wind sang, and all was commanded by the beautiful being
s
that
held hands and danced in endless, starry circles.
The film flickered to a halt on the face of a
green
-haired girl with wide,
leaf-shaped
wings. Her head was tilted, and when she spoke, Lee heard flowers opening, and trees growing, and sunlight coming down. Cut to a young man, impossibly beautiful and glowing from within, with hair like a cresting black wave and burning emeralds for eyes. He said nothing. He said everything. He
smiled
.
A river of images raged through Lee’s mind, threatening to tear her apart, but there was no pain, only a speck of light in the back of her mind that grew steadily brighter until she was blinded by white-hot clarity.
And then it stopped.
For
a moment, as the film faded
and her vision returned, Lee’s body
seemed
incapable of registering it. Her throat
felt
jag
ged and raw. Static
tingled over her skin.
Then she passed out.
* * *
When Lee opened her eyes, a dozen Nassers did a slow spin in front of her. He was sitting on a chair beside the bed
where she lay
, looking down at her. He smiled, and she saw that his teeth were slightly crooked, the teeth of a boy who had never worn braces. Even so, his smile was a nice one: sweet, and sort of disarming. A light gray sweater had replaced his bloodstained shirt.
Lee
pushed herself upright, wincing at the throbbing of her head.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked, offering her a plastic cup.
“I think so.” When she reached up to take the cup, she was surprised to see that her left hand and wrist were wrapped in
clean white
gauze. After a moment’s serious inspection, she took a sip from the cup, and nearly choked.
“Is this
salt water?
”
Lee sputtered, coughing.
“Yeah,” Nasser confirmed, like it was a common thing.
“Why did you give me salt water?”
“You’ve been in contact with faeries. Drinking salt water will help break their hold on you.” He paused, then leaned toward her and whispered, “Urine actually works better, but I figured you’d prefer the salt water.” He flashed her a shy, almost goofy smile that made it impossible to frown at him.
She looked down at the cup, unconvinced. “This won’t do anything funny to me?”
“No. You’ll feel better. I promise.”
Lee hesitated, then took another
swallow
. She grimaced at the taste, but Nasser looked pleased.
“What
happened?” she asked, glancing around. She realized that she was in the same room as before. Filo and the
two women weren’t around
.
“
Neman
surfaced your mem
ories for you,” he explained. “They could’ve
taken ages to return on their own.
It was actually pretty nice of her—which is weird. You know, for her.
”
“
Neman
,” Lee
r
epeated. “Long hair, right?
Morgan
had the short?”
He nodded. “I looked at the runes
Neman
cut into your
skin
while I
was wrapping you up. M
emory runes
. S
he used them to focus
your mind on
the revel.”
“Runes?” Lee echoed, feeling dumb.
“You know. Symbols, used to represent—”
“I know what runes
are
. It just
sounds crazy. Like magic or something.”
“It
is
magic.”
Lee frowned. “No, it’s not.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because magic
isn’t real.”
Every time L
ee
started to recognize the
magic in her midst, she felt she had to
fight it
, le
st she utterly lose her mind.
“How else would you explain it
what you saw
? Or
Neman
and Morgan having wings
?”
Lee sat silently, staring at her bandaged hand. She could tell from the
neatness of the wrappings
that Nasser had taken care when he wrapped her hand.
“After
Neman
cut me,” she began slowly,
“I saw
…
flashes.
It was
all
n
onsense
, though
, upside-down and backwards. But I
recognized
it, even if it’s
fuzzy now
,
like I’d seen it
before.”