Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
“What are you doing here?” Leo asked.
The raven stood in the snow before Leo, staring up at him. She opened her black beak. Three surprisingly shrill calls echoed, followed by several clicks.
Leo had just finished up working at the Christmas markets and was heading home. His feet hurt, and his limbs ached from exhaustion. It had been a long fucking day. He couldn’t wait to drop into bed.
“Sorry I don’t have any seed on me. It’s back at the bakery.” Leo patted his pockets and then started walking.
She hopped along beside him. Leo wasn’t entirely certain that the raven was a she.
There had been some discussion and guessing inside the bakery after the raven visited.
Kit said he sensed the bird was a she. With no better information, Leo was going to have to go with that.
Who knew, maybe cat shifters could sense that sort of thing.
“Oh. I see your game. Come with me to the bakery and get seeds.” He laughed. “You really are a clever bird.”
The raven took flight. But she wobbled in the air, movements awkward. Leo frowned. She landed gracelessly in the snow. She ruffled her feathers. She cawed.
Leo ran up beside her. “Is something wrong with your wing? Are you injured?” He knelt. He tried to get a better look at the wing. But in a dark alley with few street lanterns, that was practically impossible.
“Why don’t you come home with me and I can check on you better? I can carry you. I’ll try not to hurt your wing.” But as Leo reached out, the raven hopped away.
Well, at least her feet weren’t injured. Leo walked at a slower pace so the potentially injured raven could keep up with him. At a fork, Leo continued walking the way home.
The raven hopped the other way.
“No. This is the way home.” Leo pointed. “This is where the seed is.”
But she just hopped further down the other lane. Then she stopped, looked at him, lifted her head, and cawed.
“What? I don’t know what you want. I don’t speak raven.”
She cawed again. Then hopped two more steps, stopped, and watched him.
If she were his familiar, their bond would allow him to actually feel what she felt, and vice versa. In this situation, that would have been extremely helpful.
She continued to hop down the lane. After a few more steps, she stopped, looked back at him, and cawed again.
“Do you want me to follow you?”
She clicked.
Leo sighed. “Fine. But you better not be leading me into some bloody trap where I end up robbed of my coin and clothes.”
Leo followed her. She hopped down the lane. Then down another. She seemed to know where she was going. At least, Leo hoped she did. Because Leo felt pretty fucking ridiculous following a raven around the city, in the snow, in the middle of the night, when he should be going home to bed.
“How much further?”
She didn’t answer. Just hopped around a corner.
Maybe she was leading him to her nest or her mate. Maybe they needed help.
She flew to a stack of broken crates piled up on one side of a narrow and cluttered alley. She perched on top of them and clicked.
Leo climbed over rubbish and more broken crates. The scent of smoke and ash lingered in the air. The raven stared into his eyes. Then she looked down behind the crates.
He leaned against the wall to see behind them. He had to close one eye. He spotted something bright moving on the ground. Maybe it was trapped.
The bird made a light trilling sound.
Leo’s brows lowered. “That doesn’t sound like a raven.”
He moved around, knelt in the snow, and stretched his hand towards the bird. His fingers grazed the warm, fluffy creature. Strangely, the bird jumped onto the back of his hand and walked up his arm. He pulled his arm out and…
“Bollocks and broomsticks! What the fuck are you meant to be?”
It was a cute-looking chick with a bright-red beak and big, round orange eyes. They blinked at Leo. Brilliant orange feathers stuck out from its body and head. It opened its red beak and trilled.
Leo chuckled. “This is no raven.”
The raven croaked.
“Then what is it?”
The bird began to crawl up his arm towards his shoulder. Leo took it in his hands, cradling it against his chest. The bird nestled against him.
Leo smiled. “Well, whatever the fuck you are, you’re very sweet.”
Maybe it had lost its parents. He glanced up to the rooftops. Maybe it had fallen from its nest. But if it had, Leo was surprised it had survived such a fall.
Surprisingly the bird wasn’t cold despite being out in the snow on its own. It was actually really warm. Maybe it had a fever?
