Above the Ashen Clouds (Twisted Worlds #2)

25. Cat

Chapter twenty-five

Cat

“ N o one is going to wonder why we’re going to see birds?” I asked, keeping my steps even while matching Zariel’s long strides. We were high in the mountain, higher than we had ever been before. It was after dinner and near the hour when we would normally be in bed, and the halls were desolate. The air up here was thinner than where we generally stayed, and I found myself out of breath. Zariel had debated leaving me in his chambers, but he said that a newly mated male, walking at night without his mate, would cause more questions than if I went along. Even though I was huffing and puffing the whole way.

“They might wonder.” Zariel gestured for me to keep walking.

“And if we’re stopped? ”

“There’s a viewing window on this floor where we can see out of the mountain, flanked with statues carved from mermaid tears. The effect is that there are little images on the glass, reflecting the moment that they fell from their host.”

“… What? Tears?”

“Yes. Needless to say, they’re quite valuable.”

“Of course.” I coughed. “Solid tears and all. Who wouldn’t want that in their home?”

“Better than the statues in the White Hall. The ones carved out of giants’ bones.”

Those I knew of. The moment I learned about that was when I stopped assuming that anything here was carved out of rock. “I’m not arguing there. Anything is better than bones.” I put a little pep in my step. “I’m excited to see the statues,” I said, mostly to get into the character of a frivolous human.

He gave me a coy grin. “Don’t worry, the birds typically aren’t guarded, and their caretakers are off duty. Who are we going to send messages to here?”

“So no mermaid tears?” I whispered.

“Probably not.”

I had to trust that Zariel knew the workings of this mountain. He didn’t want us to get caught any more than I did. “So the plan is …”

“Go inside, admire the birds—pet the birds—tie one of the message pouches on a bird once we’re sure no one is looking, and send it on its way. ”

“Right … because the bird is going to find its way across the country, to a place they have never been before.”

“They don’t travel fast, especially if this land is as large as you say, but these are rooks. They know where to go.”

“Rooks. Right.” They were smart birds from Zariel’s home that understood speech, and not basic Earth pigeons. Still, it would take the bird a good month or two to get to its destination, from what Zariel said. And then we’d have a couple more months of waiting to hear anything back, or get what we were looking for. That was assuming the elves even had the manuscript in the first place and were willing to help us. The angels’ kingdom was originally too far from the Darkening Woods for them to have any strong feelings about each other, but that didn’t mean they were allies. We were counting on the fact that the elves probably wanted to go home just as bad as the angels did.

I glanced at Zariel’s cream tunic, where the short letter we had scribbled in his room was tucked against his breast. It was addressed to King Vanir, the elven King of the Darkening Woods, a realm where the elves bonded with death itself. Their realm was cloaked in an eternal fall, and each one of them had a skeleton for their non-dominant hand.

Sounded quite grisly.

“Here we are,” Zariel said, not bothering to hide our entrance. This was a situation where it was best to move in the open—if someone was here, it was better we find out right away .

“Wow,” I said, taking in the aviary. It wasn’t an aviary so much as a giant atrium crafted in the same stone and snow-like ash as the rest of the mountain, home to dozens of birds the size of bald eagles. Alright, “rooks” definitely meant something else in Zariel’s world. The birds cocked their heads and watched us come in, blatantly curious about who had interrupted them, and I had the feeling I was being judged. It was like walking into the cafeteria in high school, suddenly being aware that your clothes weren’t in style. But from birds.

“We raise them from eggs, and we take steps to make sure that they’re immune to the ash,” Zariel said. “And we do our best to give them as much autonomy as possible. Hence, they aren’t trapped in the mountain. They are free to go.”

“How are they immune?”

Zariel squirmed. “You’ll see.” He looked around. We were alone, except for the birds who stared at us, still judging. Apparently, no one stayed on hand to tend to the birds at night. Though Zariel was right—it wasn’t like there was anyone for the angels to send letters to. Have these birds even flown away from the mountain in the last five years? Zariel said that a few letters went out here and there, especially in the beginning when they were trying to make sense of what had happened, but nothing like the stream of communication they were used to.

