Moonlit Feathers

by Sarah Makela

  After faced with crippling loss, a heartbroken raven must find her wings again...

  Treasure hunters are trained to find things, but all Morgana has known is loss. When someone she loves dies because she can’t protect them, she shies away from the world, too afraid to let anyone else get close. That won’t last long because ravens aren’t ones to pass up on shiny things.

  Cody has never really felt accepted. He’s a coyote shifter of Native American heritage, but he gets his looks from his Scandinavian mother, unlike his siblings and the rest of his people. That makes him all the more dedicated when what seemed like a freak tornado becomes something much scarier.

  When Cody realizes that his family’s powerful talisman has slips into the wrong hands, he desperately needs help. But he never imagined he’d be fall head over heels for the beautiful, if not, mysterious treasure hunter. Morgana will need to let go of being hurt again if they have any hope of saving not only each other, but also the small town that they both love from disaster.

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Woodland Creek Series

  About the Author

  Other Books by Sarah Mäkelä

  Excerpt for The Witch Who Cried Wolf

  Moonlit Feathers © 2015 Sarah Mäkelä

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments, or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without expressed written permission from the author.

  Editor: Word Vagabond

  Cover Artist: J.M. Rising Horse Creations

  ISBN-10: 1942873808

  ISBN-13: 978-1-942873-80-8

  Chapter One

  Morgana

  Wind caressed my midnight black feathers as I sailed through the early evening sky. Flying had always been a welcome reprieve, an escape from the everyday life of walking on two legs. Most people in the world only dreamed of this gift I'd been granted, but it didn't give me that much freedom from life’s sorrows. Perhaps that was just as well.

  My line of work demanded more from me than the average human’s physique could handle. That was why my peers regarded me as the best of the best.

  As a treasure hunter, people expected me to explore mystical ruins and dodge huge boulders, but my main task was to always be on the lookout for stunning riches that might interest my wealthy clients. What set me apart from the rest was being a Raven shifter. That gave me the ability to get in and out of ancient, mythical locales more quickly and safely than most.

  Clients came to me with all sorts of requests. Due to my popularity, I could choose the jobs I wanted and who I wanted to work for, something the few fellow treasure hunters I'd met could only dream of. When we got together, they always asked for my secrets—either to my face or behind my back—but I wasn't willing to share the knowledge of my abilities with them.

  Only one person, aside from my parents, had ever gotten close enough to see the true me, and he'd died because I couldn't save him when he needed me the most.

  How could I truly be happy with a life spent forever alone, regardless of the mystery and adventure my career afforded me?

  Loneliness ached like a gaping hole in my chest. Whatever life I’d known before had dimmed the light, and I merely trudged through the shades of grey with my bruised heart.

  Ezra Phillips had been the last person I'd allowed to get close to me. He'd crept past the walls I'd erected around my heart after my parents died and left me all alone in the world. I regretted his death every single day. Life with him had been an exciting journey. We were hunting a rare gem with supposed magical properties together, and I'd tried to convince him that I should go alone since he was only human. The job was dangerous, even for me. He had a way with words and convinced me to let him come along. I mistakenly believed we were indestructible together. Neither of us had been to South America before, and now I never wanted to go back.

  I was all alone again. Whoever said it was better to have loved and lost had obviously never felt this kind of gut-wrenching pain.

  If anything had come from my relationship with Ezra, it was a determination to harden my heart that much more. Never again would I let someone in. More pain and loss would be too much to bear. Besides, I had a career in shambles that needed to be rebuilt.

  Shaking away my destructive thoughts, I swept my gaze over my surroundings, dragging myself back to the here and now. Breathtaking oranges, reds, and yellows spread out beneath me, helping me remember why I'd chosen Woodland Creek, Indiana as my new home. I'd never been a small-town girl, but that didn't matter much. After Ezra's death, I drew more into myself, and the solitude suited me now.

  Above the treetops, the air carried the clean scent of ozone mixed with pine. The strong pull from the ley-lines had called me here like a mystical artery pumping with magic, very much alive with raw, untapped energy churning below the ground. For wizards, it made spellcasting easier, but for the shifters I knew of, it acted like a beacon, calling us together.

  Through the thick canopy, I caught sight of something shiny on the forest floor below. I'd flown this path many times on my way home, and rarely had I seen any hikers in this area. Could this object be something valuable? The raven in me wanted to investigate—she liked shiny things—but my human side prepared for disappointment.

  Maybe I'd become more jaded than I'd realized, if not downright pessimistic.

  Swooping toward the ground, we splayed our wings wide and slowed our descent to get a better look. Just an average section of Running Deer National Forest. It’s only distinguishing feature was a large ring of boulders. No one was around, and the area was clear of camping gear and human supplies.

