The Hidden (Shadowed Wings #1)(4)
The white feathers on my face continue down my neck, stopping just past my chest to make way for velvety white fur. The sun reflects off the lake, and it makes my coat shine and gleam. My arms, or front legs, are snow-feathered to the forearm, and my hands resemble a bird’s feet. All five of my fingers are tipped by lethal looking black talons, but my back legs look like white furry paws, with a hint of black claws that are sheathed and waiting to be called on.
What in the flying fuck am I?
The lake ends abruptly, and I twist so that I can turn around and stare at myself some more; see what else I can find that either adds to this fucked up puzzle or helps put everything together for me. A shadow falls over me, and if I hadn’t just witnessed my own shadow fall over the lake as I blocked the sun from its surface, I wouldn’t know that something huge just blocked the sun above me as it flew past.
Fuck, please don’t let it be a dragon!
There’s a shift in the air above me, and whatever the fuck I am knows that is a really bad thing. I hold on for the ride as my literal fight or flight instincts take over. My wings fold in and I’m instantaneously diving through the sky. I drop like a downed plane, and if I weren’t sure some big scary thing was trying to eat me right now, I’d really fucking love the speed I’m achieving. Suddenly my wings shoot out, and an updraft grabs ahold of me, redirecting my trajectory from falling to rising. I pump my powerful wings frantically, ascending, as the current helps me to move even faster. I know somehow if I can make it to the clouds, then I’ll be safer, shrouded, and much harder to spot.
My speed feels supersonic, but it must not be fast enough, because just as I’m about to reach the white fluffy underbelly of the clouds, a screech-laced roar fills the air around me. The shadow attacks me from the side, and I feel like a seal that’s been body slammed by a killer whale. I twist and my feet and hands dig into something hard, as I fall backwards. My own scream-screech is torn from my throat, and I rear back to avoid the black and gray beak that snaps toward my neck. Pain digs into where I’m pretty sure my stomach is, and I kick out at whatever this thing is that’s hurting me.
A fluffy white furry tail—I didn’t realize I had until now—cracks out and pummels the sky shadow, and I slash, kick, and hit it in an effort to get it to disengage. The ground is quickly screaming up toward us, and I can’t tell if this thing is trying to rip me apart in the air or smash me to pieces against the ground. I scream again in frustration when I can’t get it off of me, and we spin violently with disorienting g-force as we fall from the sky. The black-tipped beak snaps for my face again, and I manage to get a talon-capped hand up and press the attacking beak down and away from me.
Eyes the color of honey land on mine from a black feathered face, and I realize quickly that whatever I am, this thing is one too. I don’t know what happens in that moment, but a fiery warmth roars through my body, and the sky shadow doesn’t try to snap for my neck again. It almost looks... surprised.
I scream out at it in my head for it to get off me or we’re about to fucking die.
Like it can hear me, the honey-hued eagle eyes move from mine to the threat of the rising ground at my back. The sky shadow’s wings shoot out and catch the air. It releases me from its hold and—I think—tries to flip me over, but I’m falling with such force, and at such an awkward angle, that I can’t get my wings out to stop myself.
The animal above me shrieks, and I can hear the panic in the sound. The next thing I know, I’m slamming into the unforgiving ground. And for the second time since I simply tried to follow my gran’s wishes and spread her ashes, I feel my bones break and shatter before everything goes black.
I release a tired groan and stretch the stiffness out of my limbs. The sheets are cool against my skin, and a gentle breeze caresses my face and arms. My muscles feel tight, and I give a little screech as I flex my arms and legs and then let them relax. The sound bounces around the room and then slams back into me, bringing disjointed memories with it. I look down at my arms in awe. The last time I saw them, they were massive, muscled, feathered, and tipped with sharp ass talons. I flip my hands over, studying my limbs like somehow I’ll be able to see whatever it is that I am just under my skin.
I take stock of how I feel, and I’m shocked to find that none of the overwhelming agony I felt before I passed out seems to exist anywhere in my body anymore. Nothing feels broken. I slip out of the massive bed to make sure there are no residual twinges of pain. The pale yellow sheet falls away from my body, and the cool breeze roaming all over my skin confirms that I am, without question, naked. I reach for the sheet on the bed and wrap it around me, the soft linen trailing behind me as I look over the room in search of my clothes.
The huge bed I woke up in is the only piece of furniture in here. The floor and the walls are the same soft cream color. They look like they’re made out of marble, but this stone somehow looks softer. Vines have been carved into the stone at the corners of the room, and they reach up to a Gothic cathedral-style ceiling. The room is bright thanks to the massive open archways that make up the whole wall to my right. A balcony stretches out on the other side of the openings, and I’m assaulted by green trees and plants that make up the cliffside across from me.
The red-purple hued mountains I was flying through earlier flash through my mind, and I rush out onto the balcony to see if I can spot them. My heart falls when they’re nowhere in sight, and I’m left even more disoriented about where I am. I turn to take in the building my balcony is attached to. The pounding sound of water surrounds me, and I stand open-mouthed and take in everything my gaze lands on. The balcony and room I’m standing in have been built into the side of a cliff. In fact, a whole castle seems to have been carved into the stony side of this massive mountain. There’s so much intricate detail to the structure, though, that it almost looks like the cliff grew around a castle, swallowing it up and only leaving hints of it exposed to the world. A huge thundering waterfall pours off the cliff top, and I can feel some of the mist brush against me as I stand out here, exposed and reeling.