Avery’s jaw fell open. Everyone and anyone with eyes could see that. Mason was nuts. UFO fanatics would be on this place in a heartbeat. Avery might as well have considered it her backup plan. The amulet crackled and popped, the blackened shards dropping into the slush. The light dimmed from its base before dissipating into the air. It left ripples in the clouds.
Avery stared up at the sky, unsure of what to expect next. Taller and more monstrous mountains ate up most of the skyline. The distance had already faded into complete darkness. She waited for a familiar flicker of movement fluttering through the sky. She waited for the harpies to arrive.
They left her waiting. Avery gathered her shaking knees into her arms where she’d grudgingly sat. Temperature dropping again, Avery sent an absent thought towards digging for her missing scarf. Even the vivacious blue fabric had become buried over night so even if she found it, it’d be sopping wet. As the last of the sun was slipping away, she saw something in the distance.
Unlike the flap of bird wings, the eventual flicker came like a spiraling comet. She barely saw a flash of grey when it barreled into the ground half a mile away. Within seconds of the landing, Avery spotted the harpie woman approaching directly parallel to her.
Wings extended, the harpie closed the distance between them in moments. Avery didn’t recognize the girl so at least it wasn’t Eva. This harpie had beige wings, blonde hair, and absolutely pastel skin. Face rounder, she almost looked young but the crinkles around her eyes spoke otherwise. Short for a harpie, she still stood inches above Avery and used her height to glower downward.
“Who are you? And where’d you get this?” The harpie woman snapped automatically. She marched up to the shattered remains of Mason’s homing amulet. Without even seeing them, she knowingly kicked at the slush until they surfaced.
“Um. Avery, and Mason gave it to me. And who are you?”
“My name is Adalyn, I’m Mason’s fiancé.”
Avery, immobilized, didn’t speak until the muscles in her slack jaw finally tightened again.
“Fiancé?” Avery repeated just to make sure she’d heard right.
“Where is he? I need to see him.” Adalyn urged, snapping Avery out of her stupor.
“He’s in here. He’s injured.” Avery began to backtrack into the cave but Adalyn didn’t follow.
“How?” The harpie woman asked shortly.
“What?” Avery stopped, confused.
“How was he injured?” Adalyn had backed off a least a dozen feet. Her wings had shut and eyes had widened. Brow pinched, she scrutinized Avery with an excruciating tension. It clicked in Avery’s head. Adalyn was probably justified to be suspicious. Allowing it, Avery turned to face her and explained with the wide berth between them.
“The Band of Thieves attacked us.”
“Really?” Adalyn cocked her head to the side, pink lips parting. “Why was the Band attacking you? Why was Mason ever with you?”
Posing the serious questions in a deadly quiet voice, Adalyn advanced a few steps. For the first time, a shiny silver glint became visible at her side. Avery’s eyes darted to it before she could stop herself. The glint shone off a dagger that Adalyn had strategically tucked into her belt. Its recent appearance meant she’d unsnapped it from her buckle with a slight movement of her arm. Stomach turning in knots, Avery forced herself to stare back at Adalyn’s narrowed blue eyes. Holding her open hands up, Avery explained.
“He was searching for Jericho’s amulet and I found it.”
Astonishment flushed Adalyn’s face a clear crimson.
“You have it?” She questioned immediately.
Avery shrugged, unsure of exactly what to do. Holding her injured hand up, she showed Adalyn. Within the week, the magical mark had transformed from a few black splotches on her palm. It now twisted down her arm like external veins, reaching up past her elbow and just below her shoulder blade. It resembled frostbite except its wiry patterns almost formed a design, and Avery was the canvas.
“I am it.” She reasoned aloud, not letting the small cinch of hysteria reach into her voice.
Though she’d gotten the mark as far back as the Fourth of July, only now did it expand and swell with such ferocity. In the cave, Mason had wearily mentioned the reasoning. “The more you use its energy to survive,” He’d justified, “the more it becomes part of you.” With that ill thought, Avery had hurried to summon the harpie that stood before her now.
Adalyn’s expression didn’t change initially. Young face and old eyes shifting at last, she trudged forward at a deliberately slow pace. Finally she stood directly before Avery and gingerly touched Avery’s outstretched hand. The mark pulsed below Avery’s skin, hot and itching. Adalyn drew her fingers away unhurried. Blue eyes catching Avery again, Adalyn’s face showed everything in her mind clicking together.
“If they don’t have the amulet, then the Band is still after you.”
Avery nodded and with that thought, cast a quick weary glance at the sky. Adalyn yanked the dagger out of her belt, and swung her stance into a crouch.
“You called them here! They’ll follow you here! Where’s Mason?” She bellowed.
Avery turned and dashed toward the cave. She slid to a stop just where the entrance to the tunnel peeked from the rock base. Adalyn knocked past her and dove into the channel’s entrance with her wings snapping behind her back. Knowing the tight squeeze inside, Avery didn’t chase. Lingering by the entrance, she heard Adalyn crash to her knees.
