The need to rest is powerful, but the emotions roiling through me like a summer storm are more so. My eyelids grow heavy, the pit in my stomach yawns open, and I shake out my hands to try to rid them of their new tremor.
My eagle form comes so easily to me in times like this. My feathers feel like armour as they cover my skin, my beak like a spear, instead of useless soft, human lips. My legs are a lot shorter, the talons so much more powerful than feet. If I cocoon myself tight enough, perch myself just so on the window ledge, I might be able to catch some sleep.
I awaken with a start, shaking my head out of the deep reverie with an annoyed chitter. The high sun beats on my face, and I reflexively crane my neck to check on my mates?—
Of course, I am alone.
Spreading my wings out in anger, I quickly scan the academy grounds for anything unusual before sweeping to the floor. The empty room, the cold bed, the lack of any mumbling from Savage or any grunting from Xander. The absence of any deep voices or the colossal powers of my mates…
I had gotten used to how much space they take. How much their presences, alone or combined, brushed up against me in gentle reassurance. I hop my way to the door, nudge it open with my beak, and stalk out with narrowed eyes.
“Going somewhere?”
The eagle-shriek from my throat is sudden as I turn around in alarm.
Sabrina’s fingers, busy crocheting with blue wool, never cease their movement as she stares at me from beneath the hood of her black jumper. “You’re more tired than you realise if you missed that I was here.”
With a long-suffering groan, I shift into human form, falling back onto my ass and stretching out my sore leg. The backs of my eyes burn as the fatigue clutches at my muscles with brutal fingers.
“I don’t want to sleep, Sabrina.”
“Yeah? And I don’t want to be awake, but here we are.”
I cast her a dark look.
“And you can’t even say anything to that because at leastyourmates are alive.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and hang my head back against the raw burn of pain.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Sabrina mutters.
“It’s fine.”
“None of this is fine. But it’s going to look a whole lot worse if you don’t sleep.”
“They put you here because they know I can’t say no to you, didn’t they?”
“Yup. Me and these two.”
An excited squeak makes my eyes fly open to see a blue fluffy bullet shooting towards my face before Henry smacks himself into my cheek, squeaking and chittering and rubbing all sides of himself against me.
“Oh, thank fuck.” I cuddle the excited nimpin against my face, rubbing my thumb over the top of his head. Eugene clucks out of the shadows beside Sabrina’s couch, and I grimace weakly at him. “Come here.”
He hurries over and settles himself against my new leg, looking up at me through his bedazzled goggles.
“What are we gonna do?” I whisper to them.
“We’re gonna eat, then sleep,” Sabrina murmurs, bringing out a brown paper bag. “I’m going to microwave this juicy chickie burger someone left us. If you don’t want to shower to get rid of that blood on you, at least wash the dust off your face and then get into your pack bed.”
I open my mouth to protest, but she points a finger at me. “They’realive,Aurelia Boneweaver. And you’re gonna get them back, but with a full stomach and your full brains on board. I won’t have you sleep deprived in some sort of Boneweaver psychosis. Don’t—” She cuts her hand through the air. “I’ve heard the guards gossiping about how you wentcoldat Drakos House. We’re not going psychotoday.If you’re going to go apeshit crazy, I want you to be sane when you do it. Got it?”
“Fuck you, Sabrina,” I mutter, rolling onto hands and knees.
“And fuck the world,” my leopard friend drawls. “But thank the Wild Goddess for microwaves.”
Sabrina, to my great dismay, returns from the microwave to supervise the washing of my face and holds the bed sheets open as I climb in like an elderly lady, creaking and sore. She hands me the burger, and I force it and a glass of apple juice down with a sour expression. She, Eugene and Henry proceed to climb into bed with me and I don’t have the energy to protest.
“My assassin twins are guarding the staircase,” she says, pulling up her hoodie around her nose, likely to block out the scent of my mates. “Beak keeps asking for you, but Marduk said to leave you alone because you may be in the mood to tear someone apart.”
