Winter Falls

by Nicole Maggi

  I could feel Heath watching me, but I ignored him.

  Lidia came back with a mug for Jonah, and we all sat in an awkward silence that Jonah seemed oblivious to as he grinned at me.

  “So, Ed, what were you saying? About the mayor?” Lidia asked. The conversation sparked again.

  I tucked an arm through Jonah’s, snuggled up to his side, and rested my head against his shoulder.

  Jonah stayed for dinner, and by the time we had gorged ourselves on my mother’s homemade meatballs, the snow had risen to the windowsills outside.

  Lidia peered out the windows at the dark storm and turned to Jonah and Mr. Salter with a sigh. “You two will have to stay the night. No way you can go out in this.” She lifted the phone off the receiver and handed it to Jonah. “Tell your mom I’ll take good care of you.”

  I watched carefully as Jonah dialed a seven-digit number and had a one-sided conversation with a closed pizza parlor. “Sure, Mom. I’ll call first thing in the morning.” He glanced over at Lidia. “Love you too. Good night.”

  Lidia nodded approvingly and turned to Heath. “I don’t think you’ll even make it over the hillside. You should stay here too.”

  “It’s a slumber party,” Mr. Salter said.

  “Great. We can braid each other’s hair and get into a pillow fight,” Jonah said.

  Lidia scowled at him and put me to work on the sleeping arrangements. Jonah would get the big extra bedroom over the garage, Mr. Salter would take the guest room in between my room and my mother’s, and Heath would take the pullout in the living room. It wasn’t lost on me that Lidia put Jonah in the room farthest from mine.

  We scurried back and forth making up beds, and when I passed Jonah in the hall I leaned in close. “You planned this, didn’t you?”

  His only answer was a grin that matched the devilishness in his eyes.

  I pressed my face to the window in the upstairs hallway and peered out into the darkness. The light from inside the house reflected onto the snow outside. Drifts nearly buried the fence that ringed the hillside and covered Mr. Salter’s truck in the driveway. We were well and truly snowed in.

  Lidia banked the fire in the living room, and we retired to our respective beds. I stood in the middle of my room, staring at my neatly made bed. I knew I should be a good girl and get under the covers, but Jonah was down the hall, twenty feet away. How could I be expected to behave under such conditions?

  I glanced out the window. There was something romantic about a snowstorm, I had to admit. I pulled the quilt half off my bed and messed up the sheets, so it looked like I had been under them. Then I listened to the sounds of the household. My mother’s door closed, and the bedsprings of her old four-poster creaked. Downstairs, the shuffling in the living room quieted. I cracked my door open.

  Darkness covered the house. I stepped into the hall, careful to pick my way over the creaky floorboards. On tiptoe, I rounded the corner to the room over the garage and laid my hand flat against the door. My heart beat fast. Was I really doing this? I pressed my fingers to my throat and felt the flutter there. Every nerve in my body was alight, every hair on my skin on end. I could feel Jonah on the other side of the door, his presence burning my hand that lay on the piece of wood that separated us.

  I slid into the room and closed the door behind me, let my eyes adjust to the moonlit darkness.

  Jonah sat up in bed, facing me. “I was hoping you’d come, but I would have understood if you hadn’t.”

  “Why wouldn’t I have come?” I asked.

  He lifted the covers, and I climbed underneath them. We curled into each other under the quilts, and the world outside fell away. We had made our own private world where no one—not the Benandanti or the Malandanti, the Guild or our parents—could come in. I wanted to live here forever in this moment, safe inside Jonah’s arms.

  We kissed until we both lost our breath.

  I pressed my face into the side of his neck and felt his pulse against my cheek. “Your heart is racing,” I whispered.

  He touched the skin over my heart. “So is yours.”

  I raised my head and looked into his eyes. “My heart always races when I’m with you.”

  He slid his hand to the back of my neck and pulled me into a kiss, his lips fierce and possessive. “You are my heart,” he murmured into my mouth. “I love you, Alessia.”