“Mason, are you alright? Wake up, speak to me.” Her voice altered noticeably. Her shouting had turned to soothing whispers and in a minute, Mason’s husky voice whispered in return.
Cheeks reddening, Avery backpedaled towards the center of the shallow valley. The voice tones had rapidly turned into something Avery wasn’t too okay with over hearing. She stared down toward the glistening snow and focused on settling her spinning mind. She reasoned things out. Mason hadn’t told her anything about the harpie world. She shouldn’t have found it so surprising that he had a girlfriend. Or an almost-wife. After all, Avery reminded herself, Mason had no intention of sticking around when they got the amulet out. He’d go back to his own life and Avery would go back to hers like nothing ever happened.
Her thoughts stopped suddenly when a shadow fell upon the ground. Avery didn’t have a chance to turn around. A heavy crack to her head and she saw stars. Another whack and Avery saw nothing.
Her world eventually returned to her in blurry blotches. Bit by bit, pieces of her vision restored until she found herself staring at a brightly lit floor. Her skull pounded and ears felt like they were stuffed with sand. Head weighing ten tons, she rolled her shoulders and struggled to look up.
“Sleeping beauty awakes.” For the briefest of seconds, she thought she heard Nate.
Confused, she tilted her head up and desperately blinked until the room became clear. But instead of off white walls, time worn wood stared back at her. Instead of plush carpet, dust and dirt covered the concrete floors. And instead of stout Nate sulking against the wall, there stood a towering harpie. Grey wings curled behind his back, he watched her while wearing a taunting smile.
“Rafael?” She croaked with recognition. The illusion of being home disappeared and was replaced by the bitter reality of an empty cold room.
“Hi girlie.” Rafael acknowledged her with a nod.
“Where am I?” She asked in a hoarse voice. She examined her surroundings with a quick, overhaul gaze.
Only one light brightened the room and shadows collected in the corners. The air smelt musty and thick. An old run down cabin in Alaska. Now that was just classic.
“Somewhere safe now.” He said.
“Psh, I certainly feel safe.” She said against her better judgment, but her frustration demanded to be properly voiced.
However they’d knocked her out and moved her here hadn’t been gentle. Though adrenaline kept her from feeling every ache, she still felt the searing sting of rope trapping her
in a stiff chair. Leaning forward, she pulled on her restraints. They’d tied her tight enough to cut off her blood pressure. The ropes didn’t even so much as shift.
Rafael watched her small motions with a sharp predator’s gaze. She gave up and shrugged at him innocently. He’d never moved from his position on the wall but she didn’t want to give him reason to either. Avery never mastered in playing con games for survival, but something told her to keep talking.
“I take it we’re still in Alaska.” She commented openly.
His silence was her answer.
“Somewhere in the woods perhaps?” She tried again.
“You might as well not know where you are. Your friends aren’t coming for you and you won’t be calling them.”
Realization sunk in and with it, a harrowing prickling panic. The Band had followed the homing signal not only to her but to Mason also. When she’d left, Mason couldn’t even stand. He couldn’t face off with them twice.
“My friends? What happened to Mason?”
He grinned at her.
“That joke of an exiled harpie is probably rotting away somewhere in the mountains still.”
Her heart skipped a beat. Twitching, she pushed against her ropes and rolled her hands that were tied up. She couldn’t even budge.
“What do you mean?” Avery asked.
“The exiled part or the rotting part?” He swaggered forward and closed the distance between them. She didn’t have to specify before he took the opportunity to speak.
“Your precious boyfriend was exiled from the harpie community months ago. Why do you think he took this suicide mission to find the amulet? To find you?”
Avery’s thoughts raced.
“Mason came after the amulet because you killed his father. You killed Jericho. He probably just wants it back.” Her words sounded halfway hollow.
Rafael’s smile curled up even more.
“Is that all Mason told you?”
A creak from the door interrupted him. The door swung open and another harpie hunched over to fit through the doorway. No lights lit up the world outside the cabin so when the door shut, Avery was just as lost as ever before. The new harpie was Eva and Eva’s mere presence sent Rafael to the opposite side of the cabin.
“Tell her no more, Rafael. She already knows too much.”
He pressed himself flat against the wall and gave a half hearted debate.
“I didn’t tell her anything, Eva. And even if I did, it won’t matter when we kill her.”
Eva’s lips thinned and she strode up to stand before Avery. Avery squirmed when the tension thick atmosphere became suffocating, but she couldn’t move away.
“It may not be that easy anymore, Rafael. You should know that.” Eva hummed quietly. Moving again, she walked around Avery’s chair until she reached the one spot that Avery couldn’t see her.
“I don’t know what to do with you.” She said slowly, this time directed at Avery.
“What do you mean?” Avery’s voice had twisted with panic but she was kept forcefully still. The blood pounding through her veins only made her wrists and hands tingle with numbness.
