‘Fox?’
‘You remember we had a thing? Back in the day? Well, it started again. I love him.’
‘Nice try,’ Maddie was smiling, but there was the smallest hint of uncertainty.
Lydia clutched that uncertainty to her heart, squeezed it close and prayed it would be enough to stop Maddie from hurting Emma. If this didn’t work. But it had to work.
She was at the edge, now. If Maddie just nudged her over, using her mind, then Lydia would die for nothing. She had to get Maddie closer.
‘Wait!’
‘Last words? I don’t think so.’
‘You can’t kill me.’
She felt her body lurch and for a sickening moment her feet lost purchase on the ground and she was hanging over the edge, all centre of balance off and only Maddie’s will stopping her from freewheeling into the air. ‘Wait! You don’t want to do this!’
‘I do,’ Maddie said, eerily calm. ‘I really do.’
‘I left insurance.’
And her feet were making full contact on the concrete, her body tilted back and away from the edge of the roof. She felt the control release a little and she stumbled back.
Maddie had taken a step closer. Still not in arm’s reach, but closer. ‘I’m listening.’
Lydia was gasping for breath, tears still streaming down her face, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to struggle to speak. She exaggerated a little, playing for time, and Maddie folded her arms, waiting.
Lydia had played this moment over and over in her mind. The confident part of her wanted to take Maddie on, to straighten up and throw her Crow power and see if she could beat her one-on-one.
But, as always, her mind ran through the possibilities. If she failed, Maddie would kill her instantly. And then she would hurt Emma. And Fleet. And, now, possibly Paul Fox. And maybe her parents, and anybody who had ever meant anything to her. It was too big a risk. Lydia had to make sure.
Maddie’s hold over her was like bands of steel wrapping around her body, but also like having Jason on board, the sense of something inside stretching its limbs within hers and inhabiting her every organ and blood vessel and nerve. She wanted to test it, to see if she could break the bond, but didn’t want to alert Maddie to her power. She hoped she was strong enough to overcome Maddie’s control for a few seconds and, if she managed to catch her by surprise, that would be all she needed. If she tested it and failed, though, Maddie would be on alert and that could be all the edge she would need to keep Lydia’s body under control. She was itching with the desire to flex and push back and it was taking every ounce of self-control she had to hold herself in check. All the while acting desperate and terrified and as if she was struggling. She hung her head down, doubled over as far as she could with Maddie holding her in place, and forced her words out in a strangled whisper.
‘What?’ Maddie took another step closer.
‘Charlie,’ Lydia said, using the only name she knew had ever frightened Maddie.
‘What about Charlie?’
Another garbled whisper. She could feel the cold annoyance radiating from Maddie. Either her frustration would snap and she would shove Lydia over the edge of the building or, perhaps, pull out a knife and stab her to get it over with. Or, and this was crucial, she might take another step and bring herself close enough for Lydia to make her move.
She took another step.
Like a bird taking flight, Lydia unfurled her wings and threw everything she had outwards. Maddie’s control over her body snapped in an instant and she was propelled forward. Before she could react, Lydia had wrapped her arms around Maddie and was pulling her over to the edge of the roof.
Maddie’s split second of surprise had passed and she was fighting back with everything she had, both physically and with her controlling power. Lydia could feel the attack, trying to stop her muscles from behaving, trying to pull her away from the edge.
She was grateful for the hours she had spent being flipped and grappled on the mat, otherwise she wouldn’t have lasted a single second with Maddie. She was throwing her Crow whammy at Maddie, too, blocking her and attacking with the same motion, feeling the thousands of tiny hearts, beating in time, wings sweeping the air and feathers filling her mouth.
Another step and she half-fell, half-jumped, dragging Maddie along with her.
Chapter Thirty
The wind rushed past Lydia as she fell. She couldn’t see as her eyes had filled with tears from the cold air and the world was a blurry mess in shades of grey and brown. She couldn’t blink to clear her vision, couldn’t think past the sharp terror, which was like a single high note screaming in her ears. She had been falling for a second and also forever.
The air finally whipped away the water from her eyes, enough that she could see the ground below. Her arms were spread wide, desperately trying to slow her descent and a tiny part of her brain, the oldest part, told her to flap her arms to give herself a little uplift to catch a thermal. But she wasn’t a bird, she was a human. She knew she couldn’t fly.
