Chapter One
Thereweresix.
Then five.
And then four.
Three.
Two.
Even hundreds of miles away while vacationing in a secluded cottage on a cliff edge, Romeo thought about the magpies.He’d found the third dead the morning of his and Chad’s trip, viciously pecked to death with its feathers drifting over the field.
Romeo had stopped putting out seed, but the magpies still came.
He sent stones hurtling the raven’s way whenever he caught a glimpse of it on the outhouse roof.
It was one bird he desperately wanted to kill.
One bird he aimed for.
But whenever he tried, he missed.
And Chad would lift an eyebrow at yet another loud thump to the outhouse tiles.
But Chad didn’t understand.
Thisraven, this monster that had killed his magpies, Romeo had been unable to predict.There had been warning signs, ones Romeo had overlooked. Chad had questioned him before over his favoritism towards the magpies, Romeo’s discrimination against other birds, but Romeo had just thought Chad’s jealousy endearing.
He never saw the magpies like Romeo did.
Chad had told him about a big black bird he kept spotting, but Romeo had rolled his eyes, believing Chad was seeing shadows where there wasn’t any.
And then it had come and broke a moment of peace with violence.
Romeo had been blind to what was happening, caught unaware, and that left him on edge.
Time, Chad told him, give it time and the raven would lose interest.It would leave, and he could go back to feeding the birds—all of the birds—not just the magpies, and the order Romeo had changed would be restored.
Romeo hadn’t replied.It was a logical assumption yet offered Romeo no comfort.
Chad had snorted and called him superstitious.
Romeo wondered whether Chad was right.
His apparent ignorance to a situation had left him uncomfortable, and his gut continued to twist and curl days after he’d realized his mistake.
By turning a blind eye to all others, he’d not foreseen a predator on the horizon.
Romeo sighed and ran a hand over Mercutio’s head.
They were sitting on a huge rock facing the sea.Romeo admired the seagulls dipping and diving.Mercutio’s focus remained on his tennis ball.He dropped it from his mouth, watching as it rolled across the rock before falling out of sight.Then he glanced at Romeo, asking for permission to jump down to find it.His grey eyes found Romeo’s green ones, pleading silently to be allowed his ball.
“Go on.”Romeo murmured.
Mercutio jumped down.His paws crunched in the pebbles as he snapped up his ball, then he returned to Romeo’s side on the rock.He lay down, content, but twenty seconds later he dropped the ball again.It rolled off the edge, but this time Romeo ignored the pleading grey eyes and resumed watching the seagulls instead.
They’d needed the trip away, Chad in particular.Romeo turned, running his gaze up the cliff.It was a hundred foot tall, and an iron staircase had been built into the rock.The cottage at the top was small with only one bedroom, but it had a balcony off the living room that looked out over the sea.
