Page 59 of A Single Thread Of Hope

“I’ve been able to shift to my other form for as long as I can remember. My mother told me that she thought I’d been kidnapped by my father and a puppy left in my place the firsttime it happened. She said that she got none of that newborn reprieve, because I was able to shift and trot around the house within weeks of being born.”

She shuddered, and I knew she was imagining if the babies were puppies. Three of them would be… rough. Then I felt the moment she remembered she was dead. Her whole body went stiff, and the scent of her sadness burnt my nose.

“I’ll get you back there to see them take their first steps, Wren. I swear it.”

She reached up and stroked my cheek. “You can’t promise that, but I appreciate it anyway. We should get some sleep.”

I didn’t care what I had to do, but I was going to keep that promise.

Chapter 32

GRIFF

My mate was dead.

I felt that loss in my soul. I screeched mournfully into the darkness of the mountain range, an outlet for the rage that I’d waited all this time, yet she’d been ripped needlessly from my claws. I was a failure. I had failed her. I had failed my flight.

You’re not a failure, but you are being a giant pain in the ass. You need to go back. Or give me back control.

The human’s voice in my head was becoming irritating. He couldn’t climb down from this height anyway. We’d both failed her; I was angry at him too. And he was angry at me. It was the most at odds we’d ever been, since the beginning.

I wanted to follow her into the afterlife, but he wanted to stay, for the cubs. I wanted to stay for the cubs too, but how could I live with this pain? This gaping wound in my chest where her heartbeat once resided?

I made the most basic nest I could. I didn’t deserve to be comfortable, not really. I deserved to sleep on a bed of rocks and sharp sticks, a reminder of my failure to my nestmates. I was deep in the mountains of Crete. I’d wanted to fly further, maybe right to Olympus, and rend the heads from the bodies ofthose who’d thought to come after my family, but the human had stopped me.

Teron. Use my name. I’m no more human than you are. We’ve lived side by side for millennia. Stop being a prick.

I growled low in my throat. I couldn’t separate myself from him. His grief and anger sat there in my chest beside my own. It made it so much worse, because the only person I hated failing more than Wren was him.

Ignoring his words, I curled up on the cliff face and looked up at the moon. With every beat of my heart, a word echoed around my brain, like it was being pushed there by that now-useless organ.

Failure. Failure. Failure.

Letting my eyes drift closed, I hoped that something picked me off while I slept. I could hear Teron’s heavy sigh, filled with grief and anger. Maybe a harpy would fly down and put us both out of our misery.

I dreamed I was with her in her bed, my head resting on her chest. We were in a castle, not that I’d seen many like this in my lifetime, outside of Teron’s movies. It was drafty and cold, made of stone, and looked enough like a prison, I wondered if I was constructing a Hell around us both. There was no warmth here, no light. Just darkness and chill.

Beside her was the dog form of Cydon, which was odd for my dreams, but perhaps I was mourning him too. He’d been a good flight mate. I hoped he was with her, wherever she was.

Despite the cold, she looked content, which soothed something inside me. She wasn’t in torment. I nuzzled my cheek against her body, but it wasn’t the same. The scent of her was gone, her body cold and dead.

Her eyelids fluttered open. “Griff? What’s wrong?”

“You died, my mate. I mourn.” This was a dream. I didn’t need to mindspeak. I could tell her what I wanted to say, and the whole world could hear it too.

She stroked her hands down my neck feathers, making me purr. I didn’t think I’d ever feel that again—if this was in my dreams, I’d sleep forever.

“Don’t be sad, Griff. I haven’t given up yet. I’m going to come back to you soon.”

I shook my head. “I saw your body, mate. Heard your heart stop in your chest.”

She chuckled. “When has that ever stopped me?” But I knew she wasn’t laughing at my pain. My Wren would never.

“At least I’ll have the memories of you. I can see you here, in my dreams.”

Frowning down at me, she lifted my beak. “Hang on, I thoughtIwas dreaming aboutyou?”

What? Why would my dream mate say that?

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