Page 9 of Claim the Twilight
We stride toward the gates where Charles waits for us. He steps back to let us pass, then closes the gate and falls into stepbeside us. “I’ve radioed operations to open the channel to the white wings again.”
I have no idea what this channel is, but I guess I’m about to find out.
We’re almost at the squat red brick building with the fancy cars parked outside when a whistling sound fills my ears, and every hair on my body stands to attention.
The air grows thin, pulling the oxygen from my lungs, and then a blinding white light lances down from the sky, blocking our path.
It pulses a couple of times before fading out a little. A figure steps out of the light, tall, winged, dark hair windswept, alabaster cheeks speckled with scarlet drops of blood.
What breath I have left whooshes out of my lungs. “Kaster?”
He staggers toward us a couple of steps, then drops to his knees. His wings vanish, his eyes flutter closed, and he topples onto his side.
Lorenzo rushes toward him with a cry of alarm, but I’m rooted to the spot.
Kaster Black is a fucking white wing.
Chapter 4
PADMA
I’m not sure what I’m expecting Dracul territory to look like now that Loviator is free, but normal isn’t it. Aside from the blue shimmering wards in the sky above us, there’s nothing different about it.
Old Town is as busy as it always is, people going about their business as if nothing has changed. Don’t they see the strange shimmer in the sky?
Holly drives the carriage down the parade in Old Town headed toward the road that will cut through the Blissmore Forest and get us to Jacqueline’s mansion.
“I hope Crush got my Raven,” Merry mutters.
I’m not sure if she’s talking to herself or me, but I respond regardless. “If he hadn’t, then I’m sure he would have come looking for you by now.”
She sits up straighter. “You think?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s obvious he likes you as more than a friend.”
Her cheeks go pink. “No. We’re just friends, and he’s…kind.” Her expression sobers. “And now isn’t the time for romance.”
“So you agree that you’ve considered making him more than a friend.”
She shakes her head, then shrugs. “Maybe…”
“I’m sure he got the Raven, but I’m also certain that he’ll come to check on you if he doesn’t hear from you regularly.”
“He hasn’t sent a Raven back, though.”
“I’m sure he will. It’s only been a few hours.”
This seems to placate her, but it leaves me wondering what the situation at Brimswood Park is. How the half-fae clans are coping, and if the Raven did indeed make it past the fae wards to Crush, and if not…why has he not come to check on Merry, because I have no doubt that she’s special to him. You’d have to be blind not to notice the way he looks at her.
“I don’t understand,” Merry says, her head poking out the carriage window. “Everything looks so…normal.”
“That’s good. It means Loviator is too weak to do anything aside from avoid the white wings.”
“But where is she? Where are the white wings?”
“I don’t know.” I’m pissed at Kaster for his lies and for leaving us in the cavern beneath Dracul, but I’m certain that he’ll be in touch as soon as he can.
“No one’s even looking up at the batlings,” Merry points out. “They’re huge. Surely someone should notice them in broad daylight.”
