by Nicole Maggi
I fought the urge to snap my beak at her. He wants to help us! You heard what the Harpy said. She said he was wavering. That’s why she left him in charge of us: to test his loyalty.
Alessia, Heath said, if he lets us go, they’ll kill him.
I looked back at Jonah. I know. We have to find some way out that makes it look like we overpowered him.
What’s going on? Jonah broke into my mind.
He—the Wolf knows what kind of danger you’re in if you let us go.
I don’t care. I told you. He keened again, his paw lifted toward me. I don’t care if I die saving you.
Well, I do. I hopped closer to the barrier, to him. We bent our heads to each other, the only thing separating his thick black fur and my snowy feathers the shimmering wall of light. Besides, Bree would have my head.
“Without a mage,” Nerina said, making us both look up at her, “we’ll have to use what magic we can access.”
Our auras, I said. Like when Bree and I broke into that room here.
She nodded and raised her hand, her palm less than an inch away from the barrier. “We need that burst of magic that comes when we transform.” The bars shivered as she waved her palm over them. “But this is dangerous magic, much more dangerous than that room. The Angel Falls magic contained in these bars makes them deadly.” She dropped her hands to her side. “You saw what happened when you collided with them.”
So what do we do?
Nerina narrowed her gaze at Jonah and curled her lip. “These bars will only affect a Benandante. But a Malandante . . .”
Jonah pulled himself up tall, his fur bristling. Whatever she needs me to do, I’ll do it, he told me.
I repeated his words to Nerina.
“Oh, really?” Shadows darkened her face. “I need him to bind himself to the cage, use his aura to bring down the bars. Will he do that?”
Jonah rushed into the barrier. The light exploded around him, sending off long tentacles of electricity. Stop! I screamed as the shock reverberated through him. A cry of agony ripped across my mind and Jonah tumbled backward from the cage. He lay still on the concrete floor, his only movement the heaving of his sides as he panted.
“When I say, you idiot,” Nerina hissed.
I flew at her and stopped an inch from her face. How dare you? He’s trying to help!
“He’s a Malandante. I don’t trust him.”
He’s our only chance out of here. If you keep treating him like trash he’s not going to help any of us.
Heath padded between us, gently nudging me backward. She’s right, Nerina. We have to trust him right now.
Nerina looked from me to Heath and back again. A little vein at the base of her throat throbbed. “Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. She stepped around us. “Get up,” she said to Jonah, “and listen to the plan before you do anything.”
I clicked my beak but held my tongue. At least she hadn’t called him an idiot again.
Jonah hauled himself to his feet. Are you all right? I asked him.
I’m okay. She’s right. I should’ve listened before I did anything.
Maybe, but she’s still being a jerk. I’m sorry.
He shook his head, his black fur glistening in the silvery light of the cage. Can you blame her?
“Can you two please stop talking so we can get on with this?” Nerina pushed up the sleeves of her silk jacket and pointed to Jonah. “You.”
He has a name, I snapped at her.
She ignored me. “On my count, you will rush the wall.”
You saw what just happened. He’ll electrify himself, I protested.
“No, he won’t.” Nerina paced the perimeter of our prison, looking the walls up and down. “The magic will feed into him. It might hurt for a moment”—she waved her hand—“but he’ll be fine.”
Nerina!
I’ll be fine, Jonah said. Let’s just get on with it.
“As the magic is feeding into him, I’ll transform and direct our magic into the barrier. That should be enough to weaken it.” She turned in a circle, examining the cube of light that surrounded us. “I should be able to bring it down after that,” she murmured. “If only Bree were here . . .”
Cold crept into my feathers. Bree had been here, only hours before, trapped and tortured by the Malandante mage. If this didn’t work, that was the fate in store for us.
Nerina snapped forward and faced Jonah. “Are you ready?” Without waiting for an answer, she went on. “On my count. One.”
Wait, what are we supposed to be doing? I said as she held up a second finger.
“Get out as soon as the bars come down,” she said quickly. “And three!”
