Page 55 of His Asset

Chapter Twenty-One

The shattered doorto the balcony loomed ahead.I must have unwittingly broken it when I’d defended myself against Adam’s three men.Wind howled through it like freedom itself.My booted feet barely touched the ground as I broke into the open air.Cold night slammed into me, the scent of rain hitting seconds before rain lashed against my skin, blurring the city lights below.

I didn’t hesitate.I didn’t look back.I vaulted over the railing, and fell.

For a heartbeat, I was weightless.Then instinct took over.My wings exploded fully open, pain lancing through the sensitive membranes as they caught the rain-needled air and jerked me upright.The wind roared around me, filling my ears, tearing away the last of my control.

I soared.I didn’t know where, I didn’t care.I just needed to get away from Adam, from Reuben, from the truth that had gutted me.

The city blurred beneath me, a smear of color and shadow until I saw the dark glimmer of the river.I dropped lower, the wind slicing my tears into cold streaks across my face.

When I finally hit the riverbank, my knees buckled.Mud splashed up my legs as I sank down, clutching myself tight.My wings folded, trembling, slick with rain and blood.

The sobs came in jagged bursts, sharp enough to hurt.I pressed my forehead to my knees, the night pressing down around me like a living thing.

I’d had parents.

A mother who’d named me.

A father who hadn’t lived long enough to know he’d been blessed with a daughter.

Blessed?My sobs came harder, my tears flowing uncontrollably.

The river burbled and whispered, indifferent, carrying the reflection of the moon through a break in the clouds, like a wound that would never close.And for the first time since I could remember, I wanted to disappear.Not die, just vanish.Somewhere the past couldn’t find me, and the truth couldn’t hurt anymore.

But even as I sat there shaking, my tears filling the river and my wings curled around me like a broken shield, I knew it was too late.

The truth had already carved itself into me.

And I would never be the same.

The river’s whispers soon became the hum of the facility, while the smell of mud and the lashing rain as quickly gave way to disinfectant and blood.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to reminisce, tried not to see.But the darkness behind my eyes wasn’t empty, memories crowded there, jostling for my attention.And suddenly, Iwasthere again.

The walls glowed white and sterile, the glass at one end thick and distorted.My cell had always been too small for the air I suddenly, desperately needed, and the hum of fluorescent lights pressed into my skull as Kira lay outside the glass.She’d been too weak to make it back to her own cell, and now her body was sprawled lifelessly across the floor.Her magnificent wings were dull and gray, splayed wide like broken sails.

I couldn’t move.Couldn’t breathe.Could scarcely believe what I saw.

Then Adam stepped into view.

He crouched beside her, his white coat brushing the floor.For a long moment, he didn’t move.His hand hovered over her shoulder, trembling momentarily before he set it there.A gentle, human touch.He parted hi lips, a whisper escaping.Not even my enhanced hearing could make it out through the too-thick glass, but it looked like he spoke her name.

Then he caught himself and straightened, his softness vanishing like it had never existed.His hand fell away and the scientist mask dropped back into place, impassive and unreadable.

But I had seen it.