Sing, Canary - Ashley Amy Page 0,40

there," I started. My arms held her to me as her head was tossed back. I could see she was in a dark place. "I never told you this because I thought you didn't want me anymore. I grew up with you as your cousin, but I've never viewed you as such. I never did because something is wrong inside of me."

Rocking us, I confessed what only this angel would know. I did something that could make the creator angry, but I had to.

I prayed to my cousin. I called her name from my suffering lips as tears streamed down my face.

"Lyra, I pray to you. In the name of the lord, I ask you to hear my call..."

My mouth moved over hers, kissing her lightly.

"Hear my call..."

26

Lyra

(Five years ago)

"You're such a sweet girl, Lyra," Katrine cooed.

Though my ankles were shackled and chained to our side of the basement. She had me in her lap, on a chair. In a pretty pink dress and bow, Dolion licked his lips at the sight of me. I was a fourteen-year-old girl that he made to look like a five-year-old for his demented pleasure.

It didn’t help the fabric of my dress kept sticking to the cuts along my abdomen. The blood dried through it, showcasing the stains Dolion got off on even more.

Speaking of my captor, he stood across from our position. In his hands, he held the blade that had been hacking away at my mother's feathers. He plucked her like a chicken and laughed when they grew back in. I could see how drained my mother became as the days continued, and no help came to our aid.

If you had asked me three days ago where I'd be today, I would've said waiting for my first date to pick me up. I was about to go to my first school dance, and she was helping me pick a dress. My mother and I had been enjoying a girl's trip to the mall when a white van snagged us off the street.

Now, Axel would be getting ready without me for his date. I wouldn't be there to see his excitement as we picked up Chrissy.

My heartstrings were already on the fritz because I knew that glow in his eyes wouldn't be for me. I wanted to see him happy, even if it wasn’t me who gave him that look. Thinking about him now, helped my mind battle the torment Dolion and Katrine put me through.

At first, we thought it was one of Father's rivals that got us for ransom, but we ended up in the nest of an angel serial killer. He wasn't tied to the other crime groups in the city. No, we were picked by sheer luck.

In the last three days, I witnessed two other angels being called home without their wings. I watched this man strip them of their divinity, so they wouldn't have their wings paint the sky when they entered Heaven's gates. The creator would see they received exaltation, but they would be in the paradise of his humans from losing their wings.

I paid attention to Dolion doing the same process on my mother and knew I was running out of time. Aside from everything else that had happened to me while here, losing my mom couldn't be one of them.

I needed her for the aftermath of all of this. She was supposed to have tears in her eyes over seeing her baby girl growing up. Instead, she shed them from what they had done to both of us.

Katrine petted my head even more as she forced me to watch my mother being cut into. I could see the pain my mother was growing too weak to conquer. No longer able to hide her agony from me, I let her see my emotions were gone. Her weary eyes found solace in my void ones.

I cried so much over the last few days that I no longer had a tear left to give. I saw and lived through things no one ever should.

We both caught sight of the fillet knife he favored to remove the wings. My heart leapt into my throat. I couldn't swallow, and I couldn't move.

Whenever I moved, they hurt my mother even more. No one would ever know what I did to save her some bitter agony as I took their punishment.

My tongue swelled and fell limp in my mouth as Dolion ran his blade over the sharpener. As he spun the giant wheel