Dark Wings

RHIANNON

After a few hours of calming him down, we walk slowly to the dining room. It’s late, but he assures me that someone is always wandering around in the pack house.

We hear several voices as we walk toward a door with light glowing under it.

Isaac pushes it open, and several of our travel companions are gathered around the table. I hear them talking about how plans are changing. We aren’t going to the safe house in Montana anymore.

Alpha Hunter and Rhodes both raise their brows at Isaac as we step toward the table.

“There’s plenty of pizza if you’re hungry,” Alpha Lucas says as he points to the boxes at the end of the table.

Isaac pulls a chair out for me to sit before bringing me a slice of pizza. I almost ask how he knew I would want the veggie lovers. I forget that he knows me better than I know him.

“Ommin used to bring me pizza every year on my birthday,” I tell him quietly when he sits with his plate.

He smiles, and I feel warmth flowing from him. I know he likes when I tell him small, inconsequential details about my life that I couldn’t tell him before.

Isaac reluctantly pulls his attention away from me. He looks at the group and sighs.

“I apologize for earlier. I… I have a hard time controlling my wolf when it comes to her.” His body tenses as he says, “I can’t allow her to be put in a situation where she might be harmed.”

“Jacko, it’s a shit plan. I would rip someone’s head off if they even suggested it for my mate,” Alpha Lucas tells him.

“I was telling you the plan passed down from counsel. I don’t agree with it. No way I would be okay if it was Ilana,” Alpha Hunter adds.

“Still, as an alpha, I should have been in control.”

“You’ve gone through a lot recently, it’s understandable that you’re on edge.”

“How are we going to do this then? We need to come up with something.”

“Why don’t we wait for Rhazell? We can ask her input. She knows what she can do, maybe she will help,” Isaac suggests.

“Um, I don’t want to speak out of turn,” I say as I ring my hands in my lap, “but like I said earlier, fairies and magical types, we get along.

“There is a connection between us. She might help me if I asked her. No offense, but…”

Rhodes snorts, “No offense, but magic folk hate wolves.”

“I wasn’t going to say hate!”

Isaac chuckles beside me.

“I’ve been around enough magical beings to say pretty definitively, they hate wolves,” Rhodes says.

“They hate vampires more, so she might be willing to help a fairy and a bunch of wolves if it meant we get to stop vampires.

“If Julius is ever able to bring his plans to fruition, it would be really bad for people like her,” I try to explain.

I’m hoping that even though they don’t know me well and I’m just a fairy, they will let me take the lead when we deal with her.

“I say it’s worth a shot,” Isaac shrugs.

“Um, Luna?” Alpha Hunter asks cautiously.

“You can call me Annie or Rhiannon, whichever you’re comfortable with.”

“Annie,” he says nervously, “can you tell us anything about the time you were with the vampires?”

Isaac’s jaw snaps tightly and his teeth grind together.

“I didn’t really see much. I know it was a castle built mostly underground. I had two guards. One was indifferent to me, the other was a friend of Valera and he would let her in to see me.”

I try to remember the details but I wasn’t exactly in the loop. “Valera knows more than I do. Most of what I know came from her.”

“Maybe it’s time we have a chat with her,” Isaac huffs. I can tell that he still doesn’t trust her.

I rub my hand over his thigh, trying to comfort him, to help ease his worried mind. I can feel the stress and anxiety rolling off of him.

“Annie?” Rhodes gets my attention.

“Yes?” I try to keep my face neutral, but I’m sure I look surprised. Isaac told me about how we met Rhodes and about the nightclub and the vampire attack outside Mag Mell.

He adds input to group conversations, but he doesn’t really speak directly to me.

“Ommin told us a little bit about your wings. Is there anything that you know that maybe he doesn’t? Anything that might help?”

“Oh…um, let’s see.” I don’t know where to start. Growing up no one wanted to talk about my wings, they didn’t want me to brag about being special. I’ve learned to hide them away.

“There are usually four winged fairies, they are born on the same day and they die on the same day. When they die, new winged ones are born.

“The last four died about two hundred years ago and no new ones were born until me, but I was born alone. My wings are also black, which is rare; in our history I am only the second.”

“Who was the other black-winged fairy?” Rhodes leans in, completely focused.

“Her name was Delphine. She lived a few thousand years ago. I had some books about fairy history but they were all destroyed.”

“Did it say anything about her being different? Special?”

I furrow my brows. These are very pointed questions—how does he know much about this? No one outside of Mag Mell cares about fairies, unless, of course, they’re trying to use our blood.

“There was nothing about her being different, outside of having wings. Why?”

He looks down in embarrassment. “I…I went to a psychic six years ago, when I left my pack. She said something that just… I don’t know…”

“What did she say?” Madelyn asks him.

“~Alone in darkness,~

~You will need~

~to help the one~

~That must be freed.~

~Your lonely life will finally end.~

~When with a dark wing she.~

~Will bleed.~

~Her force covered.~

~You will not succeed.~

“For a long time I tried to ignore it, then I looked into dark wings, but there isn’t much. Then I decided to forget about it, until I met you.”

The room is uncomfortably quiet. I’m considering every word of his fate, and it looks like everyone else is, too.

“We’ll talk to Valera tomorrow,” Alpha Lucas cuts through the silence. “We should all get some sleep.”