Chapter 22
ELLA
MAIER MANOR
Frosty tendrils of breath escape my lips. Swallowing my fear, I start up the stairs of this strange tree. It’s physically impossible, but it feels like I’m entering deeper into the tree rather than higher.
I’m halfway up when darkness swoops in. Blood pounds through my veins as I realize the outer door must have shut. I’m about to race back down when pinpricks of light shine through the bark, illuminating the stairwell in a soft glow.
What is this place?
I continue on, too curious to stop now. The stairwell spits me through a twisted, thorny entrance to an oval room. An onyx floor glitters with slivers of pearl. The walls are twisted roots winding around each other until they arch above my head.
A cry of shock escapes me. A creature sits on a throne of branches and glowing emerald leaves, studying me with bright hazel eyes.
Is it a bird or a woman? I don’t know, but I freeze in place.
She’s wearing a forest green dress, but two giant wings are tucked against her back.
Their brown and blue feathers shimmer in the forest-green glow.
Feathers flare out from the sides of her eyes, and a silver circlet rests on her forehead.
Its sparkles reflect against her cheeks and forehead.
“Welcome, Ella von Maier,” the bird-woman says. “It is about time you arrived. We were beginning to worry you’d never make it.”
“We?”
She nods to the seven ravens perched on pedestals circling the room. They dip their heads in respect. I gasp. These are the ravens I feed.
“I must be dreaming,” I say, backing away. “This isn’t possible.”
“I assure you this is not a dream, but the reality of your birthright.” The bird-woman bats her long, thick eyelashes and smiles.
“I—I don’t understand.”
“Your mother is a descendant of the first of the bird folk,” the woman explains.
“He was a prince in love with a woman, but the malicious fairy, Mazilla, wanted to marry him instead. When the prince returned, she cast a spell on him, making him a bird to keep him from his true love. Yet, love found a way. We’re living proof that true love is more powerful than a curse. ”
My knees give out, and I sink to the ground. I don’t know how to explain it, but something warns me she’s speaking the truth.
“My father was right,” I whisper dimly. “My mother was a witch, and I have her cursed blood.”
As if in anger, the ravens caw at my response.
“Cursed blood perhaps, but you are no witch,” the bird-woman says. “The time has arrived for your transformation to begin.”
“What transformation? What time?” I rise to my feet. Horror washes my world into shades of gray. “You mean for me to turn into a bird? Like you?”
“Now you understand.” The bird-woman taps her talons on the throne’s armrest. I stare at them.
“No,” I whisper, choking on the memory from the nixie pond.
“The moment you are called to enter the tree, it means your time of transformation has arrived.”
“What if I don’t want to transform? There has to be a way to stop it.”
“There isn’t.”
“But my mother. She wasn’t a bird. She didn’t look anything like you.”
“Are you sure? She was my sister.”
I gasp. “So you’re…you’re my aunt?”
“Now you’re thinking. My name is Fiona, named after our great-great-grandmother.
I’ve been watching over you since the moment my dear sister flew into the heavens.
Unlike her, I can’t fully transform into a human.
This is as human as I can be. As bird folk, most of us have the gift of being able to fully transform into a bird or take on a human form.
Unfortunately, some of us can’t shapeshift fully or even ever.
” She gazes off to the side, her face contorting as if in pain. “Or perhaps they don’t wish to.”
A million questions batter my mind. “Are you saying my mother was able to transform from bird to human? Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She fell in love with a merchant, your father, but was too afraid to tell him the truth. I told her not to have anything to do with the man, but she wouldn’t listen to reason.
She was able to hide her bird form from him, but then she became pregnant.
We didn’t know how the bird-folk blood would affect you.
” Fiona rises from her throne and picks up a wooden goblet from a table.
“When she moved here, I couldn’t stand the thought of being separated from her, so she took a seed from the ancient tree of our family and planted it here for me to live inside. ”
“And who are you?” I stare at the ravens. “Are you also bird-folk?”
“No.” Fiona begins petting one raven’s thick black feathers. “These seven brothers have also been cursed. They were searching for their home. I invited them to reside here for as long as they wish, but theirs is another story for another time. Now I want you to drink this.”
“Absolutely not! I don’t have proof that what you’re saying is true.”
“I’ll be honest with you. Everyone’s transformation is different. For some, it’s extremely painful. For others, it’s a passing pain. Since you’re a half-blood, I’m not sure what will happen, but it will happen soon. Tonight or perhaps tomorrow. We offer this drink to help with the pain.”
