Until I can feel Lorcan’s crow begin to glide. I scoot my fingers lower on the hook, at the base of where it connects with the iron bird’s back, and tug so hard my shoulders scream.
Fallon! OUT!
I’m not leaving without your crow.
The crow’s body shifts another centimeter, and then another. I reangle the hook and push with both hands on the heavy metal body. Although my eyes burn from the salt, I keep them on Lore’s open golden ones. I can feel him watching me. From underneath the water, but also from above it.
There’s anxiety in his gaze, but there’s also pain. So much pain.
I’m sorry if I’m hurting you,I whisper to him, wrenching on his neck while pushing against his wings.
A pop as faint as an air bubble ripples from the metal crow as it slips free from the black spike. I snatch the statue’s metal wing before he can sink and hold him aloft. Heart wedged inside my throat, I wait for him to morph back into feathers. Or better yet, smoke.
Until I recall the crow’s hiss at the contact of my skin and release him. He stays suspended a moment and then he begins to drop. If his body hits the black bottom of the cage, he won’t be able to morph.
Come on. Come on.
The heavy iron drifts lower.
Lower.
My lungs squeeze and my vision grays. Keeping one hand on the cage so Lorcan’s other crows can’t swoop in and pull me away before I’ve saved the trapped bird, I stick my head out of the water and gulp in fresh air, then dive back.
The sunbeams slanting through the blown-out hatch window catch on the pewter feathers and rains tinsels across the cabin. He still hasn’t shifted!
Come on, Morrgot.
The wave is going to hit in under a minute, Fallon. Don’t tell me to calm the fuck down.
I said come, not calm—
Suddenly, the crow stops falling, and the iron tinge of his feathers blackens.
Oh my Gods, it worked.
It worked!
The crow’s golden eyes stare at me through the metal bars.
Smoke. Become smoke,I urge him.
Get away from the cage, and I’ll morph.
I spring my body as far as I can get it from the cage. Lore’s outline blurs, clouding the water like ink, and then he carefully slips through the bars of his prison. The second he’s free, Lore billows out of the water and slams into his other two crows, which must’ve already come together, considering the size of the bird that forms.
As I try to hoist myself out of the cabin, the water begins to ripple around me. The boat to shake.
Lore’s enormous talons open. Without breaking skin, he cinches my biceps, flaps his wings, and floats me out of the cabin.
A shadow rushes over the sun, over us.
A shadow cast by a wall of water as tall as a boat mast.
My pulse stutters.
Lore’s wings beat harder, faster.
Just as it hits me that I’m flying, the wave crests and droplets plummet.
