Feather: Book One

by Abra Ebner

  I let out an irritated snarl as I looked to the next page for some other clue. As I curved it over, I was discouraged to find the image was just as inconspicuous, the cat was drawn from a distance, entering a cave with caution. With hast I flipped to the next page, but I found nothing. The pages from there on were blank as though the nothingness of the cave had swallowed the rest.

  I let out a disappointed breath as I slammed the book shut in my frustration, walking with it hooked under my arm as I entered the small sitting space. I threw myself into the chair where I held the book close to my chest, staring at the group of friends and foes before me.

  “What aren’t you telling me,” I hissed under my breath, glaring with bitterness at my face in the painting.

  My gaze shot toward each male with an accusing glare, even Edgar. Each had the potential to be a killer, but then, as I looked into their eyes, they all had a glimmer that was void from Matthews, something I recognized to be love, pure and enduring. It had frustrated me that there were no clues in the painting, no hints toward the brutal end besides his sinister glare. I had scanned the thick layers of paint for what seemed hours, day after day, but still nothing.

  A warm sensation was filling my chest and I found myself startled as I looked down at the book in my grasp. The feeling had been so subtle that I hadn’t noticed it at first but to my surprise, it was warm. I knew when I had sat with the book that something had been strange, but it hadn’t registered as a feeling from the book, but a feeling from me and as the fire in my soul died, the books warmth was now taking over. I squeezed it tighter to my chest, relishing the feeling as though it were another soul.

  I began to doze as I sat there, the comforting space closing in around me like a protective shroud, much like being in Edgar’s arms. As things began to fog and my eyes grew tired I was jolted awake as I heard a distant, yet distinct, meow. I shot my eyes open where I scanned the room with urgency. Sitting up, I tried to discern if what I’d heard was a dream or real. I sat perfectly still, my ears now tuned into the noises around me.

  Irritated again by the distracting and inconvenient ticking of clocks, I struggled to pay attention. I jumped as the grandfather clock in the hall began to chime, my breathing heavy and my heart beating like a drum in my chest. Then, between two echoing gongs, I heard the meow again, this time long and whiny as though angry or threatened.

  I shot up from the chair, the book dropping to the floor as I rushed to the rail. I listened again and this time, a distinct growling snarl came from the greenhouse. With a sudden surge of haste and energy I ran around the perimeter of the library where I stumbled down the ladder, careful not to create too much noise. I skidded to a halt just outside the door of the greenhouse, scanning with wide and wary eyes.

  Isabelle was perched in a threatening manner on the edge of a table with her wings spread in a defensive pose. The white cat was cowering on the floor before her with its ears pinned back and its eyes glinting in the sunlight, its pupils a sharp white. I blinked a few times, my mind allowing the cat to become a real thing, not just a figment of my imagination. The cat spat at Isabelle as it swatted at her with its claws. Its fur was standing on end and I noticed how it seemed to glow, even whiter than the snow itself.

  “Isabelle no!” I yelled, and the cat broke its iron gaze from Isabelle to me. Isabelle’s eyes stayed fixed on the cat, her beak open with hate. “Isabelle!” I yelled, “Stop that!”

  She lunged toward the cat with a fake hop as her talons dug deeper into the wood of the table. The cat hissed, cowering even more before glancing at me with a defeated face and turning to run. It leapt through the glass with a careless effort, its paws splashing through the heavy drifts with ease. Before I knew what I was doing, I took off after the cat, glaring at Isabelle as I ran by, telling her to stay put with my angry eyes.

  I burst through the door of the greenhouse, ignoring Edgar’s warning as it was ripped from the glass. Suddenly, the house disappeared behind me and my breath began to fog in the frigid air. I scanned the field with frantic eyes, finally catching a glimpse of a bobbing tail leaping into the trees. I took off after it, my new strong body and sharp sightenabling me to keep up with its rapid gait.

  I leapt over the log, shielding my face from branches as I entered the woods. In my desperation, the trees tried to help, lunging their branches at the cat as it dodged over them, as though anticipating every attempt. Edgar’s voice boomed across my memory, his angry face contorted as he’d warned me to stay inside. I pushed the thought away, concentrating only on the cat’s tail.