  I perched on a sturdy tree limb, and it groaned a little under our weight. While most ravens were about three pounds, I was closer to thirty, approximately the size of a cinereous vulture. Not conspicuous at all, right? But most people didn’t look too hard at me. They keep their eyes at ground level, not paying much attention to what goes on above their heads.

  The shiny object below beckoned my raven closer, but I couldn't be sure this wasn't some kind of trap. Call me paranoid, but that was the sort of thinking that kept me alive. I didn't see anyone else nearby, though: people, animals, or those in-between. The longer I sat there, the more I felt a heaviness in the air, as if someone had recently thrown a lot of magic around. The sensation nearly made me decide to fly away, but my raven krawed at me. She thought I was acting like a coward, and that was definitely not me. The thought of the glimm
er had entered into her mind, and once she was set on something, there was only one way to satisfy her curiosity.

  With one final glance around to make certain I was alone, I jumped off my branch, shifting into human form as I fell to the ground. I rolled to take the impact off my legs and stood up straight. My raven flapped her wings beneath my chest, preening at the crazy move. Maybe I wasn't completely alone in the world. I did have my raven. But given the trouble she got me into sometimes, it was hard to decide if that was a blessing or a curse.

  The cool October wind caressed my bare skin, drawing out a shiver. Wrapping my arms around me for warmth, I hurried over to the baseball-sized piece of...gold? I dropped to my knees beside it, frowning at the rounded lump. With so many people venturing into Running Deer each year, I highly doubted no one would've seen this before now and not have taken it. It was freaking hard to miss. Something else that struck me was how polished the metal appeared. If it had been buried underground for years, it wouldn't look like someone had professionally cleaned it.

  Maybe it was cursed. I didn't need any help in that department. My business had taken a turn for the worse after Ezra's death. For the first time in years, I struggled with money, because hunting for other people's gain felt wrong after I'd lost so much. Despite my best efforts to get over it, my head was still stuck in the past. I'd attempted a few jobs in town, but I hadn't stayed long at any of them. My fear of getting too close to anyone made me keep everyone at arm’s length.

  Before I knew what I was doing, my hand closed around the smooth, round chunk of gold. It was heavy and solid, but it didn't weigh as much as I'd expected for gold this size. I blinked at it in surprise. It wasn't pyrite—fool's gold. It had the softer edges of true gold, and shone from every angle rather than just a few. But something about it wasn’t right. This wasn't like any gold I'd ever come across. As well as being too light, it wasn't malleable enough. More like stone than gold.

  My raven krawed her disappointment.

  If anyone could get to the bottom of this mystery, it would be Kevin. Kevin was a wizard, and he used to be a mutual friend of Ezra and me. He'd helped us a few times when we had questions about anything magical—amulets, gems, or artifacts. He was a solid source of information.

  Sighing, I dropped the strange golden ball back to the ground with a thud. "Looks like we'll be in for a long flight."

  With a sharp push of energy, the raven stretched out of my skin. Her feathers sprouted from my body like a dark wave, and talons grew from where my fingers had been. We shook our wings, letting out a loud kraa. When the shift was over, we stared at the piece of gold, cocking our head to the side, until the raven decided we would be able to hold the ball in our claws.

  After a couple tries, we lifted off without dropping it and made our way toward Kevin's house in Old Town.

  Chapter Two

  Cody

  After a long day of classes at Hastings-Albrecht University, the last place I wanted to be was sitting in the library, studying. My coyote paced beneath the surface of my skin, anxious to be unleashed and prowl around Running Deer, but the universe had a way of giving my plans the middle finger. My professors seemed to have conspired against me by planning quizzes in the majority of my classes tomorrow. That meant I had to sit here and soothe my coyote, even if keeping him in one place was like making a kid with ADHD focus on sorting pins. So hard.

  My coyote perked our ears to listen in on nearby conversations, not helpful when I'd rather be doing anything else but study. Normally I'd go back to my dorm, but my roommate was having his girlfriend over tonight. Didn't want to go through hearing that again, regardless of how my dopey coyote felt.

  The words on the page blurred together, and I took another sip of dark roast coffee from Geek Beans. I didn't know why I bothered, since caffeine didn't affect me like it would a normal human. My coyote's metabolism quickly burned it off. His attention was on everything but my textbook. I growled under my breath, causing the two girls at the next table to look up from their books. Maybe I'd been a little louder than I thought. I smiled, and they went back to their reading.

  The coyote backed down the tiniest bit, but not nearly enough. He just turned and focused on another couple of students toward the other side of the room. They spoke in hushed whispers. This time I tried to rein him in, but my coyote held firm, as if he knew something I didn't. It gave me pause.

  "Did you hear about what's been going on in the forest? Interesting stuff."

