“Your other broomstick.”
“What about it?” The magic at the end of her wand fades.
“I know why you’re so desperate to have it back.”
Frustration burns through my veins. I breathe hard through flared nostrils. I dig my heels into the soil, and my power reserves race through the earth and into the soles of my feet. As I draw on my magic, the skin on my legs thickens into a leathery hide.
If the cousin doesn’t allow me to cross the threshold, I will find a way to push through with my newly absorbed power.
“You’re bluffing about my broomstick,” she says, her voice faltering.
“It contains the spirit of a man.” My mind scrambles to put together the pieces. “That’s why it shoots tree sap when agitated. It’s also why your grandmother likes to take it on long rides.”
Her eyes flash, and she lowers her wand. “I’ll kill her.”
“Let me inside and I will keep your secret.”
She raises the wand again and points it at my bare chest. “Or, I could silence you forever.”
Two lines of agony slice down my back as my wings push their way out. The markings on my chest flare with magic that burns hotter than my vexation.
The cousin staggers back. “What the fuck are you?”
Alienor screams once more, making my blood turn cold.
“Invite me in,” I hiss. “Alienor is in trouble.”
She turns on her heel and bounds up the stairs that lead to the house’s front door.
“Damnation,” I growl and give chase.
I regret ever having left this aggravating woman alive.
As she reaches the top of the stairs, the air fills with another scream.
I grab the end of her broomstick and let her guide me through the threshold.
The house is dark, with only the barest trace of moonlight streaming in through a window on the roof. I tilt my head, search through the shadows, and await the next sound.
“Over my dead body,” Alienor screams from the level above.
I barrel past the cousin, take the stairs two at a time, and rush toward the sound of her voice.
A man’s excited, heavy breaths rasp across my eardrums, making all the hackles in my body rise. As I reach the top of the stairs, I catch a glimpse of movement from behind a half-open door.
“Come on,” says a familiar male voice. “It’s only one kiss.”
The edges of my vision turn red.
I bolt through the door, finding a thin figure crouched beside an unmade bed. Alienor must be hiding beneath it.
The man reaches under its frame and pulls out a slender ankle attached to a delicate foot.
Alienor screams.
Rage explodes across my vision, and everything goes black.
ChapterThirty