Chapter 24 – Grey
GREY
The little candle shop is closed when we get there. But I don’t give a fuck. I punch through the glass door, watching as it shatters. The birds on the rooftops rise, filling the air with their beating wings. But we’re in our stone forms, unafraid.
Birds scratch and claw at our stone-flesh, but I move forward into the building. We search every inch of it, looking for a clue, but there’s no sign of Celaeno, or suggestions of where she went if she’d been here.
My anger and frustration rise. The woman completely had me.
I was ready to give her everything that she wanted, anything she asked for.
I had started dreaming of the life we could have together.
I’d accepted we’d have to turn our backs on our people and keep her safe from more attacks from our kind.
And I didn’t care. Anything was worth the price to keep her as our own.
Realizing that she’d used us and betrayed us hurt in a way I wasn’t prepared for. I don’t trust easily, but she’d gotten her little fingers in the cracks of my stone heart and made me forget all logic.
I hated her for that.
I hated her because I knew my feelings for her were more than just attraction, and I was determined to punish her for my broken heart.
Breaking the door to the back of the shop, I squeeze my huge frame inside. I start to tear everything apart but freeze as one of the drawers spills onto the floor. Kneeling down, I see several ancient books. Spell books.
My heart races. Shifting through them, I spot a letter. Pulling it out of the torn envelope, I read the words of a mother begging her daughter for forgiveness. It’s addressed to Sarah. Signed by Candy.
Pieces of this puzzle start to slip into place. I look at the envelope again, memorizing Sarah’s address. Then, I stand.
Maybe Sarah was powerful enough to create that curse alone. Maybe she had help. Either way, she has something to do with all of this, and I’m going to find out what.
Out in the shop, Ender and Journey are still searching, trying to push away the agitated birds without hurting them. I hate that Celaeno has changed us. Because as easy as it would be just to kill these rats with wings, not even I can do it, not after seeing how much she loves them.
“Come on,” I tell them. “I think I know what to do.”
Ender stops waving the birds away. “What did you find?”
“The girl who works in this shop is Candy’s daughter… and a practicing witch. And it seems they didn’t get along.”
Ender stiffens. “Do you think she took Celaeno?”
How are you this na?ve? “No, I don’t think a shifter who can control birds was taken by some little girl.”
“She could be in trouble,” he says, a little more gruffly.
I smirk, even though my chest hurts. “She’s not. Get it through your head; she took off the first chance she got. We just need to focus on finding this girl and stopping the curse. Without Celaeno’s help.”
He shakes his head. “You’re wrong.”
“I guess we’ll see,” I say, waving away birds as I head for the door.
How can my brothers not see that Celaeno betrayed us? Because I know she did, and I’ve also accepted that eventually I’ll have to kill her. Even if it’ll destroy me to do it.
We hurry out of the building and storm down the road. On the end of the next street, dozens of humans are crowded together with guns. I stiffen for a moment. I know our glamour makes us look human, but no paranormal creature likes to see a mob of armed humans.
“They’re going to kill the birds,” Journey says, sounding worried. “I thought we had until Friday.”
“Something must have changed.” Ender can’t hide the concern in his voice. “A lot of people are going to get hurt.”
The protective gargoyle inside me rears its head. Stopping the curse is the best way to help this town, but it’d be nice to try to solve this issue with all the humans safely tucked inside. If they are out here pissing off the birds, it’s going to make this more complicated.
“Journey, go try to reason with them. If you can’t stop them, at least try to buy us some time.”
He nods and starts off down the street.
I turn to Ender. “Let’s fly to Sarah’s house.”
We slip into an alley and use our glamour to completely conceal ourselves from the humans’ sight.
Then we take to the air and fly just above the roads until we spot Sarah’s street.
We follow the numbers until the houses start to spread out on larger and larger lots of land.
When we find her house, we go higher, searching for any sign of Sarah.
Something catches my eye in the woods behind her house. Flying lower and lower, I squint, trying to figure out what I’m seeing. My heart lurches.
The same symbol that was in the cave is on the ground, and someone is lying bloody in the center of it. I shoot lower and only have seconds to realize that I know that dress… it’s Celaeno.
I crash into the ground, and the earth beneath me splits. I can’t breathe. I can’t see anything but her. Lying, without breathing, covered in her own blood. Ender lands beside me and snaps the chains around her feet and hands.
Without thinking, I pull her into my lap and cradle her against my chest.
