34
FLYING SHADOWS
Twig sets his hand on Kate’s shoulder.
She stands there like she’s frozen, like her body has forgotten how to move. It might have been the portrait that did it. Or the photographs of Rafe. Or maybe the shadow seeping out of the onyx as I squeezed it in my palm. Perhaps that piece of evidence could’ve been left for another day.
“Kate,” Twig says gently. “Could you give us a status check? Any signs of internal system failure or?—”
Kate inhales sharply. She holds up her hands and says in a high-pitched rush, “I need some air.”
We leave the crypt. We climb the stairs to thecold, fresh air above. Kate sets her hands on her knees and takes big, gulping breaths while Twig and I look at one another with concern.
At least Rafe isn’t here, I think.
Thankfully, I convinced him to leave.
Kate would have enough to process without doing so in front of a pretend college student on sabbatical who is, in actuality, older than the portrait. I can remember all too well how freaked out I was when I made that particular discovery.
I set my hand on Kate’s back. “I know it’s kind of a lot.”
“Kind of a lot?” She laughs a singular reedy laugh. “More like insane.”
“But it’s real,” Twig says, examining the pearl.
He can’t use it.
To his great chagrin, he is utterly human. Not a drop of supernatural blood in him. Still, when Kate sees him turning the amulet over in his hand, she holds out her own in an aggressivestopsignal, like she can’t handle one more ounce of strange.
Her coloring is worrisome.
I think she might be sick.
I’m about to ask Twig if we should have her lie down when a shriek echoes through the trees—a very unnatural, piercing shriek.
A shadow passes over our heads.
Kate grabs my wounded arm. “What was that?”
Before I can reply, before I can even wince, the shadow swoops again, and with a cold flood of dread, I realize exactly what it is.
“Run!” I shout.
Kate doesn’t have to be told twice.
Neither does Twig.
We take off, straight for the woods, as a demon bird from the Overlay dives at our heads. Its talons clamp onto Kate’s shoulders and with an ear-splitting screech, she is lifted into the air.
I grab Kate’s leg.
Twig grabs her other.
With a mighty tug, we yank her to the ground.
She lands hard as the winged monstrosity soars into the pale sky, circles once, then dives again with alarming speed.
Kate screams.
