Page 10 of Twi-Flight (Ghostlight Falls #6)

Chapter Eight

T he night is almost gone, the grey light of morning is struggling to fill the room when I feel Eggward’s soft body sliding from beneath my touch.

“Where are you going?” I ask sleepily.

“Go back to sleep, chickadee.” Eggward presses his beak to my temple and I hear, rather than see, him leave the bedroom. I didn’t realize he woke up this early to take care of the chickens.

With a groggy moan I slip from between the sheets. Grabbing my pants and shirt from the pile on the floor, the shoes I left at the front door, and clumsily follow Eggward into the chilly early morning air.

“Mina?” Eggward’s voice appears from somewhere in the darkness beyond my front porch.

“I can help,” I stifle a yawn.

His voice falters. “Where do you think I’m going?”

“You’re starting morning chores.” I wrap my arms around myself to ward off the morning chill. “I’m coming to help you.”

“Don’t worry about that. You can go back to bed if you like,” he says.

“I—Are you—leaving then?” I stumble through the question, it feels ridiculous to say out loud, but I’ve been so wrong about these situations before.

“No, no! Of course not…” His warm wing circles my shoulder and he releases a long sighs. “You were going to find out eventually. Just—wait here.”

The heat of his embrace dissolves as he steps away.

The slight rays of the rising sun are breaking over the horizon, basking him in a tender glow.

It’s easy to watch his wings spread, his face tilt up, his long neck stretch toward the sky.

Then he releases a deep echoing crow. The noise circling the yard before it lands on my shoulders, sinking through my bones until it reaches my feet, settling my souls into the earth.

He releases three long crows, each more bewitching than the last, before he seems finished welcoming the new day. He finally turns to look at me.

“That was beautiful.” I tell him honestly.

He shakes his head, but there’s amazement in his voice. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do!” I squeeze my arms around my middle. “It was lovely, watching you in your element.”

“Thank you,” he says sheepishly. He’s already moving to cover me with his wings again. “ I didn’t want to wake you. I was nervous about you seeing it.”

I shake my head right back at him. “You don’t need to hide your real self from me.”

He leans back to try and see my expression. “Do you mean it?”

“Is that why you left?” I ask. “The night that you bit me?”

“I didn’t want you to find out that way. I wanted to tell you in my own time.” He pulls me close, pressing his waddle to the top of my head.

I lean into his warm chest and stifle a laugh with his feathers.

“What?” He pesters me gently.

“The other night, I thought you left because you couldn’t be out when the sun rose, because you were a vampire.” I admit, my face feels warm at the admission. “I’m so stupid.”

His knuckle catches my chin and tilts it up. “You know I don’t like it when you talk about yourself that way.” He dips his face down close to mine. “Say something complimentary about yourself.”

“Like what?” I tease.

“That you are smart, loyal, capable, or fiercely independent.” There’s a grin in his words, his mouth moving closer to mine with every word.

“Is that all?” I ask breathily.

“And incredibly sexy,” he adds.

“Back at you,” I say with a little snicker, and press my lips against him.

He leans into me, with a deep and claiming kiss. His tongue probing, his hands traveling my body.

“Remember how I told you to stay in bed? Let’s get you back there.” He scoops me up into his arms. He carries me back into the house as I laugh into his neck.

We collapse back into a pile of limbs, kisses, and moans.

Until I’m falling apart for him. His mouth and cloaca are putting me back together.

Finally, in a comfortable downy cuddle, we fall into half sleep for the hour before we have to get to work at the chicken rescue.

Luckily, work is just a couple feet from the front door.

Drowsily I watch the steadily warming sunlight move through my childhood home.

The half finished paint jobs and the makeshift curtains slowly lit by the early morning.

Everything is a disappointing ghost of my childhood, a reminder of everything I had and lost. Worst of all is him, the man with his arm around me who’s hard work is bringing this place back together.

“It’s my fault.” I mutter into his chest.

“What do you mean?” His voice startles me, I hadn’t realized he was awake.

I clutch at him a little tighter before admitting. “It’s because of me that this house got so run down. That it needed all this work. That you have to fix it up this much.”

He’s quiet for a long moment and I take that as all the permission I need to explain.

“My dad was a drunk. An alcoholic. I should have stayed. I should have reached out. But he was just so angry…not violent, just—volatile, mean, insulting. When I was a teenager I didn’t know how to deal with him. So I stopped visiting, stopped calling. I avoided him almost completely.”

