Page 32 of Straw and Gold
I walked to the cliff’s pointed edge and waved both of my arms up over my head.
She hesitated a few moments more before shifting into a speck of gold in the morning light. Her flight was slow across the sky and more than once she dipped suddenly, her wings wavering and tilted.
I found myself at the very edge, leaning toward her as she dipped again.She wasn’t going to make it. My heart thundered in my chest and my scream erupted across the valley as she began to fall, twisting in a haze of golden feathers to the forest floor below. I bolted to the nearest tree, calculating each shift until I shot out of the tree line underneath her.
“Morella!” I screamed, lining myself up to catch her.
Her golden raven body fell into my arms and I cradled her to my chest. Her head hung limp and her chest heaved. Alive. She was alive and breathing.
I sifted through the trees, shuffling through them one by one in a matter of seconds before stepping out of our bedroom doorin the castle. Still cradling her in my arms, I opened the door and called down the hall. “Get Captain Fedir!”
Rushing to my bed, I laid her raven form gently on my pillow. Her shift was languid as she came back to her Ravenfae form, her eyes closed and still catching her breath, books in hand. “Morella?” I urged, brushing the sweat soaked hair from her brow. “Can you hear me?”
Nodding slightly, she blinked, pulling herself up to sitting. “Water?”
Fedir approached the bed, thrusting a cup into my hands and I held it to her lips.
She swatted my hand lazily, took the cup, and drank. “I almost made it,” she mumbled in a short, humorless laugh.
“Why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t make it across?” I snapped. “I would have taken you had I known?—”
“That I’m too weak of a flier to span such a distance?” she finished. “I might have been able to make it under different circumstances.”
She took another long gulp, setting the cup down in her lap.
“What circumstances?” I urged furiously.
Her brows furrowed. “Why are you so angry?”
“You could have died!”
Eyes widening, she seemed to come to a realization. “Oh.” Lifting her gaze to Fedir, she darted her eyes between us. “No. No, I wouldn’t have died. I’ve fallen many times mid-flight and have had plenty of broken bones to prove it. If I shift at the last moment, I can slow the…the fall.”
“You didn’t shift,” I gritted between my teeth. My head snapped back to my captain, jerking in the direction of my study.
“I’m on it,” he muttered, hurrying across the room and leaving through the yellow door.
“On what?” she insisted. “What’s the problem? I told you I would have made it under different circumstances.” She laid herhand on my arm. I felt the cold chill of her tremble through my shirt.
“What circumstances?” I asked again, taking her hand and burying it under the warm blankets.
She scoffed. “Different ones.”
“Enlighten me.”
“I-I just haven’t eaten well since I got here, that’s all.”
I bolted from the bed, flipping open her trunk. Her gowns and shoes had been placed in her wardrobe along with most of the jars she’d brought, but a few pieces of glass, blue paste, and her nuts littered the bottom. I picked one up and studied its structure between my thumb and forefinger. “You said you need these to feel normal. Why?”
She shrugged, sliding her legs slowly over the side of the bed and slipping off her shoes. “It’s the only thing that seems to help how strong I feel.”
Fedir returned with two books in hand. Rising from the trunk, I took one, nodding at the title.
“There’s one chapter about Ravenfae history in here and this one,”—he held the thin book in front of my face—“has some information on all winged faekind. Though very little. I read it when you asked me to look into… ah—” His eyes darted to Morella, who rose on jittery legs. “When you had me looking into types of faekind before.”
Morella came closer, leaning in to read the title of the book I held. “A Partial History of the Fae of Revelry?” She placed her hand on my forearm again. “This isn’t a Ravenfae thing. It’s a Morella thing.”
“What do you mean?” I snapped the book shut, handing it to Fedir, instructing, “On my desk. Keep looking.”