“How do I know you’re not trying to poison me?”
“It’s a brew of pine needles, oak bark, and water from a fresh spring. Please, for your sake, take it.”
She holds out the goblet. I eye it suspiciously. What if I never transform? Or worse, what if she’s tricking me and that drink actually stimulates this horrible curse?
“You don’t have to do this alone,” Fiona says. “I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
“I don’t want any of this.” I shake my head. “You must be mistaken because Mother and I were very close. She would’ve told me. She wouldn’t have left this world without telling me.”
“Or maybe she did, and you just never listened.” Fiona stares at the bluebird necklace hanging from my neck.
Her words stab me in the chest. Instinctively, I clutch the pendant that has always calmed me when I’m upset. I spin on my heels and stumble down the stairs, tears streaming down my cheeks.
I pound on the bark. “Let me out!”
Thankfully, the door swooshes open, allowing me to escape this horrid place. Once outside, the cold steals my breath, and the rain lashes against my cheeks, freezing my tears.
I sprint across the field toward the manor. My world is shattered. Nothing can fix that.
I return to my room and claim a headache instead of having to do needlework with my stepsisters. The entire afternoon, I curl up under my covers, tormented. Will I get wings like my aunt? I touch my eyes, imagining the feel of feathers replacing skin.
Maybe I’ve finally lost my mind. Or worse, Fiona is trying to manipulate me like Scarlet did.
When dinner time comes, I drag myself out of bed and change into a midnight-blue dress.
My hands shake so hard, I’m forced to call Jesse to help me button up the back.
Jesse must sense my dismal state because she insists on braiding my hair and twisting it into a crown on top of my head with the rest cascading in curls down my back.
“You look positively divine.” She kisses me on the forehead. I’m about to head downstairs when she takes my hand in hers. “Whatever happens, I believe you’ll always be the true mistress of this house.”
I stare at her sadly. Would she still say that if she knew I might transform into a bird? Or that she might not have a job tomorrow because I don’t want to marry a stranger? Probably not, but I squeeze her hands. “Thank you, Jesse. You’re like family to me.”
“There’s something I need to tell you.” Jesse fidgets with the ties on my dress. “Frau von Maier won’t be happy if I told you before she did.”
“What is it?”
“Dr. Wissen stopped by,” she whispers and glances behind her as if the walls themselves have ears.
“I was curious about what he was like since some of the staff went to work for him. I pretended to be dusting outside your father’s study.
Dr. Wissen signed a contract with your father, and then the two shook hands as if they were making a deal. ”
My pulse misses a beat. “But that could be a deal over anything. Perhaps Father sold off our two cows? Dr. Wissen has plenty of land for cows.”
“Dr. Wissen gave him a coin as a symbol of his pledge.”
“He didn’t.” I sink onto my dresser stool.
It’s customary for the father and bridegroom to sign a contract upon betrothal and then for the groom to give the father a single coin as a symbol of his pledge.
“He couldn’t have pledged my hand in marriage without my consent.
You must have misunderstood the situation. ”
“Yes, that must be it.” Jesse nods quickly. But her eyes tell me otherwise. “Or perhaps one of your stepsisters is to be married. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
As I head downstairs, I hear laughter and voices in the drawing room. One of those voices sends my heart racing.
“Jacob,” I whisper, my steps quickening. If there’s anyone who would understand what I just went through, it’d be him.
My entrance silences everyone. Stepmother takes in my hair and dress, frowning. Bertha, who is perched close to Jacob on the settee, gasps in annoyance when Jacob rises and bows. Meanwhile, Marianne lifts her eyebrows in amusement.
“You look lovely tonight,” Marianne tells me. “I’ve gotten so used to seeing you wearing soot-smeared dresses or the help’s cloaks, I was beginning to think you preferred servanthood.”
The blood in my veins ices as I dip into a bow. Did she see me wearing Cook’s cloak earlier? And if so, did she see me enter the tree?
“Hello, Ella,” Jacob says. “I came to visit you and finally had the chance to meet the rest of your family.”
“Good evening. It’s wonderful to see you.” I sit in an empty chair by the far wall.
“He was telling us he was studying at the University of Marburg, but the king commissioned him to hunt down the wolves in the area,” Stepmother says. “Those beasts are a nuisance.”