“I have a task,” Zariel said softly to them. “Who wants to go to the Darkening Woods?” A pause, and then chaos. The rooks rushed towards him, pecking at each other, fighting, tearing feathers, and raising a storm of cries and feathery down. Should we stop them? Should I say something to Zariel? What if they hurt each other?

Suddenly one bird screeched, sending a chilling cry that made my skin crawl. The other birds instantly backed away, heads bowed. Our messenger was victorious. The rook, whose head came up to my waist, waddled to Zariel and stuck out a leg, offering to receive the message.

“Alright. Thank you.” Zariel quickly tied the message around the bird’s foot and then offered the bird his hand, fingers outstretched.

“What are you—shit!” I cried out.

The bird bit Zariel, drawing blood and somehow lapping it up with its hooked beak, all while Zariel grimaced.

“Are you ok? Zariel—”

“It’s fine, Cat,” he said with a wince. “Sorry, I should’ve warned you.”

I covered my mouth with my hand. Damn. If anyone saw the blood on Zariel, they’d know what happened. That bird was going to leave a distinctive mark, with a hooked beak and all. I looked around the atrium. Were we alone? Yes, we were alone. Except for the birds. But something was off. Was someone watching? We had to go.

“Zariel …”

“Thank you,” Zariel said to the rook, as politely as thanking a favorite waitress. With measured movements Zariel guided the rook over to the window and opened the slit, which hung loose on a hinge. That was apparently it. The bird took off into the night, and with it, our message and our hope.

“We did it?” I asked.

“We did.”

There was no point in staying to watch the bird—that was a job for the jealous rooks who weren’t chosen. Instead, he took his clean hand in mine and led me out of the aviary and down the hall, away from the chattering birds, whose screeches when we left matched the frantic pace of my heart.

That couldn’t have gone any better. The message was on its way, and no one stopped us. We still hadn’t met anyone. We succeeded.

Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

I frowned when we didn’t go back the way we came and instead took a right at a fork in the tunnels, taking us deeper into the mountain, away from the path that would’ve let Zariel fly us down.

“Where are we going?” I asked. All of these tunnels were eerily similar, for all that the carvings varied. There were only so many ways one could carve conquering, dancing angels. Though I had to give them credit for creativity.

“Do you trust me?” Zariel asked.

“Yes. Of course.”

“Do you trust that I will only act to protect you?”

My brow furrowed. “Yes … why? ”

Zariel stared straight ahead. “I have an idea to keep you safe, to give you what protection I can. And to possibly keep us together. I spent most of the day thinking about it, and I’m afraid that tonight might be our only chance to do it. It could easily be now or never.”

An idea? A chance? What was he talking about? What could he possibly do—

“The runes,” I said.

He paused. “You’re my mate, bound to me. We can do things with magic that others cannot. And if you’re willing, I’d like to share them with you.”

Share his magic—angelic magic—with me? It made sense why he was offering—why wouldn’t he want to share his magic, such as it was, if it could keep me safe? At the very least, it would bring us closer, maybe let me know where he was. And it would be a part of him , something placed on me forever, no matter what happened with us.

“I’d have more experience for my dissertation,” I said, mostly because if I could count on one thing, it was being painfully practical. Hell, if I had the runes, I’d have enough material for a dozen papers.

Zariel chuckled. “And that is why I treasure you. Your studies come first.”

“No, you come first. But the studies are a close second.”

“Fair enough.” He moved behind me and rubbed my back with his hands, careful to avoid touching me with his injured finger. God, what I wouldn’t give to have those hands someplace else at that moment. Someplace with bare skin.

“Are you willing, Cat?” he whispered in my ear. A tingle worked through me, my body quickly shifting to desire.

“Will it hurt?”

“… It’s bearable.”

That was exactly what my gynecologist told me before inserting my IUD. She lied. This, at least, would give me magic.

“What the hell,” I said, my mouth braver than my mind. “I’ll do it.”