With a roar, Jonah sprang forward into the barrier. The air reverberated with electricity, fractured lightning bolts raining down on all sides of the cage. I dropped low and back until I was right up against Heath, sparks spewing in every direction. I watched the silvery bars shift into squiggly lines and slowly spiral around Jonah’s body. A thin sheet of light shimmered where the bars had been. I fluttered forward, but Heath blocked me. Not yet . . .
In one dazzling, brilliant burst of blue light, Nerina transformed into her mythical shape, a Griffin. Her enormous, magnificent wings stretched from one side of the cage to the other, her cerulean aura spilling out between the bars. The atmosphere shivered and danced all around us, making Heath’s fur stand on end. I could feel the magic’s heat on the tip of my feathers, singeing the air.
The celestial Benandante light crept its way around the dark Malandante magic, turning each bar sheer one by one. When the last bar was gone, all that was left was a translucent bubble of red smoke. The fatal magic of Angel Falls.
Nerina beat her wings against the cage. The red smoke uncoiled itself like a snake and licked at us, deadly tendrils creeping toward me and Heath, reaching to suck out our life source.
No! Nerina shouted. She hovered over us, her wings covering us like a cloak. I could hear Nerina’s spell in my mind, strange words that I didn’t understand. I peeked out from beneath the shelter of her wings at Jonah. He was still bound into the barrier, its magic undulating around him. His head was bent, his fur bristled, but his gaze locked on me, his fierce green eyes never leaving my face. Oh, God, Jonah . . .
He couldn’t answer. I heard his struggle in my mind, side by side with Nerina’s spell. Hurry, Nerina, I thought to myself. Hurry, hurry . . .
Bright yellow light crept in from the top of the bubble, its sunny sheen almost cheerful against the murky red smoke. As the yellow magic of the Redwoods spilled down the walls, the tendrils that reached out to me and Heath retracted and slithered upward. And then, in a lightshow worthy of Las Vegas, the red and yellow clashed, breaking the air like shattered glass. They fought each other, the life-sucking Angel Falls against the healing Redwood.
Nerina lifted away from us, her wings spread wide. The yellow light of the Redwoods gave one last dazzling jolt of its magic, and the red smoke of Angel Falls blew away into nothing.
Jonah fell to the floor with a sickening thud. I flew forward just as Nerina dissolved back into her body. I pressed my face to Jonah’s throat. Are you okay?
Slowly, surely, I felt his pulse against my feathers. I’m . . .
Don’t talk. Just breathe.
“Alessia, we have to go.” Nerina was already at the door. She pulled a bobby pin from her hair and worked the tumblers until the lock clicked. “Come on!”
We can’t just leave him.
Heath galloped to me and nudged me with his nose. We have to. They could be back any minute.
It’s . . . okay . . . Jonah’s breath was labored. It needs . . . to look . . . like I fought . . . anyway.
Nerina backed away from the door and bent over Jonah. “He’ll be fine. But we won’t be if Fina comes back before we get out of here.”
She’s . . . right, Jonah said. Go.
“Although,” Nerina tapped her finger to her mouth. “We should make it look like he fought us.”
She pointed at me. “Scratch him.”
What? No! He looks battered enough.
“He needs to look like he put up a good fight,” Nerina said. “Now do it fast and let us get out of here.”
But—
Just do it, Alessia. Jonah pushed himself up onto one paw.
I rose above him, my wings wavering. With a heave of effort, he reared up and swiped at me in the air. Out of instinct, I struck out with my talons and caught his ear.
You can do better than that, he taunted as he fell back to the ground. I’ve seen you in battle.
I squared myself against him and charged. My beak sank into the soft black fur at his shoulders, my claws digging into his back. He yowled and rolled onto his back. We tumbled against the floor together in some twisted version of a lover’s embrace. I raked my talons across his back once, twice, three times until blood dripped onto the gray concrete. I rocketed off him. Oh, God, Jonah. I’m so sorry.
Don’t be. Now I . . . don’t have to . . . fake it.
“Alessia, let’s go!”