Another second and the ground was very close. There wasn’t time. Lydia knew she was falling to her death and that there wasn’t time to be thinking this much. It simply wasn’t possible. Which meant she was probably already dead. Lying on the concrete with her wings smashed, and these were the last random firings of her neurons before the lights went out for good.
Her heartbeat was in her ears, pounding in panic, but the sound was like an orchestra. A thousand small hearts beating with hers, but much faster, filling in the gaps in her pulse so that it was a constant noise. Not overwhelming, but uplifting. The taste of feathers in the back of her throat and the sharp scrape of talons on stone. At once, she felt it. A draught of air from beneath, lifting her up and slowing her fall. She saw the blockwork of the building, a window, and then another. Separate and distinct impressions which were like slow motion after the blur of before. There was something underneath her, cradling her body. She felt her shoulders straighten and her arms lengthen, her wings spreading wide.
Then she hit the pavement.
Her arms were slightly outstretched and took the force of the fall along with her knees. She felt her forearm snap, and the pain whooshed like fire up to her shoulder. She lay on the concrete as if at the bottom of a pool. The noise of the city was muffled and her ears were still pounding with the drumming heartbeats. Slowly they faded and Lydia began to make sense of what she was seeing.
Maddie was lying a few feet away, on her back. Her head was turned toward Lydia and her eyes were open and fixed. Quite dead.
The pain in Lydia’s arm was vying for attention with a very bad feeling in her face. Her nose was broken for sure, and possibly some other small bones too. She didn’t want to move her legs to test her knees for fear of what fresh pain she would unleash. Instead she rested her cheek on the cold ground and dragged lungfuls of air in through her chapped lips.
She shifted and felt her arm complain, but in that moment she knew she would heal. Maddie had hit the ground first which meant that whatever Lydia had felt had not been a hallucination brought on by mortal danger. She had slowed her descent enough to survive. A pool of blood was spreading out from beneath Maddie’s head. A demonstration of what ought to have happened to Lydia, too.
She dragged another breath as the sound of sirens in the distance brought her more fully into the present. She couldn’t smell the exhaust and blocked drains and dropped takeaway containers which made up the London bouquet, but she knew they were there. She had fallen and her city had caught her.
* * *
Lying in her double bed with freshly changed sheets, a cup of coffee laced with a secret splash of whisky that Emma had provided, and Fleet in the kitchen making a late breakfast of scrambled eggs and crispy bacon, Lydia though that plunging several floors off a building had its advantages. She shifted and felt a bolt of pain from her broken left arm and sprained shoulder and thought that maybe it wasn’t something that she ought to do on a regular basis.
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She picked up her phone and checked her messages. Her mum had replied that they were having a lovely holiday and Maria had sent a terse email demanding an update on the whereabouts of the silver cup. She dialled her number, feeling magnanimous in her lovely alive-ness. ‘This isn’t the service I’m used to,’ Maria said. ‘I hope you have good news for me.’
‘I found the cup,’ Lydia said. ‘But I don’t have it. Best guess, it’s buried in Highgate Woods.’
‘Is that a joke?’
‘Nope,’ Lydia said, wincing as she shifted. ‘I know you think I stole it, but I didn’t. And neither did any Crow. When I say your best chance of finding it is to excavate the recent cave-in in Highgate Woods, I’m telling you the truth. And that’s the end of my favour. We’re even.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Maria began, ‘this is hardly-’
‘I am the head of the Crow Family and I located a highly important Silver relic as a personal favour. My advice is that you take better care of your things in future.’
Hanging up on Maria was always enjoyable and Lydia leaned back, closed her eyes, and savoured the moment. There would be fall out, of course, but that was for another day.
When she opened her eyes, she found Jason hovering at the end of her bed. He was staying out of the kitchen because Fleet was using it, but she knew it was taking an enormous amount of self-control. ‘He won’t be much longer,’ she said.
‘It’s not that,’ Jason said, pushing the sleeves of his suit jacket up even further. ‘There’s something I wanted to ask you.’
‘Fire away,’ Lydia said. Her stomach dipped at the nervousness in Jason’s voice.
‘You know the bracelet. It’s not that I’m not grateful…’
His form was shimmering and Lydia patted the bed in an invitation for him to come closer. ‘What is it?’
‘I don’t think I want to stay. After you… Go.’
‘After I die?’