“You were just a kid.”

“Yeah, but I could have done something.” I protest. “Eventually I tried to contact him, but he wouldn’t answer my calls. When I heard about his death I hadn’t spoken to him in almost a decade.”

“That isn’t your fault.”

“It’s partially my fault. I should have visited. I could have come to make sure he was okay, taken care of. But I didn’t. I didn’t realize what was coming—I didn’t know it’d gotten so bad…” I stop talking when I feel a cry choking its way up my throat.

“You couldn’t have known.” Eggward squeezes me. I can tell it’s supposed to be reassuring.

I swallow down the tears I feel forming. “No. But I could have been here for him.”

“You’re here now.” His fingers trace a path along my shoulder.

“Little help I’ve been. I could barely stand to set foot in here.” I push myself halfway up on the bed so I can see his face. “I love this house. I love all the work you put into it. But I don’t think I deserve to stay here.”

His hand lifts to comb my hair gently from my face. “You don’t want to live here?”

“Oh course I want to live here!” I blurt a little too quickly before pulling my knee up to my chest.

“Then stay here. With me.” His hand continues tracing little paths along my shoulder. “Move in with me. Help me finish the renovations.”

I feel the tears trying to make their way back up. “Are you sure you want me?”

“As long as you want me.” He says quietly.

The following week brings a lot of changes.

I finally vacate Lucy’s couch and move my things into the old house.

With the water and the electricity running it’s becoming a lovely sweet home.

I can also help Eggward with the updates.

He technically doesn’t move in with me, although all of our evenings are spent together, usually in bed.

“This looks great.” Eggward admires the new light fixture I installed, his familiar hand resting at my waist.

“I did it while you were out this morning!” I exclaim. “I can’t believe I installed it myself!”

“I can,” he presses a kiss to my shoulder. There’s such reverence in his eyes, complete confidence in his voice.

I lean in, drunk on affection and press a sloppy kiss to his mouth. It’s long, slow, passionate, he’s maneuvering me onto the recently installed kitchen counter and pushing himself between my thighs.

Finally he pulls back, his head cocking to the side.

“Eggward, I need to tell you something.” The words fall out of my mouth before I can think.

His eyes go wide and his attention focuses back on me, he’s holding up a single finger like I should be quiet.

This time I hear it too. A cluttering ruckus in the barn. Eggward’s head swivels toward the sound. Something is wrong.

“Shit. Wait here,” Eggward insists. Moving from between my legs.

He’s flying out the front door.

It takes me a moment to catch my breath, but then I’m on my feet following him. If there’s something terrorizing the chickens I’m not letting him face it alone. He’s already far ahead of me, opening the barn door.

“It seems empty,” Eggward says as I finally reach verbal communication distance. “I’m going to check around back.”

I’m nodding breathless as he disappears around the corner.

There’s a thud behind me, that’s when I notice the light in the office is on. I know I turned it off. There’s a familiar irritated clucking.

“Eggward! The office!” I yell over my shoulder. He’s fast, but I don’t wait for a response as I grab the closest weapon shaped object, a shovel, and run for the office door.

I slam the door open, and find a figure standing behind my desk, he’s holding Alice in his arms, and she’s scolding him furiously.

“Mina?” A surprisingly familiar voice asks.

“Jace?” I say, finally piecing together what I’m seeing. “What are you doing?”

“Where is it?” He demands.

Alice makes a lot of noise between us.

“Put her down.” The voice behind me is dark, terrifying, but instantly recognizable. My man, my chicken.

“Eggward!” I say, clutching my shovel in an almost menacing way.

“Get out of the way, Mina.” His voice is deadly quiet.

I turn to fully look at him.

That’s when Jace lunges toward me.

The world is all a blur. Eggward shoves me back into the wall, putting himself between me and Jace.

And then Jace isn’t himself anymore. His face is longer, his hair redder, he has a tail, or six tails. He’s a fox, as tall as a man, but with sharp white teeth and fur covering his body.

I spot Alice beneath the desk and she makes a terrified noise. Jace and Eggward are a blur of fur and feathers.

There are gnashing teeth, squawking, and feathers flying in every direction. The scream I want to release is caught in my throat. I can’t let anything happen to Eggward, not now, when I’ve just realized what we could have together.

