The Reclamation (Shadowed Wings Book 3)

by Ivy Asher

  “Let me do something first, and then it’s all you, Pidge,” I promise her, and she gives a satisfied nod and sits back, ready to enjoy the show.

  I leap off the branch, not nearly as gracefully as Zeph did. I’m more cannonball to his swan dive, but who cares? When the wind is rushing past you, and gravity is threatening to bring you to heel, all that matters is your wings on the wind and the way it makes your soul soar like nothing else will.

  Zeph zips past me, and I giggle as I redirect and follow him like a bullet that’s hot on his trail. The faster that I’m ready to lob at him dies in my throat as he pulls his wings in tighter and shoots through the sky like a comet. I give chase, and I’m just about to catch him when he flares his wings out and drifts slowly onto a branch. I follow suit, stopping in front of a massive house that’s been built into the trees.

  I try to picture what life had been like for the gryphons and their tree houses. I can practically hear the giggles of kids swooping around as they played tag or whatever it is gryphon kids love to play. I can see mothers and fathers watching their children from the branches of their home, calling loved ones home for dinner, or getting ready to celebrate one of this world’s many festivals.

  It makes me sad that gryphons were forced to abandon this way of life. Now they reside in Ouphe abandoned castles and cities, and even though I know nothing about tree houses and what it was like to grow up in a community like this, I hope the gryphons can find their way back to all of this once the fighting is over.

  I watch Zeph for a moment as he takes this place in. I’m not sure what’s running through his head, but it’s really none of my business. This is where his fight started, and this is where I hope he can find a way to make that drive work for him instead of against him. I don’t want Zeph to lose the fire that’s guided him for so long, but when this war is over and there’s no Vow anymore to fight against, what will be left for him? He needs to find more in his life that makes it worth living than hate and the need for retribution.

  I nod once and then rip off a branch the size of my arm, stomp toward the house of horrors, and swing hard at the window. I let the branch fly from my hands, and the sound of shattering glass fills the air all around me. I don’t look over at Zeph to see what he thinks of my sudden tantrum—what he wants to do with his time is his business—but me...I want to tear this shit to the ground with my bare fucking hands.

  I want to erase the legacy of pain and hate, destroy the home that fostered such torment. If I could light this bitch up with fire, I would, but since that’s not a power I have, my anger will have to do. I kick at the front door until it’s half hanging off the hinges and break off another branch to throw through another window. I go to work, grunting and screaming when it helps me, but otherwise I’m quiet and focused solely on destruction.

  Something crashes to the ground on my left, and I look over to see Zeph pulling boards down and chucking them as far as he can throw. His face is fixed in fury and determination, and we both work alongside each other, doing what we can to rid the world of this shit hole, one piece at a time.

  I’m panting and sweating in no time, but there’s not enough damage for me to stop. Damn, where’s a bulldozer when you need one? Pigeon perks up, as though Bulldozer is her middle name, and flashes me images of her ripping a fucking tree from the ground, roots and all. I chuckle and gesture for her to have at it. She cracks her neck from side to side, rolls her shoulders, and then puts a gryphon-sized hard hat on that says, “I got this” on it.

  Before I can tell her to let me get undressed first, the overzealous little shit shifts, and we explode into her massive gryphon form. I throw up my hands in defeat.

  “I fucking give up,” I yell at her inside our head. “I’m officially a nudist now; I won’t fight it anymore,” I concede.

  Pigeon chuffs and then hits play on the soundtrack she’s selected for this moment. The lyrics “I came in like a wrecking ball” blast in our head as she shows me how gryphons like to get down when it comes to destruction.

  I cheer my fucking head off when she rips part of the roof off as if it’s the foil seal of a Pringles can. She goes to town ripping shit to shreds, and you’d think I was sitting front row at the most epic sporting event with how into it I am. I’m like a beauty pageant/soccer mom, just clapping away and telling everyone within hearing distance, “That’s my baby,” and pointing to the amazing things only I care about.

  A feral roar tears through the night, and we look over in alarm only to find that Zeph’s released the sky shadow, and that fucker is going pure Godzilla all over this place. Pigeon gives him an answering roar, and I Hercules-clap as they work as tandem forces of destruction.