‘Yeah. Or if you move to Fleet’s place. Or somewhere else. I don’t want you to feel responsible for me. And I don’t think I want to be like this forever. I mean, it’s good, now. I’m kind of happy. I like living with you and I like helping out but, you know, everything ends.’
‘You don’t have to feel guilty,’ Lydia began. ‘I like living with you, too. You’re not a responsibility, you’re my friend.’
His face brightened. ‘I know. And I feel the same. I mean, you’re my friend.’
Lydia felt a sudden lump in her throat. ‘Well, I’m glad that’s settled.’
They looked awkwardly at each other for a beat longer. Lydia tried to lighten the moment. ‘I should jump off a building more often.’
Jason smiled sadly. ‘Everything ends,’ he said again. ‘Or it should.’
Fleet pushed the door open and Jason slipped past him before Lydia could say anything else. ‘Your grill pan is a disgrace.’ Fleet had found a tray from somewhere, possibly one he had brought from his flat as Lydia was pretty damn certain she didn’t own such a thing, and he placed it on her lap. ‘Were you talking to yourself just now?’
‘Jason,’ Lydia said and watched Fleet straighten and look around the room.
‘He’s not here. You can relax.’
Fleet sat next to her on the bed, stealing a piece of bacon.
‘What do you think John is going to do?’
‘Can you just relax, woman? You did it. You don’t have to worry about Smith or Maddie. It’s over.’
Lydia dug into the eggs and bacon, trying to relax.
‘No bad feelings,’ Fleet tapped his temple. ‘No premonitions, bad dreams. nothing.’
After she had finished her breakfast Lydia relaxed back against the pillows. Her eyes wanted to drift shut and, after a few minutes of battling, she let them. Fleet was right. She had won. Maddie was dead. Smith was dead. She was free. Fleet was safe. Emma was safe. She still had to deal with John and Daisy. And no doubt Aiden was hovering somewhere outside the building, kept at bay by Fleet for the time being, but waiting to march into her office with a line of complaints and concerns and new jobs. Being head of the Crow Family as well as running Crow Investigations was a crazy idea. Two full-time jobs squished into one life, but it was her life. Her choice. She was drifting off, now, could feel sleep tugging at her sleeve. Her stomach swooped as her centre of gravity altered. She was rising up into the air, wings stretched wide. The sky wasn’t blue, it was a multitude of tones from pale grey to purple to a bright cerulean. The air currents were shifting within it, whirlpools and vortexes forming and disappearing, and a warm draught lifting her higher. She wasn’t alone, there were crows flying with her. Hundreds of black shapes matching her every move. Lydia knew she was asleep, now, so she wasn’t frightened when one of the crows came very close and its beak opened to greet her. Maybe it was her grandfather. Or great-great grandmother. Or maybe it was Maddie, finally arrived home to the flock.
One thing Lydia knew for certain, dream or not, was that she couldn’t really fly. Not in the real waking world. But she also knew she no longer had a fear of heights.
She was no longer afraid of falling.
* * *
THE END
Thank you for reading!
I hope you enjoyed reading about Lydia Crow and her family as much as I enjoyed writing about them!
I am busy working on the next book in the Crow Investigations series. If you would like to be notified when it’s published (as well as take part in giveaways and receive exclusive free content), you can sign up for my FREE readers’ club:
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If you could spare the time, I would really appreciate a review on the retailer of your choice.
Reviews make a huge difference to the visibility of the book, which make it more likely that I will reach more readers and be able to keep on writing. Thank you!
Acknowledgments
I am deeply grateful to you, dear reader, for embracing the Crow Investigations series. I am having so much fun writing about Lydia, Fleet and the Families, and can’t believe I get to call it my job!
Thank you to my friends and family for their love and support, and to my brilliant publishing team. Especially my wonderful early readers, editor and designer.
In particular, thanks to Beth Farrar, Karen Heenan, Jenni Gudgeon, Caroline Nicklin, Paula Searle, Judy Grivas, Deborah Forrester, and David Wood.
Thank you to my lovely writer friends, especially Clodagh Murphy, Hannah Ellis, Keris Stainton, Nadine Kirtzinger, and Sally Calder. Our group chats and Zoom sessions in lockdown have kept me halfway sane - thank you! And I can’t wait to see you all in Real Life.
As always, special thanks to my patient, clever, loving husband. You are the best. And I’m not just saying that because you do all the accounts.
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About the Author
Sarah lives in rural Scotland with her children and husband. She drinks too much tea and is the proud owner of a writing shed.
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