Ender was right. Fuck, why did I think she’d betrayed us? And here she is, dead because of our stupidity. Dead because my pride made me doubt her, made me not search for her before this happened. I’ll never forgive myself for this.
She suddenly gasps in my arms, and her eyes fly open.
Her instincts make her struggle as she comes back into her body and back into the world.
But I hold her tightly, murmuring things—I don’t even know what.
I stroke her dark hair, matted with blood, and I don’t let her go until she calms and relaxes against me.
The loss of blood has made her even paler. There are dark shadows under her eyes. Her lips move as she tries to tell us something, but her slit throat means the words don’t come out.
“It’s okay,” Ender says. “We know Sarah made the curse.”
She reaches out and grasps the back of my head in her weak grip and pulls me down. Our eyes meet, and I feel some kind of power wash over me. All I can smell is a terrible sourness, and something that whispers of death. The air feels heavy, dark, and dangerous.
With each second the feeling intensifies, and then I realize what she’s doing. “That’s the curse,” I whisper.
She nods, and her hand drops. Her head lolls to the side, but her eyes still stare, almost vacantly.
I look at Ender. “We need to get back to the town. Those humans are in serious trouble.”
“You take her to safety,” Ender begins.
But Celaeno jerks in my arms, her eyes wide. Her movements frantic.
Fuck. I’d do anything to calm her.
“You want to come with us?”
She slumps back and nods slowly.
I look at Ender. “I’ll keep her on the rooftop. Journey’s with the humans, but I have a feeling Sarah will be somewhere she can see the destruction of her curse. Find her and kill her.”
He nods.
We fly straight for the town center. I land on a rooftop, tear off my shirt, and cover Celaeno. She shivers uncontrollably in my arms, but she’s still alert. Her gaze searches all around us.
At last, she points, and I follow her finger. Sarah’s standing, almost entirely concealed, on another rooftop. Birds line the edge of the building, and she leans over it, grinning at the humans.
Journey stands in front of the humans in the street, and I can tell they’re getting agitated. The sheriff steps forward and shoves Journey out of the way, and the humans start walking, guns pointed at the rooftops.
I see Ender not far from us and wave my free arm to get his attention, to point out Sarah, but he’s not looking at me. The witch raises her hands in the air, and I know she’s saying the spell to finally destroy these people. I want to keep Celaeno safe, but I have to stop this!
Still carrying Celaeno, I lift off the rooftop, fly over Sarah, and land behind her. Removing my glamour, I hear her murmuring the words to the curse.
Celaeno struggles out of my arms.
Heart in my throat, I let her go down. She sits on her knees, breathing hard.
“Sarah,” she whispers.
The girl whirls around. She has a vial of blood in one hand, and she looks between us with wide eyes.
Celaeno pants to get the words out. “You killed me, but you don’t want to use my blood for this curse.”
“How are you still alive…? It doesn’t matter.” She looks terrified, but strangely determined. “Nothing matters but my revenge.”
“No—“ Celaeno lifts a hand.
But it’s too late, the woman drinks the vial of blood in one quick movement.
The clouds overhead darken. Lightning splits the sky and thunder roars around us. Every single bird stiffens on the rooftops, and Celaeno’s head falls onto her chest.
The birds lift into the sky and the beating of their wings fills the air.
They block the sun, darkness covering the town like a cloud.
Guns go off in the distance. Birds fall, but the mass remains as one, hovering.
I clench my hands, ready to defend Celaeno from their claws and beaks.
I pray Ender and Journey will be powerful enough to keep the humans safe.
The storm of birds unleashes… and heads straight for us.
Wrapping my body around Celaeno, I pull her to my chest, heart pounding.
And then I hear screaming. But it isn’t the screaming of the humans in the streets below, it’s Sarah. Lifting my head, I stare in shock as the thousands of birds descend upon her, covering every inch of her flesh. Hovering in the air above her like the smoke from a fire.
More shots ring out, but they have no effect on the birds. The screaming is like nothing I’ve heard in my life, blood-curdling. Filled with death’s pain.
And then the screaming stops. The air changes. The clouds part, letting forth a stream of glowing light. The gunshots stop as the birds withdraw. Where Sarah was standing? There’s nothing.
Some of the birds fly off into the woods, but some of them remain. They land near Celaeno.
I tense, ready for anything, but they crowd around her, rubbing her with the tops of their heads.
A sigh escapes her lips, and she pushes lightly from my arms. She lies on her back on the rooftop, stroking the birds’ heads, wearing a blanket of her creatures.
I don’t have a clue what just happened, but I have a feeling… I think the curse is gone.