  Maybe Bulldozer is Pigeon’s middle name.

  The house crumbles one wall and board at a time, and I’m surprised by the quick work the gryphons make of turning this place into rubble. Maybe I shouldn’t be shocked though; Pigeon and her mates have always ripped apart pieces of my life and what I thought I knew about the world with wild abandon. I’m beginning to understand more and more, with each day that passes, that the reality of that isn’t the bad thing I once thought it was.

  Zeph lifts a bed that managed to get tangled in some branches and throws it. Pigeon roars in triumph and slaps the sky shadow’s butt with the tip of her tail. I choke on a laugh, because I’m pretty sure she just good gamed him. The sky shadow’s tail flicks Pigeon right back, and she snaps at his paw before bouncing back away from him.

  Alarm shoots through me, and I immediately question Pigeon’s sanity. Why the hell is she picking a fight with Zeph’s gryphon? His tail gets all sassy as though he’s more amused than annoyed, and out of nowhere, he leaps for Pigeon.

  I scream, shocked by the explosive attack, but Pigeon just chuffs as I she dives sideways off the humongous tree. She falls like she’s mimicking the rubble her and Zeph’s gryphons have been tossing around, and then she spreads her wings, and we’re suddenly darting around the behemoth tree trunk and soaring up into the cloudless, star-peppered night.

  The sky shadow roars as Pigeon expertly dodges him, and his eyes light up with excited challenge as he dives off the tree in pursuit. I feel like Slider in Top Gun as I try to keep track of the bogey, but the fact that Zeph’s gryphon is almost pitch black does not help with that task.

  I’m waiting for him to show up inverted right above us, but Pigeon is seemingly in heaven as she finally gets the game of cat and mouse she’s been begging for since we first spoke.

  I squeal in anticipation, not able to contain it. “I lost him, Pidge,” I shout out and then immediately go quiet so we can feel the air for him.

  Pigeon flashes me a got him two milliseconds before she dives to the left, and the sky shadow goes screaming past us, missing us by only a feather. He flips back so he can come for us again, but now it’s really on. Pigeon dashes through the sky like a speeding falling star, just begging for some poor sap to make a wish.

  I can practically hear the wind as it screams past us and our breakneck speed, and I love every fucking minute of it.

  “Go!” I scream with glee when I can feel the sky shadow almost on our tail.

  Pigeon blows my mind when she puts up the flaps and flips back going Mach holy fucking shit, tapping the sky shadow on the back as she evades him in some gravity defying, cat-bendy move.

  I laugh so hard at the badass boop she just gave him, all because she could. A deeper chuffing noise sounds off below us, and I’m stupefied into silence.

  Is Zeph’s gryphon...laughing?

  He grabs our paw and yanks us down out of nowhere, and I oh shit scream and then crack up when Pigeon releases this surprised squeal. The sky shadow rolls us onto our back, and we twirl and swoop, swirl and loop around each other in a stunning display of flying and finesse.

  I watch in awe as the gryphons play and tag each other, moving seamlessly through the sky like they can anticipate each other’s moves. The carefree happiness that’s radiating out of P
igeon right now makes me want to cry, because she’s deserved this from the beginning. This is all she’s wanted from the very beginning, this simple act of trust and play. She’s wanted to chase and be chased and just be free to be a gryphon.

  I send her waves of warmth and love as she streaks through the night, finally letting go and just being who she was always meant to be. She was trapped inside of me for so long, and I’m overwhelmed by the beauty and rightness of her much-deserved freedom.

  Pigeon dives down and nips at the sky shadow’s ear, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face if I tried, because this...Pigeon and I...is perfection. And this is how things should always be.

  17

  “Does it hurt her, dad?” I ask, pulling my hand away from the little pig with the black mark like daddy’s on her back. She scampers away with little piggy grunts, sniffing at the grass.

  “It stings her a little, My Heart, but she’s helping me teach you to protect yourself, so she doesn’t mind. We’ll make sure to give her extra treats and cuddles as soon as we’re done,” he reassures me.

