“I don’t. They’re not pets — they’re partners. People think they come back because they’re loyal, but every time they leave my glove, they can go anywhere they want. They come back because they choose to.”
I looked up at him. “But… why would you send her out if you don’t know she’ll come back?”
“Because it’s only right,” he said. “You can’t force a hawk to trust you. You can’t make it stay. You can only give it a reason to come back.”
Why didn’t it feel like we were talking about Hawk’s birds anymore?
I didn’t think it was possible for him to be any more beautiful to me, but looking up at his strong face in silhouette, his gaze scanning the sky for Freya, I thought he was more beautiful than ever.
Now I saw all the things I hadn’t seen in the tunnels: his quiet sensitivity and his selflessness and his complexity.
“You named one of your birds after war and the other after magic.”
One side of his mouth quirked up in a lopsided grin. “Is that a question?”
“It is.”
He returned his gaze to the sky over the field. “Life is both, isn’t it? War and magic?”
I thought about the last three months. The danger and fear of the Hunt. The slow receding of my walls with the Hawks. The discovery of my own physical hunger for them, my desire to push the limits of my comfort zone.
The magic of finding out who they really were.
Of loving them, exactly that way.
“I guess so.”
He surprised me by turning away from the field. “Come on.”
“Where are you going?”
“It’s time for breakfast, mouse.”
“What about Freya?”
“She’s hunting,” he said.
You can’t force a hawk to trust you. You can’t make it stay. You can only give it a reason to come back.
I followed him back to the barn.
20
CASSIE
I tookoff the gear Hawk had given me and we spread the blanket out in the field under the open sky. It was mid-morning and the last of the dew that had clung to the long grass was beginning to evaporate under the autumn sun.
All around Blackwell Falls tourists were arriving from the city, excited for a day of apple picking and hay rides, eager to choose their pumpkins from a pasture instead of a grocery store. They would fill the town and the coffee shop, take pictures on Main Street in sweaters and boots, listen to live music at area orchards and eat local food after filling their bags with apples.
But as I settled onto the blanket with Hawk, nothing but the sound of birds in the distant trees, there was no place I would rather have been.
I didn’t even feel guilty for leaving Kaylee and Drew to handle the shop. They’d proven they were more than up to the task, and I’d started to wonder if Bram was right: maybe itwastime to think about adding a second store in Carlton.
It wasn’t something I could handle right now, but I could almost see a future where it was possible. A future where we’d found the shadowy figures behind Imperium Fratrum, where wewere free of the people trying to kill us and the Hawks and I could be together for real, without the constant threat of death hanging over our heads.
Hawk opened the cooler and I watched with delighted surprise as he unloaded breakfast burritos wrapped in wax paper, containers of sliced peaches and blueberries, and a thermos of coffee.
He’d even brought plates, not paper but real dishes from the cupboard at home.
