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“Fomori demon,”Cyerra sneered, and Bryn knew instinctively that the crow was not referring to her.“You dare show yourself to our queen?”

Queen? Fomori demon?

The shadows undulated on top of each other before forming into a human shape between her and the door.

A battle cry came from the crow as she took flight before dive-bombing the shadowy person, making the shadows disperse.

The door flew open, almost hitting Bryn. Jace, having chosen to pick the lock for the first time since childhood, stepped into the room where a crow was flying overhead, cawing.

Everything went to absolute mayhem in a matter of seconds, and Bryn was having a hard time processing it all.

Bryn stood frozen as she stared at her cousin, his jaw dropping at the scene, waiting for his reaction to the chaos unfolding in front of him.

“This is real, right? There is a crazy-ass black bird, circling my head, preparing for war?” Jace’s words were barely audible over the noise.

Bryn would have laughed at the look on Jace’s face had she not been holding her own freak-out in check. There was no telling how far down that rabbit hole she would go once she allowed herself to think about what this all meant.

“Crow. . .,” she whispered, keeping her eyes on her cousin, seeing the nervous tell of his shaking hand moving thoughtlessly through his hair.

Swallowing, Jace only nodded instead of saying anything.

Her eyes moved to the scarred wooden floor as shadows rolled over her toes.

“Are both of you thick? Poor, poor Danu. . .,”the crow lamented as Bryn turned to stare at the bird. Jace’s eyes followed her lead.

“She thinks we are thick,” Bryn whispered, and Jace looked at her in disbelief.

“Who does?” he asked, his voice wavering as if he didn’t truly want the answer.

Bryn pointed to the crow who had settled onto the headboard once again.

The shadowed form of a man a few inches taller than Jace appeared between them, Cyerra ruffling her feathers in irritation, her wings flapping as if to take off again and attack the trespasser.

As the man’s form took on an ethereal quality, she watched the lines of his face grow more defined. Black hair and silver eyes watched her, his body transparent enough she could see through him to Jace standing behind him.

A ghost stood before her and watched her with intense, mercurial eyes as she stumbled back, falling onto her butt as a strangled scream left her throat.

Jace, moving around the shadow man and giving him a wide berth, made it to Bryn, grabbing her elbows to pull her up, only to shove her head back down as the crow dive-bombed the ghostly man made of shadows again.

Crawling from the room, Jace and Bryn slipped through the door, pulling it behind them with a loud bang, the noise of Cyerra on a warpath covering the noise of the door.

Padding down the hall on bare feet to Jace’s room, they snuck in, both of them turning to look at one another with their eyes wide, faces frozen in shock.

Pointing to her room with a shaking finger, Jace shook his head and said nothing as he turned away from her and began to pace.

“There is a violent black bird in your room!” Jace grabbed his hair in frustration that Bryn felt all too keenly.

“A crow. It was a crow,” she stated again, as if that was what mattered most right then.

Jace spun on her so fast she wondered if he’d fall over dizzy.

“Do you think that matters right now? I don’t care what the hell’s damned breed the bird is!”

Jace was one to love science. That everything could be explained in some form or fashion, which was why if he hadn’t been the town doctor and a man, he would have been as hated as she was for believing more in science than religion.

None of this was logical, so therefore, Jace was done with all of it before it had even begun.

“There is a black bird, ‘a crow.’” He made air quotes just to irritate her, but she let it slide. He was having a mental health crisis. She would know since she was in the middle of her own. “And a shadow... man... thing, in there with it. Those two are now fighting and tearing up your room.”