  A shadow flew overhead and I pushed my eyebrows together in irritation as I saw Sam looming above me, his giant wings cutting through the air in long delicate strokes. I watched as he cut and dove to the left with a sharp gust of wind and I looked away, still desperate to follow the cat.

  Surprised, I watched as the cat skidded to a stop just ahead of me. It turned to face me, its eyes frantic but harmless. I quickly halted, my bare feet slipping on the snow, fighting for balance as my hands flailed around me. The cat began to trot toward me, its face trying to say something, something foreboding and urgent. The cat then cowered, its gaze diverting from mine as it looked behind me.

  The shrill cry of a raven cut through the air and the hairs on my neck rose with instant fear and I whipped my head around, terror paralyzing my body. The cat began to back away, its fur blending with the snow and hiding its escape. I tried to scream as a cloud of a dozen black ravens descended upon me, their talons ready to strike. I saw Sam dive up from the trees, his wings halting as he came down on a group of them, their sharp screams filling the air with a deafening cry. The cat hissed before bolting out of my view and though I longed to follow, my life was now in peril.

  The ravens that got past Sam dove down and hit me hard, their sharp beaks tearing through my skin and slicing me like razorblades. My lungs began to tighten as they had the day in the meadow and my breath became shallow and short. Their eyes seared through my thoughts, ripping through every memory like a knife and stealing all I had to give. A scream was choked in my throat and everything became dark and cloudy. I fell to the ground, the ravens still attacking. Sam’s voice was too far to save me as the sounds of shrill death and anger surrounded me.

  My mind was screaming the only word it could possibly manage through the thick confusion, “Edgar!” my thoughts yelled, but my lips ceased to find the words as the world went dark and the ground below me disappeared.

  FEATHER

  My body screamed to life as I came to, groaning in pain and gripping my chest, my whole body now tight and throbbing. It was very cold and I was shaking with an uncontrolled rumble as I laid on something cold and damp. My breath was dragging in my lungs and my throat was caked in blood as the taste of iron and death threatened to choke me.

  “Sam?” I murmured, the words catching through the thick bubbles of blood.

  “Ahh,” a voice rang in my head. “You’re awake, you little escapist.” The harsh voice hissed like velvety hot coals, his breath blowing across my ear, intoxicating and hideous.

  I tried to scream but my body buckled, gripping in on itself as I brought my knees to my chest. What had I done? Where was Sam?

  “Estella,” my name curled from my captor’s mouth like poison in his lungs, “You were always so naïve!” he yelled. “This entire thing is your fault you stupid child.”

  My arms stung and I could feel the thick blood seeping from them like honey. I writhed on the hard cold surface, the pain more than I could bear and my head fogged and weak. The deep cuts covered my milky skin as I was finally able to focus my vision.

  “Where have you put it Estella,” his voice was soft and menacing, measured breaths escaping from his mouth as though attempting to remain calm. I struggled to open my eyes, to see my captor, but the terror in me suggested I’d already known.

  Squeezing my eyes shut I pressed away the pain as I recoiled, my teeth bared in agony. He was looking for my soul, the soul
I thankfully did not possess.

  “Where!” the voice suddenly boomed, echoing painfully through my empty soul and causing me to arch back in pain, my chest exposed and throbbing. “You can’t keep me from my destiny Estella, my power!”

  My hands clenched into tight fists as they scraped across the sharp stones, my mind forcing death away as my fingernails dug into the ground. I felt my body lift from the hard cold surface though no hands were grasping me. I heard Matthew exhale with a sharp heave of his breath, my body now flying like a limp rag across the room. As my shoulder crashed into a wall my eyes jarred open and my mouth tried to scream. I landed on the cold hard floor where I made a move to pick myself up, but my arms refused to grant me the strength and my head was nauseated as I heaved blood onto the floor.

  “You can’t keep it from me you little brat!” His voice was echoing against the walls and I glanced upward, the light in the room dark and murky. “You think you’re so special, so talented and smart,” he spat with a hint of jealously. “I was promised a grand life for this, and that’s exactly what I’ll have. You stand as no challenge to me, and you will not live up to your name.”

