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I'll meet you in the forest. In the half light between daylight and dusk, we will meet. But first, you must spread your wings and fly, child.
That wasn't Ulean.
In a daze, I climbed higher, listening to the strange voice crooning to me on the wind. Ulean began to howl, shrieking in some tongue I could not recognize, a cry of joy and feral pleasure, and her mania buoyed me up.
Higher I climbed, until I reached a branch a good forty feet off the ground. I edged out on it, shaking the snow off to the ground as I stared at the darkening sky and began to shed my clothing. I dropped my jacket and shirt, watching them plummet to the ground, then without thinking, shimmied out of my jeans and panties, and they, too, fell away to the bottom of the tree.
Shivering, I crouched naked on the branch, holding on to nearby limbs for balance. The clouds parted then, a thin sliver to show the brilliant moon shining through. Below, the mist was rising, rolling along the ground, seeping up the trunk like a blanket of soothing smoke.
Under the cloak of cloud and stars, I gazed up at the heavens, unable to think, unable to put words to my thoughts. The necklace beat a staccato tattoo on my soul, the music swirled around me, notes flooding the wind, and the call was too strong. I couldn't ignore it, couldn't shake it off. Inhaling a sharp breath, not knowing just what I was doing or why, I let go of the branch and went into free fall, heading toward the ground.
As I whistled through the air, something began to shift, and my body twisted inside out. A blink of an eye, and I was gliding silently on the currents, wingtips wide, zebra stripes of black and white. I opened my beak and let out a call, and the screech echoed through my body, raspy and shrill and enough to scare the hell out of every rat and mouse that might be hiding in the yard.
Then it hit me--I was aloft--in flight--gliding through the yard toward the woodland. But the ravine and the forest glowed with a light I'd never seen before, and I veered to my right, avoiding the tree line. There was something in there, something nasty that set traps for owls like me, and I wanted no part of it.
I sailed effortlessly, turning on a wing to glide back toward the house, seeing everything from a vastly different perspective but still retaining my sense of self. In fact, I felt far clearer than I ever had. The necklace still dangled around my throat and I knew that if I wasn't wearing it, I'd shift back into my human form again.
Sweeping over the house, I spiraled, circling around, then coming to land on the bough of the oak. There, near me, the great horned owl perched on the limb, talons gripping the bark. His eyes were whirling as he watched me. I could swear that I saw a tenderness in them, a welcoming home, and I let out another shriek and he answered.
He leapt off the tree, gliding low through the mist, and I followed. We flew in tandem, turning, twisting, spiraling aloft through the fog bank, then swept up again and across the face of the moon, as the true meaning of freedom flooded through my body. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else could mar the expansiveness of the world.
For sheer joy, I did a barrel roll and headed toward the ground, pulling up just in time. The horned owl followed me and we danced our dance. At one point, I saw Kaylin standing on the porch, my clothes in his arms, as he watched us cartwheeling on the wind.
Ulean, are you here with me? I'm flying!
You are, my child. You are coming home to your true nature.
What do you mean?
There is time enough for that. We will talk later. For now, explore your new freedom, child of the wind. And she laughed and her currents carried us forward as she rode the slipstream with us.
We passed through a host of spirits gliding through the yard and they dove to all sides, looking terrified as we shattered their composure.
Can they see us?
The other owl answered. Yes, ghosts and owls are closely aligned. We are the creatures of dark magic. We ride in the wake of the Bean Sidhe. We bring tidings from the dead. Ghosts and spirits are part of our heritage.>"You'd best get her out of here." Heather turned to me. "Now."
Too numb to even blink, I turned sharply and motioned to Leo, who jumped forward to grab Rhiannon by the shoulders. He wrestled her back to the house.
"Heather." I took one step forward, looking to see if Peyton was with the others. I couldn't see any sign of her, though. "It's true then. You're one of them."
"Technically, I belong to Myst. She made me an offer I couldn't refuse." A vague look of discomfort crossed her face. "Cicely, they've asked me to speak to you tonight."
I glanced at her companions. Two women, two men--obviously born into the Court. Their skin bore the same cerulean cast that we'd seen in those at the Marburry Barrow. And Heather . . . she was a vampire now, with magical powers. Their slave.
"Why did you let them turn you?" I couldn't help the words, they flew out of my mouth like a swarm of moths toward a light. "What could they possibly offer you to make you give in to them?"
A soft smile spread across her face. "Sometimes, we are given choices. And sometimes, the choice we make is not one we would choose for ourselves, but one we make for others."
Listening to her words, trying to read the wind behind them, I could sense her hidden meanings. She had been backed into this choice.
The lesser of two evils. Ulean was by my side. She chose Peyton's life over her own.
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to sort through the illusions. Kaylin, standing beside me, rested his hand on my shoulder and I drew on his strength, welcoming the flow of energy that shored me up.
"Why are you here? What do you want?"
Heather bowed her head. "We bring you a warning."