I narrowed my gaze at Nerina. You owe him your life. I’m not leaving until you thank him for that.
Alessia, this is not the time.
I flew until I was against the back wall. Color flared in Nerina’s face. She straightened her shoulders and planted herself in front of Jonah. “I—thank you for helping us. You did well—for a Malandante.”
It would have to be good enough. I swooped down and pushed my face into his neck for a moment.
I know, Jonah said, his voice soft in my mind.
You know what?
I love you, too.
“Alessia, out! Now!”
I swept to the door, my eyes still on Jonah. He lay on the floor, panting, his fur glistening with sweat and blood. I felt sick as I dodged out of the room and followed Heath and Nerina through the twisting labyrinth of the Guild up to the surface.
Because no matter what I’d done to him, it was nothing compared to what the Malandanti would do when they found him.
Chapter Two
The Clan Revealed
Alessia
The cold night air was sweet in my lungs when we burst out of the Guild building. We fled up the alley and emerged out onto a quiet side street. It was late enough that the streets were empty, but I still didn’t think the sight of a low-flying falcon and an enormous white wolf would go unnoticed for long.
“We have to get back to Twin Willows.” Nerina’s chest heaved up and down with her breath. “I think we have lost the Waterfall, but we must make sure the rest of the Clan is safe.” She looked up the street and began to walk purposefully toward a crimson Fiat parked at the curb. Heath trotted behind her while I flew overhead. “My place is compromised. We’ll need to find somewhere safe to stay.”
A surge of fear jolted through me. After I’d found Nerina’s lair ransacked, I’d been so worried about her that I’d failed to realize something equally scary. Her lair was on my farm, which meant that my mother was in danger. I dodged down to Heath. My mom . . .
I know. We need to get her away from the farm.
If they hadn’t gotten to her already. But I couldn’t think like that, because thinking like that filled my veins with ice and left me paralyzed, unable to help anyone.
Nerina bent over the driver’s side door of the Fiat, jimmying the lock. I landed on top of the car. Hang on—are you stealing this car?
“Sí.”
You can’t just steal someone’s car! That’s so wrong.
The lock clicked. Nerina pulled open the door without looking at me. “I’ll give it back.”
That’s not the point. We’re supposed to be the good guys, take the high road.
Nerina banged on the roof of the car, making me jump. “By the time we take the high road back to Twin Willows, everyone we love will be dead.” She pointed at Heath. “You, in the backseat. You,” she said, pointing at me, “follow us overhead.”
I cannot believe you, I said, but my moral indignation wasn’t enough to stop her. Nerina slammed the door and peeled away from the curb, the tires screeching on the pavement. Wow. Bree was going to be super jealous that she’d missed this. Not only had Nerina stolen a car, but she’d stolen probably the one Fiat in all of Maine. I winged over the car, the little red compact zooming along below me, out of Bangor, back to Twin Willows. Back to the Waterfall.
I didn’t want to think about what we would find there.
Nerina ditched the car up the road from our farm and ran to Heath’s cabin to transform. She took to the air with me and we skimmed over treetops. Below us, Heath was a white blur against the darkness. Moonlight filtered through the leaves. I glanced at the pale light on the horizon. It would be dawn soon.
The copse of birch trees, their trunks shimmering silver in the dark, loomed ahead. Nerina and I dropped low, joining Heath on the ground. From here, whoever was at the Waterfall would be able to see our auras. I shivered. Would they be friend or foe?
We inched forward until there was a break in the brush big enough for us to see through. My heart thudded in my chest, my feathers rippling with cold and fear. I suddenly thought of the first time I had seen the Waterfall with Heath, how we had hidden in this same brush. The Malandanti had controlled the Waterfall then. Had they reclaimed it?
I peered through the tangled branches. An unearthly silver glow domed from the stream above the Waterfall to the pool below. The water was murky, as though it had been contaminated with something unmentionable. And the Malandante Bobcat paced the edge of the pool, its huge paws imprinting on the soft earth where land met water. I fell back, my heart a hard weight inside me.