“What’s wrong, Eva?” Rafael piped in as well.
“Somehow this human filth has managed to absorb the magic not only into her body but have it grow there. Never in my life have I seen humans used as vessels, nor am I entirely sure to reverse it.”
“And that means?” Rafael kept prompting on the exact same thoughts Avery shared.
“That means we must find a way to free the magic from her, find a way to use the magic within her, or cut our losses and kill her.” Eva’s silky voice made everyone in the room shudder down to the core.
Rafael then piped in something that Avery didn’t see coming.
“This is why you told us not to kill your brother. Mason might know how to free the magic.”
“Wait, Mason’s your brother?” Avery’s voice spiked with her abrupt shock. Struggling once again to move, she tried to get a glimpse of Eva’s face.
Eva moved again, heading for the cabin door. Hovering by the knob, she looked straight toward Rafael with the sharp green eyes that suddenly seemed so reminiscent of Mason’s.
“Yes, and if Mason knew enough to track her to Alaska then he’ll find us again. But this time, we’ll be ready for him.” Eva opened the door. She glanced toward Avery this time and said, “Oh and Rafael, bring our company. We’ll have to deal with a few things before my brother arrives.”
Ten
The world bounced from Avery’s skewed vantage point and though she could see her surroundings, they only resembled an obnoxious blur of blue skies and grey gravel. Spitting out the feathers that poked in her mouth, Avery wiggled and tried to see past Rafael’s wing mast. He’d pulled her out of the chair, threw her over her shoulder and carried her like a rag doll out of the cabin. And on a harpie, the ride wasn’t a pleasant one.
“Stop moving girl.” Rafael warned her and squeezed his arm around her waist until she squeaked.
Avery debated on complaining when she heard something over the crunch of gravel beneath their feet and then she stayed quiet to listen to it. At first the swooshing noise sounded too vague to identify until she heard the characteristic trickle of a stream. Avery wrenched her body to glance in the correct direction just as Rafael stepped onto paved ground. They weren’t in the middle of the woods, Avery realized rapidly.
Nearby, a collection of two-story wooden buildings sat. In the middle of the tiny town, some of the buildings had toppled and only remained as piles of jagged wood and scraps of metal. Except the destruction there didn’t exactly resemble remains from a blast site or a charring fire. Nearby it, the buildings remained untouched, shinning, and new with recent coats slick paint and varnish. Avery squinted at the odd picture. It struck her then. No lights were on inside nor were there any cars nearby.
Her thoughts landed on an answer fairly quickly, and she turned her body to correct location for confirmation. The stream ran nearby and above it was a concrete path up the mountain side. Visible from the top was a set of treacherous and rotting suspended train tracks that circled around down the mountain side. From here she could even see the rusted silver box cart affixed at the track’s onset. She recognized it now.
“We’re at Hatcher’s Pass.”
Hatcher Pass was an old gold mine turned tourist spot near Palmer Alaska. She used to come here as a child. The vivid memories of it came back to her. She’d splash through the cold water stream, panning for tiny specks of gold and ruining her overpriced fur boots. Even though it seemed so distance in the past, the memories returned with such striking clarity that her eyes stung.
Avery began to wonder if she’d ever get to make anymore stupid memories like those again. Mason had been her last hope to survive and he was on his death bed a few hours ago. Avery’s thoughts darkened. She didn’t know how to get out of this one.
“Up here, Rafael.” Eva’s voice led them back off the path and though the dirt. Rafael finally stopped short and rolled Avery off his shoulder before she’d gotten the chance to brace herself. Smashing into the floor sent a sharp jolt of pain throughout Avery’s skeleton but she ignored it. She wasn’t tied up anymore, wasn’t trapped, and was ready to escape. Rolling to her feet, she stood only to freeze because of what she saw.
Lingering around the old wooden wreckage stood more harpies than she had seen before. Every one of them wore the familiar brass plate with the same swirling insignia on it. The mere sight made her back into Rafael’s hard chest and he used it to bounce her back into the center of the circle.
Mason had once referred to the members of the Band she’d encountered as children. At the time it seemed foolish but now it rang as absolutely true. The new harpies she hadn’t seen before had at least ten years on the others. Even Eva slunk behind them and disappeared into the background. The new center of focus revolved around one man who rested on the wood ceiling of a dilapidated building. The harpie’s black eyes
crawled over her a few times over before he spread his massive wings and leapt down to the floor with a sweeping gust.
Like all other harpies, the man stood head and shoulders above her and had never ending limbs. His claws caught the light and his wing mast spread out far. Unlike other harpies though, he didn’t wear the brass chest plates or any familiar insignia. His cloth clothes had been tattered showing off the long scars over his neck and chest. With graying hair and drooping eyes, age and experience showed in his face.
“This would be the girl that I’m foretold about?” He asked the crowd but no one answered him. Avery was willing to bet they were afraid too.
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