  My blurred gaze fell upon his familiar face, his eyes pitch black and endless and his skin yellowed and thin. My body was trembling and the pain in my chest was begging my heart to stop, to die and give up.

  He laughed as my shaking eyes met his and I could smell my blood as it streamed down my face.

  “Estella,” he hissed. “You’re keeping me from what I want, what I need!” he bellowed. “If you just tell me where it is, foolish girl, then I will let you die. Where is your soul?”

  I swallowed hard, trying to clear the blood from my throat, coughing in sharp painful bouts as some more came back up. “You…” I was struggling, holding my upper body off the ground as the pain became so strong that my body felt numb and my limbs dangerously drained of blood. “You won’t find it,” I cried, my arms buckled as I slammed back to the floor where my teeth cracked against the stones and sent a searing pain through my jaw.

  I was suddenly choked as something gripped at my neck, lifting me up off the floor. “You can’t win!” he yelled, his eyes storming like a pool of silver mercury as he approached me, his face close to mine and his noxious breath sucking the air from my lungs. His hairless brows and head were hideous and distorted in frustration and his face was old as his clammy skin glistened with puss, all the youth now long gone.

  “Don’t you know, you stupid girl,” his mouth was black with tar and his teeth rotted, “That your beloved Edgar won’t save you. He didn’t last time, and he won’t now. I’ve got a lot in store for him, the most painful death imaginable,” his eyes scorched through mine and I tried to look away. “After I kill you, he will be in ruins and I will prevail. I will be granted the opportunity to advance, to take over!” His voice boomed through the chamber, rocks crumbling around us.

  I had no way of knowing where I was or how I got here. I looked toward the ceiling as he continued to choke me, but it was endless like a well. There were ravens towering on all sides, all watching me with their soulless and hungry eyes.

  “You were all so weak, so useless with your stupid worldly desires.” He released his invisible grip on my throat just seconds before I blacked out. “You were all a waste!” he screamed, throwing one hand in the air in his anguish, “We had so much power to learn, so much strength to gain!” He turned to pace the room as I sat on the floor, my leg aching and I could tell it was broken, “With you out of my way, with Edgar gone,” he paused, taking a deep breath, “I will have no one to stop me, I will kill it all, take all the energy the world possesses! And no one will be stronger than me,” his eyes were screaming with a powerful hate, “No one!”

  I winced. His voice was deep and shrill. My heart was racing and the adrenaline in my blood was like hot lava, burning its way through my deep open wounds. I tried to listen to his words, but my fear was too intense and too shadowy. My thoughts focused on Edgar, I couldn’t do this to him, why had I let him down.

  Matthew laughed again, dark and sinister, “This is what we all could have done together, but none of you believed me,” he spat. “And Margriete,” there was a deep untamed hatred to his voice, “you should have heard her pleas, the way she begged for me to stop all this.” I saw an evil smile curl onto his lips, “Stupid girl.”

  A veil of darkness shrouded me and I stifled my body’s cries to give up. Suddenly, the ravens overhead began to cry, their sharp voices filling the cavern as I recoiled, my ears ringing.

  “Ah,” he breathed, looking to the sky and holding out his arms as all the ravens flew upward in a sharp rush of wind and into the night, “It seems he came for you after all!” His sinister laugh echoed through the now empty cavern.

  My body grimaced. “Edgar,” I whispered under my breath, “No.”

  Suddenly, my body slammed against the wall and my limbs contorted with pain. Matthew’s mind was manipulating me, breaking whatever life there was left inside and I struggled to remain conscious. As he lifted me off the floor I shut my eyes, my mind pleading for it to stop. He shot me skyward in one violent throw, my velocity fast and painful in my ears.

  We breached the top of the cavern where we were now outside, the air fresh but damp. It was dark, but I could feel the openness against my skin and the wind grazing across my wet blood. He threw me to the ground like a used rag and I cried out in pain.

  “Matthew!” Edgar’s voice echoed over the earth and my heart began to beat hard at the sound.

