There was an edge of concern in Kamari's expression, almost like the conversation made him uneasy.
"Aside from Nautilus, we met two other spirits," Kamari explained. "One of them was the air spirit, Mistral."
I sucked in a breath. That was it! That was the name I couldn't remember.
"Mistral," I said in awe. "I have to find him."
"Huh? Why?" Zak asked.
I hesitated. As much as I loved Zak and considered Kamari a part of the family now too, I didn't want to spill all my insecurities to them, especially since I was still feeling tender after my conversation with Cloud.
Besides, what if they thought I was greedy and wanted too much? Finding your fated mate was insanely special. It was already a once-in-a-lifetime event. Wanting a magical pair of wings on top of that made me sound selfish. But I couldn't stop the aching feeling in my chest that I needed both of them.
"I'll tell you later," I said, trying to avoid the topic. "Do you know where I can find him?"
Zak crossed his arms. "Well, the last time we saw him, he took off. Kinda anticlimactic, if you ask me. And no, I have no clue where he went."
My heart, which had been racing with excitement, now crash-landed into disappointment.
But I wasn't going to let that stop me. Even without a hint, I would figure it out myself. If they met Mistral on the coast where Nautilus lived, then that meant he couldn't have gone too far, right?
"Wait, Quinn," Kamari said, his brow furrowed. "There's something else you should know."
If he was gearing up to tell me how dangerous it was, then I didn't want to hear it. Just because I wasn't the descendent of the spirit like Zak and didn't have special blessings didn't mean I was incompetent.
"This is something I have to do," I stated.
"I understand that. Just let me say one thing." Kamari faced me with such a grave expression that I found myself listening carefully.
"Okay," I said. "What is it?"
"Mistral might not be alone."
3
Farley
By the timenoon rolled around, my bad mood was already festering. My little chat with Emory went nowhere and reminded me just how awful this place was. If I was less of a stubborn asshole, it might've depressed me. Instead, I was infuriated. There wasn't any space inside me to feel sorry for myself. All my energy was fuelled into an arrow of anger pointed directly at alphas. They were really fucking lucky that my leg band prevented me from shifting, otherwise my knuckles would be covered in blood.
Out of all the finch omegas in the aviary, I was apparently the only one who had retained a proper sense of time. Even without being able to see the sun in the middle of the sky directly overhead, I knew the clock had struck twelve. The others all seemed surprised when our usual guard, an alpha named David in human form, strolled into the aviary to unlock the door to the flight run. We had one hour scheduled every day at noon. It wasn't much, but it was the closest thing we had to freedom in the Society.
And for some omegas, like Emory, it was the closest thing to real freedom they'd ever had.
"All right," David announced as he pulled out his keyring and unlocked the door. "Have a good time, everybody!"
His upbeat tone pissed me off. Of course he could act like this was some great privilege instead of a miserable mockery of actual flight. He was a younger guy, probably in his early twenties, so I wondered if he was in the same position as Emory. Maybe the higher-up alphas conditioned him to think this was normal, too.
But that didn't make it okay. I would've loved to give him a wake-up call, but what was I supposed to do? Since I was stuck in my finch form, the best I could do was some pitiful pecking or scratching his eyes out with my tiny talons. For the millionth time in my life, I wished my leg band would explode. At this point, I wouldn't even care if it took the rest of my foot with it.
"Let's go, Farley!" Emory said, nudging me with his wing.
I grunted and pushed off the perch, throwing myself into the air. The flight run filled with the indistinct chatter of finches. Sturdy mesh surrounded us on all sides, except the ceiling, which was made of slanted metal sheets to prevent raptors from diving down for an easy snack. But that also meant that we couldn't see the sun. I wasn't sure if the trade-off was worth it.
Even though I was in a shitty mood, I wasn't going to waste my opportunity. I did a few laps around the run to stretch my wings and get my heart racing. The endorphins from exercise only put a slight damper on my bad mood. I still couldn't shake my anger. It wouldn't get any better as long as I stayed – it could only get worse.
I narrowed my eyes at the alpha standing guard by the door. He yawned and pulled out a book. I doubted he was supposed to read on the job, but realistically, what could possibly go wrong? it wasn't like all the passive omegas were going to divebomb him at once and escape.
Theycould. But they wouldn't. That was the most infuriating part. If we all worked together, I had no doubt in my mind we could easily escape, but try explaining that to a bunch of ignorant omegas whose greatest goal in life was to be chosen as a mate by the Society alphas. You'd have a more engaging conversation with tree bark.