  My mind whirled; I clung to him to steady myself. He loved me . . . Jonah loved me . . . My throat tightened and my eyes felt hot. I blinked to keep tears from coming to the surface. I didn’t want to be a sap, crying the first time a boy told me he loved me. Swallowing hard, I pulled back from him a fraction of an inch. “I love you too,” I said, my lips grazing his.

  We fell into each other. My body felt boneless with relief and joy; we were on the same page, both of us in just as deep as the other. For a moment I forgot everything else as he kissed me, and the world disappeared around us.

  But too soon a hot thread of guilt and fear snaked its way from my belly and wrapped itself around my chest. How could I tell Jonah that I loved him and not tell him who I really was? As long as I kept my secret from him, there would always be a barrier between us. I didn’t want those walls. I wanted to be his, free and clear and honest.

  I broke the kiss and ducked my head, pressed my face into his naked chest. “I have to tell you something,” I said, then clamped my mouth shut. You must not speak of the Benandanti. How could I betray that? And yet, how could I not, and betray Jonah by not telling him?

  Jonah stroked my back. “What is it?”

  Tears leaked out of my eyes, and I tried to wipe them away without Jonah noticing.

  He lifted my chin. “What’s wrong?”

  I peered into his eyes, shining in the darkness. “There’s something I want to tell you.” I swallowed, and it felt like knives in my gullet. “But I can’t. I can’t.”

  “Why not?” He held my wrists and tugged me upward so that we were both sitting up, facing each other on the bed. “I told you about the accident, and you didn’t freak out. Don’t you think I’d do the same for you?” He ran his hands up and down my arms. “I love you. You can tell me anything. Anything.”

  I touched his face. “Okay.” I sighed with relief, and the sigh reached into every corner of my body, churned within me, and centered itself over my heart.

  An instant later, a familiar tug pulled at me, and I knew the Concilio Celeste had finally given the go-ahead. “No,” I whispered and scrambled backward toward the edge of the bed. “No, no, no, no!”

  “What is it?” Jonah stared at me, his eyes bright with alarm.

  I clutched the locket that dangled between my breasts, trying to dispel the stretching, aching feeling that was pulling me apart.

  “What’s wrong?”

  I struggled to speak, but all that came out were gasps of air. I fought the shift, and it fought me back, iron bands around my body as I shook and fell to my knees. At last I managed to gasp, “Open the window,” before I collapsed on the floor and soared up into the air in one singular, fluid motion.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  The Battle

  The look on Jonah’s face as I rose toward the ceiling, my wings beating against the air, squeezed my heart so tight that I thought I would break apart in a thousand pieces. I wheeled in the air toward the window and hovered in front of it, turned my head to Jonah, and cried out softly.

  Like he was unaware of his movements, Jonah climbed out of bed and walked to the window, his jaw hanging loose, his eyes wide and fixed on me. He unlatched the window and wrenched it upward. The frame crackled with the cold, and ice broke away as it opened. Snow dusted the floor. Jonah backed away from the window, still staring at me with shock etched on his features. His eyes held every emotion that I never wanted to see there—horror, disbelief, disgust. I plunged out the window.

  Why, why, why? Why did it have to be tonight? My human mind sobbed inside my Falcon body. I wavered in the air, my feathers rustling in
anger and frustration. Why did Jonah have to see me like this? If you had told him, you would have had to show him, a quiet, rational voice inside me said, but I brushed it aside. That would have been on my own terms, not against my will like what had just happened.

  I opened my mind and sought out Heath. Why tonight? I felt him recoil with the force of my thoughts.

  You know why.

  I was in bed with Jonah! He saw me transform!

  Heath shut his thoughts off, leaving me terribly alone.

  I whirled in the air, scanning the snow-covered ground below for the other Benandanti. Shimmering blue figures moved in between the white trees. I pitched toward them, weaving in and out of the icicle-laden branches. I tuned out their chatter as I listened for Heath to come back to me.

  At last, he did. I warned you, Alessia. I said you had to make a choice, but no, you thought you could have it all. And now look what’s happened.

  Screw you, I screamed in my mind and out loud, a piercing cry across the night sky. I love him. And now he’ll hate me forever.

