something odd about her I couldn’t pinpoint.
She stared at me, a cold, defiant fire now burning in her eyes. “I’m not afraid of you. If you’re not going to talk, then you can be on your way.”
This was partially a lie. I could feel it coming off of her no matter how deeply she drew from her well of strength. There was nothing she could have done to mask it any further; fear was a vital instinct for any being with the inconvenient ability to die.
“Yes, you are.” I leaned down. Her breath caught slightly in her throat, and she recoiled out of my reach. “Just as you should be.”
She chuckled grimly. “I don’t think so.” The next thing I knew, she had kicked at my ribs, ripped her hat off, and thrown it in my face. The flash of black cloth was just disorienting enough to lose sight of her as she took off in the first direction she saw. I blinked and shook my head. She hadn’t gotten far, what with her fragile human legs.
And now I was getting annoyed, fire igniting in my veins. As usual, the living were proving to be far more difficult than the dead. Not that it mattered, in the long run. I gave her a few seconds to believe her flight had a chance of success, and then I drew in a breath, pulling my power from the other side of the veil. The world washed white around us. I watched her slow to a halt mid-stride, her hair suspended in a glorious pink banner behind her.
My wings, no longer hidden in the liminal space between my domain and hers, weighed heavy on my back. Often, I wished they weren’t necessary to use what cursed gifts I had been granted, but they were always mine to bear. They unfurled slowly as I approached her from behind. Up close, I could see her moving a fraction of an inch at a time. The sole of her right shoe descended gradually through still air. One wing formed a wall in front of the fleeing girl.
I exhaled.
She ran into a cloud of black feathers at full speed—the hollowness of my wing-bones did nothing to cushion the impact. I caught her as she reeled back, stunned.
Pivoting on the spot, she threw a fist at my shoulders and drove a knee into my gut, then shoved herself away, breaking free past my wings caging her.
She was good, but I was better.
Each wing folded against my body, and I ran after her this time refusing to have Orion make comment on a human outsmarting me.
A small clearing ahead, and I spread my wings wide. They snapped outward, catching the wind and beat. My feet lifted off the ground. In seconds, I swooped right behind her and looped my arms under her armpits, hauling her into the air.
“Put me the hell down!” She writhed against me, but I held on tight, my wings beating, carrying us over the trees. Her fingers dug into hands, pulling at my hold as she thrust for freedom.
I admired how she didn’t let fear paralyze her at a time when most humans would panic.
By the time the river was back in earshot, she was kicking and shouting to be put down. I fought the sudden, vicious impulse to crush her right there, to break her delicate neck in one effortless snap. As much as I would have enjoyed it, something about her made me want to study her further, to understand who she was.
Less than a hundred feet ahead, Orion stood on the side of the water, awaiting my return. I had no doubt that if I delivered him a dead girl, she wouldn’t be the only one who ended up broken. I may have held death in my hands, but as it turned out, it was harder to deal with one who was already there.
To that end, the girl was still fighting as I set her down in front of the others. Seth had just finished sending the body off downstream, and as he moved back toward us, he caught sight of the captive girl for the first time. She stumbled out of my reach, her body poised to fight. Against anyone else, she might have stood a chance.
Orion smiled. There seemed to be a hint of genuine pleasure in his expression. “Hello again, little one,” he said.
The girl whipped around at the sound of his voice. From that moment on, her giant