Page 303 of Knot What I Expected

Higher.

Higher.

My wings beat once.

The force bends the trees.

Again.

Flames spiral around me without burning the forest.

And suddenly—I understand.

Not everything.

Not yet.

But enough.

I have spent my whole life hiding from this creature. Fearing her. Thinking she was the thing that made me wrong.

Ethan called her a freak. The Wake wanted to control her.

But she was never wrong. She was never broken.

She was waiting.

Waiting for me to stop being afraid.

I look down.

Rowan.

My mate.

My heart.

A sound builds inside my chest.

Not a scream.

A song.

I open my beak. And I sing.

The sound is ancient. Sacred. It rolls across the mountain, and the forest itself seems to bend toward it.

Leaves tremble. Branches bow. The air shimmers with heat.

Everything living goes still. Listening.

I lower myself over Rowan.

My mate looks so small from this body.

So fragile.

Impossible.