  There was a pause in which I could hear both our minds heaving into calm.

  Finally, Heath said, You don’t know that. He might very well accept this. There’s always hope.

  I turned the idea of hope over in my mind. The look on Jonah’s face when he opened the window . . . I closed my eyes and flew blind until I could sense the other Benandanti near me.

  But right now, Heath said, the mission—

  —is what matters, I finished for him, then alighted on a branch. I hopped the length of the branch for a moment, my feathers brushing the snow off its surface as I moved restlessly along it. I knew I had to compartmentalize, but I couldn’t focus. Emotions collided inside me, making it impossible for me to stay still. I fluttered my wings in the air and took off again.

  I leveled off at the treetops. Concentrate on the task at hand, I told myself. I tried to shut my mind off to what had happened, but images crept back in. The way the moonlight shone on Jonah’s skin, the light in his eyes as he lowered his head to kiss me. The look on his face as he watched me soar out into the night. I rose in the air, my aura flickering as if I could shake that last image out of my brain, but it remained there, frozen in time forever.

  On the ground below, Heath called to me. I opened my mind to him. Are you okay?

  No. What a stupid question.

  I felt him sigh. I know. I know you’re not okay. But can we count on you?

  Isn’t that why I’m here instead of back home with Jonah?

  You’re right. I’m sorry. I just need to know that, in the midst of battle, you won’t go AWOL on me.

  I didn’t answer. The truth was, I didn’t know that I wouldn’t go AWOL. My frame of mind felt so fragile that I just wasn’t sure. Is the Clan meeting first?

  At the birch trees. You remember the plan?

  Yes. I veered toward the Waterfall and rounded the copse of birch trees, their thin white trunks glistening in the moonlight. The whole forest was white and black and grey, shadows and cold light.

  One by one, the Clan gathered on the ground, and the Eagle arrived from the east.

  Just outside the copse, the bushes rustled violently, and the Stag crashed into view, a dark ribbon of blood streaming down his neck. They know we’re here.

  In that instant, I opened a channel to Heath alone. You can count on me, I told him. Never doubt that.

  He didn’t have time to reply. With a great roar, the Malandanti burst out of hiding. In one frightening, maddening moment, the two armies clashed, body to body, jaws snapping, rumbling growls echoing through the forest. For a moment I watched the battle from outside myself, paralyzed in the air. And then the human part of my brain surrendered, and the Falcon took over.

  Without the element of surprise, our entire plan was thrown out of whack. But I knew my part. Inside the barrier, the Raven was on duty, circling the pool. I dipped low and skimmed the water to the top of the Waterfall. Before any of the Malandanti could see what I was doing, I plunged into the water and let the current take me over the edge. I felt the air change and soared out of the water, droplets shedding from my feathers.

  I was inside the barrier.

  The Raven dropped several feet in the air, its aura flickering with shock.

  The memory of chasing it over my farm seared my brain. I swerved and met the Raven head-on, my beak at its throat. Blood glistened on its feathers. Screaming, the Raven vaulted away from me. I chased after it and caught one wing in my talons. It fought back, trying to reach me with its beak, but I thrashed in the air, too quick for the weakened attack. I squeezed my talons harder and harder until I felt the delicate wing bones snap.

  The Raven cried out, the harsh sound rippling over the water. I let go and the bird fell, vainly trying to keep aloft with one wing. I plummeted and caught the healthy wing. The Raven whimpered as though it knew what I was going to do.

  I broke its other wing and clutched the crippled bird tight in my talons. It twisted in my grip, but I held fast. I mounted the air, climbing up the Waterfall toward the hidden opening in the barrier. The water was icy cold on my feathers as I dove in, dragging the Raven with me.

  The instant I emerged from the water with the Raven, the glittering light of the barrier went out. The Malandanti froze in surprise, and in the moment it took them to recover, the Benandanti rushed to the Waterfall. I set the Raven down in the snow and followed. But before I could reach my Clan, something sprang out of the water and blocked me.

