The Storm Crow (The Storm Crow, #1)(62)

I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep until I woke with a blanket over me. Panic rippled in my chest—I hadn’t meant to sleep, and I’d be missed at the castle. I nearly bolted upright until I realized the crow had shifted in his sleep, tucking his head into the crook of my arm.

As carefully as I could, I extricated myself from him, wrapping the blanket Caylus must have laid on me around him instead. The door opened, and Caylus entered, a cup of tea in hand.

“How is he?” he asked.

“Perfect,” I replied.

I needed to go. Kiva needed to know what had happened. Then I had to send a letter to Caliza, develop a training plan for the crow, and figure out how Kiva and I were going to escape. We’d have to wait at least a week for the crow to be strong enough to move, maybe longer.

But he was here. He was alive. And I couldn’t quite tear myself away just yet.

I knelt beside the crow, listening as he chirped gently. With every sound, the feeling in the pit of my stomach gave a little tug, as if someone were pulling from the other end of a long cord. I imagined myself tugging back, and he chirped again.

An indescribable happiness welled in my chest. This was what I’d waited for my entire life. This connection, this bond.

“What are you going to name it?” Caylus asked from beside me.

I smiled. “Resyries. It means stormbringer.”

*

Leaving the egg at Caylus’s had been difficult. Leaving a newborn crow had been practically impossible. I’d left him detailed written instructions on how to take care of it, including clearing a very wide space for it on the floor far away from any of the many things in his workshop that could hurt it.

With each second of growing space between Resyries and me, the cord strung between us grew thinner and weaker, until I could barely sense him as we pulled into the castle courtyard. The link was nothing more than a gentle pulling feeling now, but it would get stronger and more nuanced the more we trained together. Yet it still felt like I’d left a piece of myself behind that kept tugging me back.

Kiva was sitting at the breakfast table when I burst in wearing my dirt-stained gown from the previous night. Slamming the door behind me, I whirled to face her.

“We figured it out,” I said in a barely controlled whisper. “Caylus and I! We figured it out!”

Understanding dawned on her face. Her eyes flared wide, her hands flying back to brace herself. “Did it—?”

“Yes!”

Kiva shot to her feet, enveloping me in a hug as I flew to her. She let out a yell, and I laughed wildly. She laughed with me, her entire body shaking.

We pulled apart, Kiva’s face flushed with excitement and her eyes brighter than I’d seen them in months. I explained everything that had happened after I left the ball, leaving out only the things about Caylus’s past.

“You kissed him!” she half shouted.

“Did you miss the part where I told you my blood is the long-lost secret of crow hatching?”

She rolled her eyes. “How was it?”

I laughed, tried and failed to explain how right it’d been, how happy I was, even now, when I hadn’t slept all night.

“I need to write Caliza,” I said, bolting to my room.

“And take a bath!” Kiva shouted. “You smell horrible.”

*

With the letter sent, I took a bath before climbing into bed. Despite the giddy energy sparking through me, my eyelids felt heavy, my body slow. When at last I fell asleep, I slept dreamlessly.

When I woke, the first thing I thought of was Res, and I scrambled to locate the connection between us. It hummed quietly, tugging gently in my chest. I let out an uneasy breath.

It would be days before he was strong enough to move, and he’d likely sleep all of today and that night. Come morning, he’d be all hunger and caws. Keeping up with his appetite would be a challenge; crows grew incredibly fast.

I’d slept most of the morning and afternoon away, and though I longed to see Res, I wouldn’t have enough time to get to Caylus’s and back again before dinner.

Needing something to occupy the nervous energy inside me, I dressed to train. I pulled my flying leathers out of my trunk, simply staring at them at first. They hadn’t left my drawer in months. When I’d shoved them in there so long ago, stained with soot and smelling of smoke, I’d thought I’d never wear them again. Now, it felt right. People would notice; they’d recognize the armor. But I wanted them to. I wanted them to know that the legacy they’d tried to stamp out still smoldered in the ashes.

I slipped on the upper piece of my leathers, which combined the pauldron, vambraces, and chest plate of normal armor into a single lightweight, flexible piece. The leather was a multitude of small pleats shaped like feathers, creating the illusion of two great wings draped protectively around my shoulders.

The belt fit securely around my waist, lined with two pouches, and the light leather pants were still flexible and strong. As I stared at myself in the mirror, I could almost imagine being a rider again.

The thought made my chest ache. Not because it hurt but because that dream was possible again.

I braided my hair back and went to meet Kiva in the training arena, checking the connection with Res along the way. I couldn’t dismiss the fear the link would disappear. His sleepy contentment floated back to me like drifting clouds across a summer sky.