  “I don’t want to hurt Princess, even if it is only a little,” I tell him, tears welling in my eyes.

  My dad’s bright green gaze softens, and he gets on his knees in front of me. “I know, My Heart. I love that you want to look after her. How about we try just one more time? You focus really hard on everything I’ve told you, and if you do it right, then we’ll never do it again,” he offers me.

  I study him and then Princess for a moment. “Not ever?” I ask, making sure he means it.

  “Ever,” he agrees.

  I take a deep breath and nod once. He gets to his feet and goes to get Princess, then brings her back and sets her down in front of me again. I rest my hand on the mark dad gave her earlier and try to remember everything he said I had to do. Princess squirms a little, and I use my other hand to hold her still. Dad said I have to touch the magic if I want to stop it.

  I close my eyes and focus. “Nusht fialow odreece tamod kle,” I declare confidently, and I feel the magic under my hand crumble like my sandcastles do at the beach when dad and I play dragon horde and climb all over them.

  Princess gives a pained squeal, and I let her go, immediately feeling bad for hurting her. Dad scoops me up, a huge smile on his face, and hugs me tightly. “Yes, My Heart, that’s exactly right,” he tells me proudly.

  But I don’t feel right, I feel sad for hurting my friend.

  “Don’t cry, my girl. Princess will be okay. We’ll give her some special treats, and you’ll see that she’s just fine. Now you know how to protect yourself from harm if you ever need to,” he reassures me as he wipes tears from my cheeks.

  “Why would I need to?” I ask, my voice hiccupping with emotion.

  “Mommy and I will do everything we can to make sure you never have to; this is just in case.”

  “For safety?” I ask, repeating what he said to me at the start of today’s lesson.

  “That’s exactly right, My Heart. You touch the magic, think about what you want, and then you order the magic to do what you want it to do. You have to mean every word, just like you did today, and then you can keep yourself safe.”

  I give him a small smile and rest my head on his shoulder. “Can me and Princess have ice cream now?”

  Dad chuckles. “Of course, should we go see if mommy and gran want some too?” he asks me in his very happy voice. I love his very happy voice. My smile grows even wider, and I scrunch up my nose.

  “Let’s hunt them, daddy, and then when we’ve caught them, we’ll ask them if they want ice cream,” I suggest.

  He laughs his play evil laugh and then we race up the stairs.

  “Don’t forget Princess, dad!”

  I sit up, disoriented and still trying to struggle out from under the veil of sleep. I have no idea where I am, but I can tell it’s early morning from the dawning light surrounding me. My heart thumps with adrenaline as my mind wraps itself around the details of the dream.

  “Holy shit,” I mumble, my voice brittle and dry.

  Was that really it? The key to all of this lies in a forgotten memory of Princess the pig and ice cream. I run my focus over the words that I spoke, and a tingle rips through me.

  Holy fuck. That was it. My dad said I knew the words already, and he was right. Princess the pig had disappeared weeks later, and I was heartbroken yet completely forgot about all of this…until now. I run my hands over my face and look around, shock and excitement racing through me.

  I’m in a tent, but it doesn’t look familiar. A rough blanket scratches against my legs, and I’ve woken up naked enough in the last handful of months to know that’s exactly what I am now. Strong arms wrap around my waist and pull me closer. My ass is suddenly being hugged like it’s a beloved stuffed animal. Zeph nuzzles me, and his scratchy morning beard rubs against the soft skin of my hip. It feels like sandpaper and I squeal a little and try to pull away.

  My skin warms with a blush as I take in my surroundings again. I’m naked, sitting next to an equally naked, and oddly cuddly, Zeph, in a tent with…yep, Ryn and Treno, and I can’t immediately figure out how the hell I got here.

  I think back on the night before. The last thing I remember is me and Pigeon racing Zeph and the sky shadow around, Pigeon eating a—I cringe at the thought—large worm-walrus looking thing, and then falling asleep in our gryphon form in one of the big trees. I pinch myself just to make sure I’m actually awake and here, but I feel it, so that must mean I somehow ended up in here naked, with my sort of mates.

