The Blue Woods (3 page)

He couldn't answer. I heard his struggle in my mind, side by side with Nerina's spell.
Hurry, Nerina,
I thought to myself.
Hurry, hurry . . .

Bright yellow light crept in from the top of the bubble, its sunny sheen almost cheerful against the murky red smoke. As the yellow magic of the Redwoods spilled down the walls, the tendrils that reached out to me and Heath retracted and slithered upward. And then, in a lightshow worthy of Las Vegas, the red and yellow clashed, breaking the air like shattered glass. They fought each other, the life-sucking Angel Falls against the healing Redwood.

Nerina lifted away from us, her wings spread wide. The yellow light of the Redwoods gave one last dazzling jolt of its magic, and the red smoke of Angel Falls blew away into nothing.

Jonah fell to the floor with a sickening thud. I flew forward just as Nerina dissolved back into her body. I pressed my face to Jonah's throat.
Are you okay?

Slowly, surely, I felt his pulse against my feathers.
I'm . . .

Don't talk. Just breathe.

“Alessia, we have to go.” Nerina was already at the door. She pulled a bobby pin from her hair and worked the tumblers until the lock clicked. “Come on!”

We can't just leave him.

Heath galloped to me and nudged me with his nose.
We have to. They could be back any minute.

It's . . . okay . . .
Jonah's breath was labored.
It needs . . . to
look . . . like I fought . . . anyway.

Nerina backed away from the door and bent over Jonah. “He'll be fine. But we won't be if Fina comes back before we get out of here.”

She's . . . right,
Jonah said.
Go.

“Although,” Nerina tapped her finger to her mouth. “We should make it look like he fought us.” She pointed at me. “Scratch him.”

What? No! He looks battered enough.

“He needs to look like he put up a good fight,” Nerina said. “Now do it fast and let us get out of here.”

But—

Just do it, Alessia.
Jonah pushed himself up onto one paw.

I rose above him, my wings wavering. With a heave of effort, he reared up and swiped at me in the air. Out of instinct, I struck out with my talons and caught his ear.

You can do better than that,
he taunted as he fell back to the ground.
I've seen you in battle.

I squared myself against him and charged. My beak sank into the soft black fur at his shoulders, my claws digging into his back. He yowled and rolled onto his back. We tumbled against the floor together in some twisted version of a lover's embrace. I raked my talons across his back once, twice, three times until blood dripped onto the gray concrete. I rocketed off him.
Oh, God, Jonah. I'm so sorry.

Don't be. Now I . . . don't have to . . . fake it.

“Alessia, let's go!”

I narrowed my gaze at Nerina.
You owe him your life. I'm not leaving until you thank him for that.

Alessia, this is not the time.

I flew until I was against the back wall. Color flared in Nerina's face. She straightened her shoulders and planted herself in front of Jonah. “I—thank you for helping us. You did well—for a Malandante.”

It would have to be good enough. I swooped down and pushed my face into his neck for a moment.

I know,
Jonah said, his voice soft in my mind.

You know what?

I love you, too.

“Alessia, out! Now!”

I swept to the door, my eyes still on Jonah. He lay on the floor, panting, his fur glistening with sweat and blood. I felt sick as I dodged out of the room and followed Heath and Nerina through the twisting labyrinth of the Guild up to the surface.

Because no matter what I'd done to him, it was nothing compared to what the Malandanti would do when they found him.

The Clan Revealed

Alessia

The cold night air was sweet in my lungs when we burst out of the Guild building. We fled up the alley and emerged out onto a quiet side street. It was late enough that the streets were empty, but I still didn't think the sight of a low-flying falcon and an enormous white wolf would go unnoticed for long.

“We have to get back to Twin Willows.” Nerina's chest heaved up and down with her breath. “I think we have lost the Waterfall, but we must make sure the rest of the Clan is safe.” She looked up the street and began to walk purposefully toward a crimson Fiat parked at the curb. Heath trotted behind her while I flew overhead. “My place is compromised. We'll need to find somewhere safe to stay.”

A surge of fear jolted through me. After I'd found Nerina's lair ransacked, I'd been so worried about her that I'd failed to realize something equally scary. Her lair was on my farm, which meant that my mother was in danger. I dodged down to Heath.
My mom . . .

I know. We need to get her away from the farm.

If they hadn't gotten to her already. But I couldn't think like that, because thinking like that filled my veins with ice and left me paralyzed, unable to help anyone.

Nerina bent over the driver's side door of the Fiat, jimmying the lock. I landed on top of the car.
Hang on—are you stealing this car?

“
Sí.
”

You can't just steal someone's car! That's so wrong.

The lock clicked. Nerina pulled open the door without looking at me. “I'll give it back.”

That's not the point. We're supposed to be the good guys, take the high road.

Nerina banged on the roof of the car, making me jump. “By the time we take the high road back to Twin Willows, everyone we love will be dead.” She pointed at Heath. “You, in the backseat. You,” she said, pointing at me, “follow us overhead.”

I cannot
believe
you,
I said, but my moral indignation wasn't enough to stop her. Nerina slammed the door and peeled away from the curb, the tires screeching on the pavement. Wow. Bree was going to be super jealous that she'd missed this. Not only had Nerina stolen a car, but she'd stolen probably the one Fiat in all of Maine. I winged over the car, the little red compact zooming along below me, out of Bangor, back to Twin Willows. Back to the Waterfall.

I didn't want to think about what we would find there.

