Page 1 of Twi-Flight (Ghostlight Falls #6)

Chapter One

T here’s a chicken in the middle of the street.

Is this a joke? A chicken crossing the road?

I’m collecting the carts from the parking lot after the post-dinner grocery rush when I spot it. The bird is small and white and slowly pecking its way through the street.

She must be an escapee from the Birds of a Feather Chicken Rescue just across the street. The road isn’t busy right now; it’s a lazy Tuesday evening in Ghostlight Falls. There are only a few cars left in the tiny grocery store parking lot, and almost no traffic on the bumpy small town streets.

Surely someone will notice? Someone will come by and do something?

But scanning the sidewalk, there’s absolutely nobody around. The poor little chicken is unaccompanied. With a deep sigh I move towards her.

“Come here, girl.” I coo to the bird.

“Bwak,” replies the chicken.

I crouch down to reach for her. She’s surprisingly docile, letting me scoop her into my arms. A glint of gold around her neck catches my eye.

“Alice?” I read the little letters etched into a small collar. “What are you doing out here all alone?”

“Bwak.” Her answer doesn’t explain anything, but she nestles into my elbow. I think she enjoys being held.

“Sweet thing, I’m sure someone is missing you.” I’m aware of the chicken rescue, but it was established in the last couple of years. It wasn’t operating when I spent every summer between the ages of seven and sixteen with my dad in Ghostlight Falls.

The owner is intriguing, if a bit of a recluse. I’ve seen him around town a few times but he doesn’t even do his own grocery shopping. Despite working across the street from the grocery he has it delivered every week. I glance at the building. Maybe finding Alice is my chance to really meet him?

“Get out of the road idiot!”

The bike barreling down the street is almost on top of us when I finally notice it.

There’s no time to react. All I can think to do is curl myself around the chicken, in the hopes of protecting her.

Crap, crap, crapity, crap. I am going to die in the middle of the road trying to save a poor defenseless animal.

My obituary will read ‘she died like she lived, an idiot’.

There’s more yelling, and just when I expect the bike to hit us, I’m instead surrounded by a sudden feather-soft darkness.

The bike soars over in an arc above my head; it and the rider crash land on the other side of me.

“Are you alright?” The moody voice wrapped around me asks.

I know him instantly. Eggward, the owner of the chicken rescue, is completely unmistakable for anyone else, even though I’ve never been this close to him before.

He’s wearing a large strange cape, despite the warm summer weather.

His face is obscured by the shadow of the hood that covers his head.

His dark, almost black, eyes glint from the depths and the sharp line of his mouth is just barely visible.

“Yeah—I—I’m—okay.” I’m surprised by my tongue-tied-ness. I’ve never been struck so suddenly by a nervous desire to know more about someone.

“What the fuck is your problem! You idiots! This is dangerous! I could have killed you!” The bike rider stands, dusting asphalt from his pants. Despite the circumstances he seems relatively unscathed.

Eggward lifts me, setting me on my feet with an effortless speed I didn’t expect.

“This is a residential area. You’re the one speeding around, there are pedestrians here!

” Eggward turns on the rider. I can’t see his face but there is something terrifying enough in his expression, that the other man backs off.

Grabbing his bike with a loud grumble and the man sets back out on the road.

Eggward watches him leave before turning back to me. “You should be more careful, you could have been hurt.” His fingers brush softly against my arm, as he plucks the bird from my arms.

“Me? Or the bird?—”

“Both of you.” His eyes glint from under his hood and I lean to the side, trying to see his face better, but he turns blocking my view. That only makes me more curious.

“I saw her out here on her own. I couldn’t just leave her there.”

“Alice has her own ideas about where she should be,” he grumbles. Alice clucks noisily in his arms. He seems chastised. “But, not everyone cares that much about a farm bird. Or my rescue wouldn’t be necessary. Thank you for trying to help.”

“Thank you, the bike definitely would have hit me.”

“You’re welcome.” He nods sharply and starts to turn away.

“I’m Mina.” I add quickly, not wanting the conversation to be over just yet.

“I know who you are.” Eggward’s shoulders tense. My heart does a weird little somersault at the admission.

Alice clucks in his arms.

“I’m Eggward.” He adds, almost reluctantly.

“I know who you are too.” I smile.

“Good.” He huffs out a quick breath before he tucks Alice under his cloak and swoops across the road back to the chicken rescue.

“Because he’s a weirdo, Mina.” My oldest friend, turned roommate, Lucy complains from across her small kitchen.

“Everyone in Ghostlight is a weirdo.” I retort and add some diced onions into the hot oil in my frying pan. “Have you seen the garlic? I swear I just bought some.”

“I haven’t touched anything in the fridge.

” Lucy sips her glass of red wine. I’m pretty sure she threw it out, she’s weird about food but she’s basically letting me crash on her couch rent free while I figure out what to do with my dad’s old property, so I’m not going to push the issue.

“Eggward is particularly weird. He lives at the chicken rescue, keeps to himself, and no one even knows where he came from. He’s weird, even by Ghostlight Falls standards. ”

“No he’s not! He’s mysteriously sexy!” I sigh, thinking of his strong arms wrapped around me. “You should have seen him today.”

Lucy leans on the kitchen island while she watches me prepare dinner. “You just think he’s sexy because you are new here?—”

“Excuse you. I’ve been in Ghostlight Falls since I was eight-years-old!” I cut her off.

“Spending summers on your grumpy dad’s farm doesn’t count.” Lucy swirls her wine.

“It counts.” I grumble. “What do you think he is?”

“Your dad? He was a grump.”

“No—Eggward, he’s clearly not a human.”

“See, it’s obvious you aren’t from here or you’d already know that it’s not polite to ask.” Lucy jabs her finger in the air toward me.

“I’m not going to ask him . But just between us . What do you think? He’s tall, dark, mysterious. I’ve never seen him eat anything. He wears that cape even in the …”

“I know where you are going with this.” Lucy says with an eye-roll. “He’s not a vampire.”

“How would you know?” I ask.

“I just know.”

“He could be though, couldn’t he?”

“You’ve seen him walking around in the daylight a dozen times.”

“Maybe he’s got one of those magic rings like in the Vampire Diaries.”

If Lucy rolled her eyes any harder they’d pop out of her head. “Was he wearing a magic ring?”

“I don’t know!” I protest.

“You were just waxing poetic about his big strong arms, but you didn’t look at his hands?”

“I was distracted. I almost died !”

“You almost got hit by a bike.” She smirks.

“He saved my life!” I prop myself up on the counter across from her.

“You are so dramatic.” Her tone is scolding but there’s a familiar nostalgia in her grin. “You’ve always been dramatic.”

“I just want to be swept off my feet in a grand romantic love story. What’s so dramatic about that?” I sigh longingly.

“Of course, you deserve a romance.” Lucy swirls her wine carefully in her glass. “I just think maybe a big dramatic story is more than you bargained for.”

“Would you like some of my stir fry? Or are you just drinking in the kitchen to pester me?” I tease.

“Just here to pester.” She reaches for her bottle of wine.

“You’ve been having a lot of liquid dinners lately.”

“Have I?” Lucy asks, one eyebrow raised, she smiles widely, her bright white teeth stained red. “Thank you for the judgement, judgy-McJudge-face.”

“What I mean is, if you aren’t eating with me? Then who have you been eating with?” I ask, throwing the rest of my green beans into the frying pan.

“Whoever I want.” She smirks and then picks up her wine, spins on her heels and heads for the living room.