“Get out of here Mina!” The yell comes from the middle of the violent ball. But I can’t just leave him here.

“No, no, I love you! I’m not leaving without you!” I yell back, there must be something that I can do.

Admitting that I love him is the wrong thing though, because Eggward’s gaze catches on mine for a split moment. Jace, finally gets a solid punch in. Eggward flies back, slamming into the desk.

I take no hesitation. I swing my shovel into Jace’s face, slamming it square into his foxy snout. The shifter barely stumbles. Instead he smiles at me, his lips peeling back to reveal sharp white teeth.

“Stay away from her.” Eggward wipes a trickle of blood from his nose as he climbs to his feet.

“Then give it back,” the fox demands.

“I don’t have anything that belongs to you,” Eggward snarks.

“It was here! In your nest!” Jace growls. “The first time I delivered groceries. Alice said she’d hide it for me, and she said that you took it from her.”

Eggward and Jace are both panting, staring at each other.

“What did you hide?” I ask, tentatively putting my body physically between them.

“He knows what he took.” Jace’s eyes flick between me and Eggward. I see the way his expression melts when he realizes. “You’re fucking him.”

My face gets hot, but I don’t say anything.

“You’ve been harassing me and my chickens for months now.”

“Because you are an untrustworthy thief.” Jace jabs a finger in Eggward’s direction.

“What did it look like?” I interrupt, looking for the solid middle ground.

“Give it back,” Jace insists.

“How can I, if I don’t know what it is?” Eggward grumbles.

Jace scowls, his shoulders relaxing a fraction of an inch. We are making headway.

“Like—like a white pearl. A large white pearl.”

“A pearl?” Eggward rolls his eyes. “All this for some stupid piece of?—”

“It’s my soul,” Jace blurts. “It’s how my species keep their souls. A rival skulk of Kitsune came through town a few months ago and I hid it here for safe keeping.”

“If it belongs to you then I don’t want it.” Eggward practically spits the words. “I’ll see if I have it, but I don’t want you here ever again.”

“Eggward,” I scold gently. “Do you really think he’s lying about this?”

Eggward straightens his shoulders and reaches for the laundry basket he uses as a collection box.

Jerking it from beneath a desk so Jace can see inside.

It’s where all the odd things that we find in the eggs that the chickens lay.

Someone’s missing car keys, a plastic glove, a couple dozen marbles, golf balls.

“I fucking knew you stole it,” Jace growls, snatching one of the golf balls from the basket.

“How was I supposed to know what that was?” Eggward grumbles.

“You knew what you were doing.” Jace steps toward him with his lips curled back to show his teeth.

“Jace.” I hold up my hand palm toward him in a defensive stance. “You have what you came for?”

“Yes.” His fist tightens around his pearl.

“Then do you think you two can squash this beef between you?”

“I knew he was a slimy fox trying to get into my hen house. I just didn’t realize how completely right I was,” Eggward mutters.

“What do you see in him, Mina?” Jace’s eyes flick to me. “He’s a giant chicken, you can’t possibly think you really love him?”

My own gaze flicks to Eggward, the giant chicken whom I definitely love. There’s no way I can gloss over that admittance now. I flick my attention back to Jace, the boy I knew back in childhood, now a full grown fox. We’re nothing like the kids we were before.

“I didn’t know back then.” Jace almost seems like he can read my thoughts. “The Kitsune curse hits after puberty but—do you think we could have?”

“It’s time for you to leave,” I say sternly.

Eggward steps to one side, but doesn’t completely vacate the doorway, forcing Jace to bump shoulder with him as he leaves. Eggward’s eyes find me in the empty, wrecked office.

“I did mean what I said.” I don’t break eye contact as I speak. Eggward’s expression softens.

“I know you did.” His voice is soft.

“You don’t have to say it back. If it’s too early or if you need more time?—”

Eggward shakes his head as my words fumble to a halt.

“It’s too late. I fell in love with you when you saved Alice’s life.

” His hand lands on my face stroking his thumb gently across my cheek.

“I fell harder every day, every moment, every breath that we’ve spent together.

And I’ll love you more, with each passing day, with each passing breath.

We’re a family now, you, me, and the chickens. Forever.”

There’s a warmth and a passion in those words. I can feel in my very being that he means them. There’s nothing, no one who I’ve ever cared as much for, as I care for him.

“Forever.” I agree.

The End