We have lost it, Nerina said needlessly, for we could all see for ourselves that the worst had happened. And we cannot reclaim it until we replace the Lynx.
Heath walked a few paces back toward the birch trees, his neck bent low. But, he said as he turned and raised his head, we still control three other sites. And last time we regained the Waterfall, we didn’t have Bree—or you, Nerina. We’re a stronger Clan now. We can win it back.
I threw gratefulness to him in my mind, unable to put into words how much I needed to hear his optimism. I stared at the silvery magic that encompassed the Waterfall. We would win it back. Good would prevail, and we would turn these woods Benandanti blue once more. There were too many things that were unthinkable right now—what was happening to Jonah at that very moment, where the Stag and the Eagle were, whether Bree was okay, and my mom . . . my mom—that this hope was the only thing that kept my wings aloft.
We need to find the Stag and the Eagle, Nerina said. She walked back to the break in the brush and looked through it for a long moment. I don’t see their bodies here, so that’s a good sign.
Oh, my God, Nerina!
Well, it is. Look, I’m just being practical.
I spun away from her and faced Heath. We need to get my mom.
Yes, but where do we go after that?
I clicked my beak once and swung my gaze between Heath and Nerina. I know someplace we can go.
“Mom.”
She rolled over, blinked at me, and sat straight up. “Who died?”
“No one. Yet. I think.” I hope, I added silently. If her dad had died defending the Waterfall, I’d never be able to look Jenny in the eye again. “But it’s not safe here. Come on. Get dressed.”
“Alessia, what is this about?” She flung the covers aside and grabbed my arm as she stood. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Just get dressed. Please. I’ll tell you everything . . . just . . . we can’t stay here.” I went to the window and peered out. They could be watching us from anywhere.
To Lidia’s credit, she stopped questioning me, got dressed, and followed me outside to Heath’s truck. Nerina had gone to the hospital to collect Bree, presumably in her stolen Fiat. It would serve her right if she got pulled over.
I pushed Lidia into the cab of the truck and climbed in beside her. She was muttering under her breath
in Italian; not a good sign. I knew a reckoning was coming, that I would have to come clean and tell Lidia everything, but first I needed to make sure the rest of the Clan was safe.
We rumbled up the driveway and turned onto the main road into town. I watched the farmhouse grow smaller in the rearview mirror. Just before it disappeared, a huge black bird swooped over the ruins of the burned-out barn and rose above the house. I gripped the door handle. “They know.”
Heath stared into the mirror. I heard his breath catch as he saw the same thing I did: the Raven circling the rooftop of my house. The pig-shaped weather vane turned slowly in the wake of the Raven’s huge wings. “I don’t think he saw us.”
“No.” We rounded a bend in the road, and the farm—and the Raven—vanished from view. If the Raven had seen us leave, he would’ve followed us. “But the farm isn’t safe now. We can’t go anywhere near it until we’ve defeated them.”
“What is going on?” Lidia demanded, coming out of her Italian-speaking trance. “I can’t go back to my own house now?”
I put my hand on her arm, softening my fingers around her wrist. “I’ll explain everything, Mom. I promise. But we need to get somewhere safe first.”
Heath turned the truck onto Willowbrook Lane. Lidia sat up straight and put her hands on the dashboard. “Why are we going to the Sandses’?”
Neither of us answered her, to her obvious annoyance. She slunk back down and started grumbling in Italian again. This time, I distinctly heard some swears mixed in with the words meaning “disobedient girl.”
Heath pulled to a stop in Jenny’s driveway. We ran to the front door, the morning air frozen around us. I took a deep breath and rang the bell. A moment later, the curtain over the window next to the door peeked open.
The door swung open. Mr. Sands stood there, bleary-eyed and unshaven, but alive. My knees buckled with relief and I threw my arms around him to keep from collapsing. “You’re okay! Thank goodness you’re okay!”
“Alessia, what the—?”
I barreled him inside and Heath shut the door behind us. “Is the Eagle okay too?”