He spent a couple of minutes searching around where he’d found it to see if he could find a nest or any other birds. He saw nothing. But there was lots of rubbish and dilapidated crates and barrels. And urine. He could definitely smell urine.
A cat darted away as Leo looked behind a barrel. He wondered how close the bird he carried had come to being that cat’s supper.
“I better take you home with me,” he said to the strange little bird.
He’d look after it as best he could tonight. He would give it to his brother Briar tomorrow. Briar had better experience looking after injured or orphaned animals.
“I assume this is what you wanted to show me?” Leo said to the raven as he walked back the way they’d come.
The raven cawed again, hopping alongside him.
He smiled at the raven. She would definitely fit in with his family. They had a tendency to care for those in need. It was all a part of being a hearth and kitchen witch. He’d ask the raven to be his familiar soon.
“I’ll check on your wing when we get home. If you’ll let me, that is.” At least the raven didn’t look like she was in too much pain.
Leo stopped walking. Something was happening in his hands. He pulled them away from his chest. His mouth fell open. Because the chick in his hand had doubled in size.
It trilled.
Then it continued to grow and grow. It grew bigger than his hands. And still the bird grew.
The orange feathers turned to shiny and sleek orange and red feathers. The bird went from surprisingly warm to burning hot. When the weight became too much, he lowered the bird onto the snow, which immediately melted around it.
“What the fuck?” Leo didn’t know if he should run away. But the raven hopped around the growing bird, clicking and croaking excitedly.
Finally the bird stopped growing. It hunched on the ground. Its feathers trembled and shook. It was bigger than Leo! The orange and red feathers glowed.
Licking his dry lips, Leo put a hand on the bird’s back. “Are you all right?” he asked, not having any idea what to do in such a situation.
The trembling stopped. Slowly the bird raised its head, stretching its long neck. A plume of red and black feathers stuck up from the top of the bird’s head. The bird turned its head and blinked its brilliant orange eyes.
Leo couldn’t speak. The beauty of the bird had robbed him of all thought.
On wobbly legs, the bird stood. Leo stood too.
“What are you?” Leo whispered in awe, staring up at the bird.
Then the bird began to shake. Leo placed a hand to the bird’s soft feathers. “What’s happening?”
Leo cried out and tore his hand away from the bird’s scorching feathers. Flames licked along the bird’s body.
Leo stumbled back. The raven cried out and hopped away.
The great bird lifted its head, eyes wide. It opened its red beak. Fire shot upwards.
Leo gasped.
Suddenly the wings flapped open. Bursts of flame shot out from the bird.
“Pissing potions!” he cried out as he dodged.
Then as quickly as they’d started, the flames shooting from the bird stopped. The bird held completely still, as if frozen in place.
Leo glanced around. A few of the barrels and crates had caught on fire. With a cry, he dashed towards them. He dragged them away from the buildings and other debris, piling the burning crates and barrels into a single pile so they could burn out without burning down the whole bloody alley!
He turned back to the bird, who remained completely still.
Then the bird collapsed onto the cobblestones in a heap. Immediately, it began to convulse.
Fucking frog guts! Now what is going on?
Leo moved closer but kept his distance. He didn’t want to be hit with fire. The raven hopped up beside Leo, watching the other bird.
The orange and red feathers disappeared. The wings and neck retracted. Limbs shifted.
A naked man lay face down on the cobblestones.
Leo dashed towards him and placed a hand on his back. “Are you all right, mate?”
The man slowly pushed up onto his hands and knees. Leo wrapped an arm around him and helped him up.
Leo glanced up at the pile of burning crates and barrels. That fire had come from the bird. His mind turned as things slid into place.
Firebird. The bird was a firebird. A phoenix.
He looked back to the man, watching as deep-red hair sprouted from his head.
This man is a phoenix.
His stomach tensed as a certain inevitability settled in his gut.
The phoenix lifted his head.
Shit.
“Lord Percival Everflame.”