  As I lay there dying, I felt the texture of the fresh dirt beneath me and I realized we were no longer in the snowy forest, but the misty thickets of London. The rain that fell on me was thick and cool as it washed my blood into the Earth, drinking it gratefully. I rested my face in the mud, my cheeks swollen and tender as it welcomed the cold earth. Roots began to grow around me in their desperate attempt to protect me as I heard Edgar’s voice again.

  “You leave her alone. She does not have what you want!” His voice was fierce and now close.

  I whispered his name but the beating rain hushed my gentle cry.

  “So,” Matthew sneered, “then I suppose you do.” He sounded confident and angry.

  I heard Edgar’s heavy feet advancing toward me, but then there was a sudden explosion of energy and he grunted in pain, the splashing of bodies landing ten feet away, sliding along the wet ground and leaving a brutal trail of destruction.

  The earth began to wrap me in its healing strength and the grass below me started working to mend my wounds. The stinging began to subside as I felt my deep cuts closing and healing. My leg stopped aching as I felt it crunch back into place. I shuddered as Matthew’s angry steps advanced toward me.

  My mind made a move to save itself, my adrenaline taking over and my body again whole. In one quick rush, I rolled onto my back, clenching my jaw as I looked Matthew in the eye, my limbs quickly moving as I saw him looming over me. The roots that had healed my wounds grabbed at his ankles, locking his position. With all my strength, I kicked him in the face and my boots dug deep into his delicate aged skin.

  He doubled back with surprising ease, his body hunching over as the roots snapped and the dark rain ran in streams across his now mauled profile. He whipped his head back toward me as he pulled what looked like a gold dagger from his coat and lunged toward me, his eyes blazing with fury and skin hanging from his face.

  It was then that Sam flew out of nowhere, his wings stroking the wet air like booms of thunder. His strong body slammed into Matthew’s side, and together, they slid fifteen feet through the muddy lose earth, leaving a large trench where the water now flowed. I looked in shock as Sam’s wings engulfed Matthew and I could no longer see what was happening.

  I quickly stood to my feet, my scars fading faster than I had expected and my strength returning. Edgar was standing on the other end of the field, his fists clenched in anger. I took off at a run toward Sam and Matthew as they wrestled
on the ground. Skidding to a stop, I heard Edgar yell my name over the beating rain.

  “Elle no! Get away from him!” His voice was sharp and frantic.

  I watched in horror as Matthew grabbed Sam by the throat, bringing his arm back and throwing him across the field with surprising strength.

  “Sam!” I screamed. Matthew glanced at me, his eyes blazing black.

  “You little liar!” he hissed, approaching me with the dagger still in his hand.

  I saw Edgar’s breathing quicken and he suddenly lunged at Matthew’s back. My mouth fell in horror and my eyes became wide, afraid that we’d lose it all if Edgar were harmed. Matthew saw my sudden shock and twisted around to face me as Edgar still struggled to bring him down, his fist smacking into Matthew’s face and twisting it to the side.

  I ran at Matthew as he staggered to the side and I tackled him, wrapping my legs around his waist as I slashed at his face with my nails, the roots again struggling to contain him in their desperate attempt to save me. As I viciously tried to take him down, he grabbed my neck like a kitten and flipped me over his head and down to the earth. My breath was knocked from my lungs as my body formed a deep crater.

  Hot water began to bubble up around me, filling the crater as I stood. Breathing with a heavy anger, I clenched my teeth in fury and hate, Margriete’s laughing face now close at mind. My eyes scanned the field, frantically trying to find Edgar as my eyes found Sam instead, his body hunched down to the ground, ready to pounce with his wings spread into a beautiful fan of fury.

  My gaze then found Matthew as he ran from me, the skin on his face now gone and his eyes dark as night. My clothes were heavy and wet as I struggled out of the hole now almost completely filled with water.

  When I emerged, Matthew was far across the rocky landscape where he was headed for Edgar as Sam sprung, leaping down on him with a heavy force. I looked around as anxiety forced my mind to configure a plan. Ravens were surrounding me in silent observance and my breath was stinging in my lungs, my throat dry and hot. I took off at a sprint toward them as Edgar held Matthew at arms length, his other hand cocked back and ready to strike. Sam waited to Edgar’s right, again poising himself to attack at the first chance.