Nerina ditched the car up the road from our farm and ran to Heath's cabin to transform. She took to the air with me and we skimmed over treetops. Below us, Heath was a white blur against the darkness. Moonlight filtered through the leaves. I glanced at the pale light on the horizon. It would be dawn soon.

The copse of birch trees, their trunks shimmering silver in the dark, loomed ahead. Nerina and I dropped low, joining Heath on the ground. From here, whoever was at the Waterfall would be able to see our auras. I shivered. Would they be friend or foe?

We inched forward until there was a break in the brush big enough for us to see through. My heart thudded in my chest, my feathers rippling with cold and fear. I suddenly thought of the first time I had seen the Waterfall with Heath, how we had hidden in this same brush. The Malandanti had controlled the Waterfall then. Had they reclaimed it?

I peered through the tangled branches. An unearthly silver glow domed from the stream above the Waterfall to the pool below. The water was murky, as though it had been contaminated with something unmentionable. And the Malandante Bobcat paced the edge of the pool, its huge paws imprinting on the soft earth where land met water. I fell back, my heart a hard weight inside me.

We have lost it,
Nerina said needlessly, for we could all see for ourselves that the worst had happened.
And we cannot reclaim it until we replace the Lynx.

Heath walked a few paces back toward the birch trees, his neck bent low.
But,
he said as he turned and raised his head,
we still control three other sites. And last time we regained the Waterfall, we didn't have Bree—or you, Nerina. We're a stronger Clan now. We can win it back.

I threw gratefulness to him in my mind, unable to put into words how much I needed to hear his optimism. I stared at the silvery magic that encompassed the Waterfall. We would win it back. Good would prevail, and we would turn these woods Benandanti blue once more. There were too many things that were unthinkable right now—what was happening to Jonah at that very moment, where the Stag and the Eagle were, whether Bree was okay, and my mom . . .
my mom
—that this hope was the only thing that kept my wings aloft.

We need to find the Stag and the Eagle,
Nerina said. She walked back to the break in the brush and looked through it for a long moment.
I don't see their bodies here, so that's a good sign.

Oh, my
God
, Nerina!

Well, it is. Look, I'm just being practical.

I spun away from her and faced Heath.
We need to get my mom.

Yes, but where do we go after that?

I clicked my beak once and swung my gaze between Heath and Nerina.
I know someplace we can go.

“Mom.”

She rolled over, blinked at me, and sat straight up. “Who died?”

“No one. Yet. I think.”
I hope
, I added silently. If her dad had died defending the Waterfall, I'd never be able to look Jenny in the eye again. “But it's not safe here. Come on. Get dressed.”

“Alessia, what is this about?” She flung the covers aside and grabbed my arm as she stood. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. Just get dressed. Please. I'll tell you everything . . . just . . . we can't stay here.” I went to the window and peered out. They could be watching us from anywhere.

To Lidia's credit, she stopped questioning me, got dressed, and followed me outside to Heath's truck. Nerina had gone to the hospital to collect Bree, presumably in her stolen Fiat. It would serve her right if she got pulled over.

I pushed Lidia into the cab of the truck and climbed in beside her. She was muttering under her breath in Italian; not a good sign. I knew a reckoning was coming, that I would have to come clean and tell Lidia everything, but first I needed to make sure the rest of the Clan was safe.

We rumbled up the driveway and turned onto the main road into town. I watched the farmhouse grow smaller in the rearview mirror. Just before it disappeared, a huge black bird swooped over the ruins of the burned-out barn and rose above the house. I gripped the door handle. “They know.”

Heath stared into the mirror. I heard his breath catch as he saw the same thing I did: the Raven circling the rooftop of my house. The pig-shaped weather vane turned slowly in the wake of the Raven's huge wings. “I don't think he saw us.”

“No.” We rounded a bend in the road, and the farm—and the Raven—vanished from view. If the Raven had seen us leave, he would've followed us. “But the farm isn't safe now. We can't go anywhere near it until we've defeated them.”

“What is going on?” Lidia demanded, coming out of her Italian-speaking trance. “I can't go back to my own house now?”

I put my hand on her arm, softening my fingers around her wrist. “I'll explain everything, Mom. I promise. But we need to get somewhere safe first.”

Heath turned the truck onto Willowbrook Lane. Lidia sat up straight and put her hands on the dashboard. “Why are we going to the Sandses'?”

Neither of us answered her, to her obvious annoyance. She slunk back down and started grumbling in Italian again. This time, I distinctly heard some swears mixed in with the words meaning “disobedient girl.”

Heath pulled to a stop in Jenny's driveway. We ran to the front door, the morning air frozen around us. I took a deep breath and rang the bell. A moment later, the curtain over the window next to the door peeked open.

The door swung open. Mr. Sands stood there, bleary-eyed and unshaven, but alive. My knees buckled with relief and I threw my arms around him to keep from collapsing. “You're okay! Thank goodness you're okay!”

“Alessia, what the—?”

I barreled him inside and Heath shut the door behind us. “Is the Eagle okay too?”

Mr. Sands froze and stared at me. I slid my hands into his and squeezed. “It's all right,” I said. “I'm the Falcon.”

His jaw tightened as he sucked in a sharp, audible breath. “You're the—” He glanced at Heath. “Are you—?”

Heath stepped forward and held out his hand. “The Wolf.”

Mr. Sands slid his hand out of mine and took Heath's. “Of course,” he said softly. “How could I not have recognized those blue eyes?” He pulled Heath into a brotherly hug and patted his back. Then he slung his arms around each of us and propelled us deeper into the house. Lidia trailed at our heels. She was no longer grousing in Italian. She'd probably been struck speechless.