But she sings for him, and it’s not as easy as I’ve been taught to ignore.
Iturn the page.
Everything is crumbling around me. I thought when Awlon answered my call that it would be the end of the suffering, the longing, the hardship. I would be out from under the wing of my mother and Sire, and as unusual as my circumstances are, there was nothing that could be done for it. The Sovereign of the Dark Ouphe won’t be denied, and like it or not, he’s taken a half blood for a mate.
What a stupid eyas I was.
All hope that others would accept the match have quickly crumbled to ash in my heart. They want me dead. They want him dead. Tension between the Gryphons and Ouphe come closer to boiling over every day. Neither side has a firm grip on power, and things here are getting very dangerous. My lady’s maid, Sedora, thinks she has found a way for us, but I’m terrified to get my hopes up. I feel certain that one day we will need to run, but I worry that once we start, we will never be able to stop. May the stars watch over us and guide us to safety.
Iturn to the next page, but there’s nothing. I flip through the rest of the book, but every last page after is blank. I spread the pages so I can inspect the binding, but as far as I can tell, nothing has been ripped out. There are only four entries. I read through each one of them again. I slow down, studying each syllable as if there might be some unseen meaning hidden between the words.
Four entries that explain so much and simultaneously answer so little. I can say with no sliver of doubt that this is in fact my mother. The use of my dad’s name is a dead giveaway, but this is a life sheneverspoke of to me. How could this be her start in life? What happened between the last entry and the day that they died?
The car accident story Gran told me is looking less and less plausible. Ouphe and Gryphons are tough and live very long lives, it would have taken more than a car crash to have ripped them away from me. The sentence in the last entry reaches out and bites me like an angry snake.
My lady’s maid, Sedora, thinks she has found a way for us.
I stare at the wordsMy lady’s maid, Sedora. Gran wasn’t even my gran, not by blood anyway. She served my mother and then, I suppose, me when they died. The room spins, and I try to take it all in. I recall weird things that Nadi said when we sat together in the dead Ouphe city of Vedan. She said something about the last Ouphe with my kind of magic died twenty years ago. But how did she know that? My dad and mom didn’t die here, so how would the people of this world know what was happening in another world?
Questions upon questions begin piling up in my head. I try to sort through them, arrange them by importance, so if the opportunity for more answers ever comes my way again, I know what to ask and search for first. My head starts throbbing again, and I lie back in the bed, my mother’s journal next to me.
“Pidge, what did she mean when she said she sang for him? Do you sing for your mate when you find him?”I ask, closing my eyes and throwing my forearm over my face to help block out the light.
Pigeon sends a flash of something I can’t make out and fills me with an emotion I’m not sure how to decipher. It’s uncertainty laced with confusion and edged in...pride maybe. I have no idea what she’s trying to say.
Tysa talked aboutthe call, but at the time, the mating habits of Gryphons were about as far from my mind as could be. I thought of it as more of a dating thing. She asked him out, he said yes, the rest is history. But now, I’m wondering if there’s more to it. What my mom described seemed more like an instinctual phenomenon, possibly even fated mates.
Growing up, talk of fated mates amongst wolves was more of an old wives’ tale. There was talk that it could happen, but no one I knew—and no one they knew, for that matter—had ever seen it. In the pack, you chose, and once you chose, you bonded or imprinted on your mate for life. Yes, there could be an instinctual drive from your wolf to pursue another wolf, but it was still a choice.
The image of a book that probably will have some answers pops up in my mind. I remember pulling it from the shelves in the archives and reading the golden script on the cover.The Call: Understanding Gryphon Courtship and Mating Habits.I pulled the book into my stack to have an Archivist return it to its proper home, but I forgot about it. I’m pretty sure it’s still sitting in a stack of books on my table. I take a deep breath, which turns into a huge yawn. Tomorrow I’ll look through it and see what I can find.
11
“Whatever you two are doing, it isn’t working,” Gran growls. “She got mad at a neighbor kid and almost partially shifted. If I hadn’t gone out to check on her at exactly that moment, who knows what would have happened?” she adds frantically.
“I just don’t understand what’s happening. She shouldn’t be shifting until puberty and, Awlon, you said her marks shouldn’t have shown up until then either. Why is this happening so young?” mom demands, worry soaking through every word.
“I don’t know. If we were home, we could find some answers, but we’re here. We’re completely cut off, and I wish I could explain it all, but I can’t.” Dad sounds defeated, and I watch him sit heavily down into his favorite chair and put a hand over his eyes. His black hair is short now, but I like it most when it’s white like mine. “Either it’s our blood triggering her abilities early or something outside is doing it. I’ve heard of Ouphe getting their marks young if they’re in a threatening environment. It’s very rare, but there have been cases of it. However, Falon is safe, so that can’t be the case here.”
Gran crosses her arms over her chest and gives a disapproving grunt. She leans against the arm of the sofa and watches dad rub the bridge of his nose. “Will she ever really be safe?” she grumbles.
“Sedi, please don’t start. We’re doing the best that we can for her,” mom snaps.
“You say that like it makes it all right, Noor. But what if your best is not enough? Why can you never see that?” Gran replies evenly, but she has that look in her eyes she gets when I better listen to her or else.
“And what would you have us do?” dad demands.
I flinch as though the anger in his tone is aimed at me and sink back deeper into the shadows.
“For starters, tell her the truth about herself. Tell her about what she can do. Have you never thought that the issues with the marks, the magic, and the shifting are because she doesn’t understand it and therefore has no idea how to control it?”
“She’s not even five yet,” mom states, exasperated, throwing her hands up and sitting down on the couch like it’s all just too much. She does that a lot these days.
“She’s smart, Noor. You’re doing wrong by that eyas by keeping her in the dark. You should be helping her understand, helping her manage it all, not stealing her marks, not binding her abilities!”
“Enough, Sedora!” dad yells, and I cover my mouth as a whimper escapes. “You have made your views plain. But Falon is not yours, and you have no say in the decisions we make.”
“How dare you?” Gran seethes, pushing off the wall and stepping toward him. “I have left everything I know behind to serve this family, to protect you. I love Falon just as you do, and I won’t stand by and watch you destroy who she is out of fear and selfishness. I say enough is enough. It’s time she knew!”