  I check in with my vagina, because if I got hot and heavy last night, she and I need to talk. I do a couple Kegels, but Lassie doesn’t start barking like I should be worried that Timmy fell down the well again. I go full CSI. I’m not sore. There’s no evidence of orgasms. I check my hips and waist, no hot-sex injuries of any kind. I touch my lips, nope, not sore from kissing too much.

  Strangely, none of this makes me feel overly relieved. Because Zeph is hugging on my hips like I’m his favorite lovey, my lady bits are very aware of this fact, and yet here I am, untouched in any way.

  Pigeon rolls her eyes at me and shoves her face back under her wing. I shoot her a glare. “You know my confusion over this is your fault, right?” I tell the back of her head, because she’s completely ignoring me. “I told you they were a bad match for us, but you had to go and pump me full of hormones, and now my brain is fucked up. You fucked up my brain, Pigeon. This is a good thing, and yet my brain is sending me all kinds of signals telling me that lying naked in a tent with your mates, unfucked, is the opposite of a good thing.”

  Pigeon flashes me an image of my vagina and then promptly replaces that image with one of a desert, tumbleweed and all. Then she shows me a watering can watering flowers.

  I stare at her incredulously. “I do not have a dusty vagina, Pigeon,” I snap at her, but a loud snore leaks out from under her wing. My mouth drops open, and indignation falls right out.

  A sexy man-groan fills the tent out of nowhere, and I freeze. Maybe the lid for the can of worms my naked ass might have just opened is lying around on the ground somewhere. And if I can just sneak out, I could possibly frisbee-throw that lid right back into place, and no one will be the wiser.

  Of course, that’s the moment that sleepy Zeph decides he wants to lie on his other side. The only problem with that is, his arms are wrapped around my waist, and he takes me with him WWE body slam style. I squeal in shock midair, which serves to wake everyone in the tent up immediately. Thankfully, Zeph doesn’t go full Undertaker on me. But the next thing I know, my back is gently meeting the mattress we’re lying on, and he’s crawling on top of me protectively, growling, “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  Well, fuck me, this just got infinitely worse.

  Pigeon takes that moment to once again flash me an image of a watering can and some now drenched flowers, leaving me no choice but to flip her off.

  “What is it?” Ryn asks, shooti
ng to his feet and scanning the tent for a threat.

  Treno also pushes up out of bed, but he has one of those Chronicles of Riddick swoosh blades in his hand.

  Zeph’s weight settles on me slightly, and I ignore all the parts of my body that light up in excitement because his parts are touching them. He blinks the sleep from his eyes and looks down at me, his honeyed gaze filled with heat and then confusion.

  “How’d we get back here?” he asks groggily.

  “I thought you did it,” I confess, and Ryn’s and Treno’s heads both snap over in my direction.

  “What the rut?” Ryn asks, his features shifting from shocked to salacious in less than two blinks. “How in rutting Cynas did I sleep through that?” he asks no one in particular.

  I try to sit up, but Zeph takes his sweet time getting off me. I’m pretty sure he’s playing some kind of game that involves seeing how many things he can rub against before I implode.

  “You didn’t sleep through anything. We shifted last night and woke up here. I have no idea how. We have to seriously start working with Wekun in figuring out these runes,” I announce as I get to my feet and head to the entrance of the tent. “I’m just going to go get cleaned up and do exactly that,” I tell them, offering them a salute as I turn to leave.

  Really, Falon, a salute?

  I grab for the tent flap, but I don’t take another step before I’m being pulled back against another hard body sporting some serious morning wood. “What do you think you’re doing?” Ryn asks incredulously.

  “Ummm, leaving,” I supply, matching his disbelieving tone.

  “Not like that, you aren’t,” he scolds, and I look down to see what has him concerned.

  “It’s fine, I’ve accepted the nudist way of life,” I tell him casually like that’s all the reassurance he needs.

  “You should only be bearing yourself to your mates,” he tells me on a purr that makes a lick of desire run up my spine and goose bumps rise on my arms. “Good mates do that often,” he adds, fanning his fingers on my stomach and pushing me back against his good morning.