  I halted in midair, my whole body shaking. The Panther’s green eyes pierced through me. Was Bree behind those eyes? Screeching, I plummeted, talons outstretched, but it dodged to the side, avoiding my strike.

  Leave it, Heath shouted at me. Get down here before—

  I was too late. The other Malandanti had already made their way down the Waterfall. With a cry, I faced the Panther and dove with impossible speed. I didn’t just want it out of my way; I wanted it out of commission. I slammed into its side, knocking it back into the water. It roared in pain and sprang up. Those green eyes never left me.

  The Panther crouched, its black fur sleek and dripping with water. The wind sang through my feathers as I shot toward it. But instead of combating me, it pounced to the side. I tumbled off-balance, unable to control my speed.

  I said, leave it! It wasn’t just Heath guiding me; it was an order. I tore my attention away from the Panther and soared over the Waterfall. Down below, the Malandanti were fighting to stay in control, but they were outnumbered.

  She’s here, Heath told the rest of the Clan as I leveled off. We have to get the entire Clan here to complete the magic—

  But the Malandanti—

  They’re missing two so it will work.

  In the corner of my wide vision, I spotted the two in question. The Panther bounded down the rocks, holding the flightless Raven in its mouth. If they reached the rest of their Clan, we wouldn’t be able to enforce our magic. Hurry, hurry!

  Heath raised his head and howled, the sound echoing into the sky. A stream of brilliant blue light snaked through the trees and danced above the water. It seemed to be made of a million perfect stars. It was the magic of the Benandanti, wrought by the Concilio Celeste. The Stag had told us what would happen, but I didn’t know it would be so beautiful.

  The Malandanti Bobcat yowled, but its Clan mates were blinded by the magic. Just as the Panther reached the bottom of the Waterfall, the entire world turned blue, the light shimmering over the whole forest. I felt the earth shudder all around me. The Malandanti inside the barrier were all blown back. The light cleared, leaving a ring around the Waterfall. The magical barrier now glowed with the celestial aura of the Benandanti, like a prism caught by the sun.

  The forest fell quiet and still. The water below me was smooth and clear, all the murkiness gone. And the trailer had disappeared, a blossoming willow tree restored in its place.

  Outside the barrier, the Malandanti Bobcat growled and pawed the g
round. It rammed the barrier, which flickered upon impact. The Bobcat fell back, shaking with the jolt.

  Ladies and gentlemen, the Stag said, the Waterfall is ours.

  I closed my eyes and let the sweetness of victory flood me. The jubilation of the Clan filled my head. For a moment, all my despair about Jonah was replaced with joy and relief. I wanted to stay in that moment with my Clan. But all too soon, the celebration sobered.

  They’ll be back, the Stag reminded us. Maintaining control will be a constant battle.

  I’ll take first watch, the Lynx said.

  So will I, replied the Stag. We should keep two of us on patrol at all times now. The rest of you, take care. We’ll meet again soon.

  Heath splashed out of the water, and the Eagle disappeared past the treetops. I spent a long time getting home, flying in circles as I tried not to think about what waited for me there. Exhaustion weighted down my wings, and I finally turned toward the farm. The snow on the hillside glistened as the sky lightened toward dawn. I skimmed the ground, every beat of my wings an enormous effort. With the last of my strength, I flew through the garage room window.

  My body lay on the floor in the same place where I had collapsed. I dissolved into it and sat up, gulping in lungfuls of air. I grasped the edge of the bed and hauled myself into it, pulled the covers up to my chin, and let the blood steal back into my body.

  It took me a moment to realize the bed was empty. I glanced around the room until I saw him, sitting in the far corner with his knees pulled up to his chin. His eyes gleamed in the semidarkness of the room. He was watching me. “Jonah?”

  “Don’t.” Fear and horror resonated in his voice.

  I clutched the quilt. Wind swept in the still-open window, scattering snowflakes and shuffling papers on the desk in the corner. I slid out of bed and crossed to the window. The icy breeze cut my skin. I closed the window and turned, then leaned against the sill and looked at Jonah in the corner. He followed my every move, shifting slightly away from me when I knelt on the floor in front of him. I didn’t dare touch him.