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Chapter Two

O nce the path is set, you must move forward, never back. For to look back is to welcome the haunts of goblins and trolls or the will-o’-the-wisp to lure you into the dark. Do not chase the false lights for they will lead you to your doom.

—Anon., Tales from the Twilight Court

It was easier than Kate expected to smuggle an injured barn owl into the house. She slipped in through the front door, the owl still wrapped inside her gym towel. Her father was singing Christmas carols in the kitchen with Sandra while they prepared the Christmas meal for tomorrow.

Kate cuddled Handsome close to her and crept up the stairs, wincing when the third step from the top creaked. She paused outside her bedroom and eased the door open. A shaft of light illuminated the hallway as a different door opened behind her.

“Kate?” Caden whispered.

“Yeah?” she whispered back, trying to keep the owl hidden from her little brother.

“You weren’t gone very long. Where did you go?”

“Uh...” She’d never been able to lie easily, especially not to Caden.

Before she could say anything, he was at her side peering at Handsome.

“Is that an owl?” he asked, his eyes going wide.

“Yeah. It smashed through my passenger-side window.”

“Is he hurt?”

“He should be okay. His wing just needs time to heal.”

Caden tried to move closer. “Seriously? Can I see him?”

“You have to be careful,” Kate warned. “His talons are dangerous, okay?” She let her half brother see the owl’s face, which peeped out from the towel.

Handsome looked annoyed, his eyes half closed.

But Kate could be misreading a simple warning signal.

Lots of animals changed their features to look more intimidating or threatening.

She’d seen a video on social media of a northern white-faced owl who could change its facial appearance entirely by slanting its eyebrows and flattening its ears, which made it look more fierce when facing a predator.

“Don’t tell Sandra or Dad, okay?” She kept her voice low as she spoke. “I’m only keeping him until the rehab center opens after Christmas, but they may force me to take him back to the vet, and they’re pretty full right now.”

Caden met her gaze in confusion. “Isn’t rehab for people with addiction?”

She smiled at her brother. “It’s a different kind of rehab. This place works with injured wild animals. When the animal is healed, they can release it back into the wild.”

“So cool,” Caden said, grinning.

“You can’t tell. Promise me.”

“I won’t,” he vowed.

“Good. Now go back to bed. It’s late. I’ll let you see him tomorrow. Our little secret, right?” She rubbed her free hand in his blond hair and he grinned.

“I’m glad you came back,” he said.

“So am I.” She was only glad to see Caden, though. Not her father or Sandra. And that thought only made the ache in her chest widen to a vast chasm of pain.

Once inside her room, Kate settled Handsome on the floor near the edge of her bed, where she made the towel into a nest. The owl’s eyes were shut as it settled deeper into the towel.

She was a little surprised he didn’t try to escape.

It wasn’t normal to see a wild animal be so cautious and docile, especially injured.

But then, she didn’t exactly have a lot of experience with wild animals.

Maybe this was normal for owls, or maybe it was still in shock.

She left him alone to change out of her wet clothes and into her favorite pajamas and hide the bloody sweater in her laundry hamper to deal with later. Then she pulled back the covers of her bed and climbed in to sleep, but she was too anxious to settle.

After a few frustrated minutes, she got up and went to her desk, opening a little music box that held her jewelry.

The box had a pair of dancers in the center who spun to the musical notes.

She turned the silver crank on the bottom to wind it up and then watched the dancers move.

A simple melancholic melody filled the room, reminding her of the day her mother had given it to her.

She’d been only five years old, but the memory was still so vivid.

She’d just seen The Nutcracker with her parents that afternoon, and they’d come home to open presents on Christmas Eve.

A rare snowfall had turned the whole world white.

Kate remembered pressing her face to the windows of the family room to watch the gentle snowstorm sweep over the landscape.

Her mother had sat beside her and held Kate’s hand. She had felt safe and loved. That little girl hadn’t known that her mother would be gone two months later.

Will I ever feel that way again?

Possessed by a wild longing for the childhood that she’d loved so dearly, she searched her bookshelves for one of her mother’s old books. A collection of fairy tales from England and Scotland.

When she found it, she settled on the bed again, turning the pages and taking in that old-book smell, reliving the memories of her mother that she’d buried so many years ago.

