Page 87 of Claws and Feathers

“Check it out, sis! Look what I found!” Cooper had shouted, excitement coursing through him.

Kate had halted her movements, jumping down and racing towards him. “What? What is it?”

Cooper had unfolded his sticky hand to show his sister the little creature he had discovered.

Only, it was no longer secured inside his fist.

“I don’t see anything,” Kate had said with a pout. “I thought you found something cool.”

“I did!” Cooper had insisted, his pitch increasing with earnestness.

He’d begun to trace his steps. The little fellow must have hopped out between his fingers. Cooper had traipsed back through the grass, his eyes frantically searching for the baby toad. He’d stopped abruptly, his gaze landing on a horrible sight. Cooper had found his new friend, but he was no longer alive. Cooper must have dropped it while running over to Kate, and then stepped on it along the way.

The toad was dead. Squished and gutted by Cooper’s sneaker.

Cooper had knelt down, examining his crime, choking on his guilt. He had cried all day, unable to wipe the memory from his mind. He had decided in that moment that he wanted to protect things. Things he loved. Things he held dear. He’d made it his mission at six years old that he would become a defender.

That baby toad would have justice.

Cooper latched onto his father, sobbing into his shirt collar and spewing out years-worth of bottled up grief and pain. He cried for his mother. He cried for his sister. He cried for his partner. He cried for Abby. He cried for every fallen hero, every lost soul, and every innocent life he couldn’t save.

He cried for the toad.

Her eyes flickered against the artificial light. There was a soft hum buzzing in her ears, along with beeps and whistles that made her shrink back against the pillow.

She was awake.

She wasawake.

Abigail Stone was alive.

She was unsure of how to process such an epiphany. In fact, she pondered if perhaps sheweredead, after all. Maybe this was the afterlife. Maybe this was purgatory.

Abby shifted on the bed as pain radiated right through her. She winced when a needle moved inside her vein and medical tape tugged at the hairs on her arm. Her head hurt. Her chest hurt.

Everything hurt.

Abby registered a male presence sitting beside her. It was a familiar presence. She inhaled a bitter breath as she blinked herself back to reality. “Cooper?” Her tongue felt like sandpaper in her mouth as her voice cracked.Oh, Cooper.She’d missed him. Wherever she had gone, she had missed him so.

“Hello, Abigail.”

Abby turned her head to the man on her right. It wasn’t Cooper. She knew this man, but it wasn’t Cooper.

It was her brother.

“Ryan?”

Okay, maybe shewasdead. Surely, she had to be. There was no way her estranged brother was sitting beside her, saying her name, holding her hand. Abby wiggled her fingers against his, partly to make sure she could move them, and partly to confirm his existence. He certainly felt real.

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s me.”

She swallowed back a dry lump in her throat that tasted like a tumbleweed. “What are you doing here?”

Before he could respond, memories began to rush back to her. Terrifying, gruesome memories. They shot through her like a drug and went straight to her heart. Abby gasped, squeezing her brother’s hand, as her body reacted to the onslaught of bloodshed and horrors swirling around her brain.

Kate.

James.

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