  I frowned, my curiosity sufficiently piqued. I certainly hadn't heard about anything strange going on. Then again, with my course load being so heavy right now, I wasn't really up to date on everything.

  The guy leaned into his female companion, even as she leaned away, obviously not interested in his advances. "No," she said. "What's going on?"

  He leaned that much farther into her, either oblivious or unable to handle rejection...or both. "Strange magic." He made a spooky voice as if trying to scare kids around a campfire.

  It achieved what he was going for, though. The thought chilled me.

  My grandmother had been experiencing some odd and unsettling feelings recently. She wasn't exactly a full-blown wizard like the Sullivans or the Thomases, two of Woodland Creek's founding families. She was more like a Native American shaman. These feelings didn't happen to her often, but when they did, our family made sure to listen. The last time she'd felt this unusual tension was before our family home—which had stood for almost a hundred years and through countless storms—was hit by a powerful tornado that ripped through the area.

  Many of the artifacts we’d passed down for generations had been tossed around, some broken, others lost. One of the more powerful magical talismans was presumed destroyed, although my grandmother had never accepted that conclusion. She claimed she would've sensed the power leaving it.

  With all the chaos at the time and the rebuilding afterward, I’d shrugged it off, but there were times when I wondered if she was right. I'd witnessed the strong magic it possessed when I was younger, and I doubted even a tornado would destroy it. Magic had a way of preserving itself.

  I brushed those memories away, refocusing my attention on the couple's conversation. I'd missed some of it, but from the disgusted look on the girl's face, I doubted it had been important.

  "I should've known this was just another attempt at getting into my pants." She pushed to her feet as the guy reached for her.

  "Come on, babe. It's not only to get into your pants." He rose to his feet and lowered his voice again. "I thought you'd want to check out the creepy area my buddy Rex and Roger found. Said it was like nothing they'd ever seen before, and around this place, they've seen things that'd keep you up at night."

  Letting out a harsh sigh, the girl ran her hand through her pixie-cut sandy brown hair. "Fine. Only if you promise that we'll come back later before the library closes to keep studying. Jerk." She murmured the last part under her breath. Her male companion didn't seem to hear her. He gave her a not-so-subtle smack on the butt before gathering up their textbooks and study materials.

  While it might've been nothing, I couldn't forget my grandmother's recent warnings. Just to be safe, I'd follow them and see what was going on. Life had been relatively quiet in the six months since the tornado hit. But if someone had found my family's talisman, I needed to retrieve it before they or any innocent bystanders were hurt. The small wooden carving was way too powerful to remain in the hands of someone who didn't know how to use it, including me.

  My studies could wait.

  Chapter Three

  Morgana

  Kevin lived far enough away from where I'd been in the heart of the forest that my wings ached from carrying the heavy rock. Needless to say, it had taken a few spills. Its smooth shininess might've gained some dirt and a few new dings, but I couldn't exactly say I cared now. When I got home, I'd be soaking my sore limbs in a hot bubble bath to ease some of the strain.

  I dropped the golden ball to the
ground near Kevin's porch and krawed at the closed door. When he didn't answer, I tapped on it with my thick black beak. Still nothing. Kevin didn't go out often, but maybe he wasn't here? Doubtful. I cocked my head to the side, using my raven's heightened senses to check for him. The faintest sound of a man humming came back to me.

  Typical. He was likely in his basement laboratory with his earbuds in again. His laboratory was locked down like a fortress. It used to have small rectangular windows, but he'd had them blocked up after inheriting the place from his parents.

  That left one option: knock on the door in human form. It wouldn't be the first time he'd seen me naked, and I did need to talk with him about the find. Ugh... I krawed again, more out of frustration than in hopes of getting his attention.

  Feathers retracted into my body, leaving me cool and naked. My bones and muscles stretched from the two-foot-and-change raven form into my five-foot-six human form. I banged my fist against the door as hard as I could, causing the nearby window to shake in its frame. It wasn't supernatural strength, just determination to get home.

  "Kevin!" I shouted.

  I pressed my ear to the door to listen again. A string of curses followed the loud clattering of several things dropping. Pain shot through my arm and upper back as I grabbed the gold ball and took a few steps away from the house. I knew the kind of magic Kevin toyed around with, and I didn't want to be in the blast zone. I wasn't stupid.

  Besides, he knew I was here now. He'd get to me whenever he was finished averting the disaster he was dealing with.

  Ten minutes passed, and I considered knocking again. What if he'd been working on a dangerous potion or spell, and I'd broken his laser-sharp focus? Concern clenched my chest. He could need my help. I stepped toward the door, just as it swung open. My raven shook out her feathers below the surface of my skin and krawed, feeling every bit as jumpy at Kevin's sudden appearance as I did.