“Do you know what your prince will say?” her mother teased .

“What?”

“Kiss me, Kate.” Her mother placed a kiss on Kate’s brow. “That’s how you’ll know he’s yours.”

Kiss me, Kate. It was silly, but those words had clung to her deepest dreams. None of the boys she’d dated had ever felt like “the one.” They’d been nice and fun to hang out with. But when her mother had talked about love, she’d said it was something that changed you forever.

But how would Kate really know? She couldn’t imagine feeling changed forever by anyone.

Her mother’s words echoed in her mind once more. “Love is like a path in the woods. Once you begin, once your foot touches the earth, you must move forward until you reach its end, whatever it may be. And you will find yourself in a very different place than when you started.”

Kate set the music box down on her desk, its music winding slowly to a stop.

The owl’s gaze followed her as she turned out the light and returned to bed, pulling the covers up around her.

After a moment, tears escaped from her eyes.

Her body quaked with sobs that she didn’t try to fight.

A soft chitter came from the owl; it sounded almost a question.

She wiped her eyes and sat up to check on her feathered companion.

“You okay, Handsome?”

The dark eyes of the barn owl stared at her as if peering into her very soul. Kate left the bed and knelt in front of the owl.

“I hope the vet was right and that you’ll be all right after a rest. You’re too beautiful not to be flying out in the night.” She smiled as he nibbled gently on her finger.

“You’d never hurt me, would you?” she asked Handsome. “I wish I knew what you were thinking. It must be quite serious, because you look like you’re frowning.”

Handsome shuffled closer, and she brushed her fingers on the top of his soft head.

“Are you hungry? Thirsty?” The owl chittered in response, and she grinned. “Very well. I’ll be right back.”

She crept down to the kitchen, glad to see that her father and Sandra were no longer there. She filled a bowl of water and grabbed some raw hamburger meat before she returned to her room. The owl was still sitting where she had left him.

“Here you go.” She set the bowl down and let out a sigh of relief when Handsome dipped his beak into the water and drank.

“Now, try this.” She offered him a pinch of ground meat.

“I bet you’ll think it’s tasty.” He took it reluctantly, but after he swallowed it, he clicked his beak excitedly as if pleased.

She fed him piece by piece until he seemed satisfied.

That should be enough for a few hours, she hoped.

She returned the leftover meat to the fridge but left the bowl of water on the floor in case he needed to drink. When she got back to her room, she found the owl all puffed up, his feathers fluffed and eyes half closed in contentment.

“Feeling better?” She chuckled. “I have to get to bed. It’s Christmas tomorrow, and I need to sleep if I have to deal with Sandra.” She couldn’t resist touching the owl one more time. Once he was at the rehab center, she might never have a chance like this again.

“You know, I think it was you who saved me tonight,” she whispered. “I don’t know where I would have ended up if you hadn’t crashed into my window. I might have kept driving in the dark and gotten lost. Or worse.”

The owl’s eyes opened wide, as if he understood. But that was crazy.

“I’ll see you in the morning.” She got back into bed, and the weariness she had carried all evening finally overtook her and she slipped into dreams. They were not happy ones.

Then something soft and smooth brushed against her cheek, and a clicking noise pulled her from her nightmares. She came face-to-face with the owl.

“How did you get up here? Did you fly?”

The creature’s head bobbed and swiveled, studying her room from this new angle.

She sat up and scooped the owl into her arms, burying her face in Handsome’s feathers.

She remembered a moment later that she was hugging a wild animal, but thankfully he didn’t hurt her.

He let her hold him and take comfort in his soft white-and-gold feathers.

“I wish I could leave, that you could fly me away from here... I wish I could forget everything.”

She’d had similar thoughts before. Dreams of escape, of freedom.

But she had always held back, thinking about her future, about school, about Caden.

But right now, she had never meant anything more in her life.

What a gift it would be to have the wings to fly far away from all the pain and the loneliness.

Take me away, she wished silently. Let me forget. I can’t hurt if I can’t remember .

Feathers fluttered against her cheek as the owl slipped out of her hold and dropped from the bed, only to rise. She gasped, because it was no longer an owl that stood before her.

It was a man.