Page 59 of Blood of a Huntsman

Wings and Fury

Cat didn't know why she was tagging along with Bash, but he hadn't protested, so she followed him down the west flank of the hill toward the lake.

They found the gate closed. Bash tried to open it, and winced.

"Shit. The bloody thing shocked me. Magic shields."

Cat chuckled. "Here, let me."

She stepped forward and opened it, ignoring his protests. The handle gave in when she tugged it down.

"Stormhale, remember? The hill is warded against outsiders."

Bash rolled his eyes, muttering something probably true about nepotism.

They spotted Jack by the lakeside as soon as they turned down the path. He was standing in front of the lake, practicing the violin. Although he hit a few wrong notes, the man played with feeling and skill. A rendition of a pop song Cat couldn't remember. It had never sounded quite so good.

He finished the song and turned to greet them.

"I didn't know you played," Sebastian said.

Jack shrugged. "I used to as a kid. I stopped after moving here. I didn't have an instrument."

"You could have bought one," Catherine pointed out.

"I didn't have the time," Jack amended. "Besides, I mostly played for my mother. No one here would care to listen to an average violinist. But I digress. Your text said you had to speak to me urgently."

Bash nodded. "Yeah. Something Levi said."

Cat saw Jack's back stiffen and his eyes narrow.

"I know what the Leviathan wants of me," he replied. "Just because he embraces being a monster doesn't mean the rest of us have to. Is that all?"

"There have been developments. Levi thinks we may need your monster. Whatever that is."

Sebastian glanced at Cat, and she could tell he wished she weren’t there.

"Look, I get it. I feel like that. Like I'm out of control. Like these new…gifts of mine make me a monster, because it feels unnatural. But it's who I am now. And whatever you are, you were born that way."

"You have no clue what you're talking about. You, Tris, even that damn sucker. You're human. Red blood runs in your veins. You may have been turned, infected, changed, but you're part of this world, made to exist on Earth."

"And you're not?" Sebastian snorted. "Your mom is a hunter, descended from the very first huntsman trained by Eirikr. The Venaris were the second. Whatever I am, we are brothers. The blood in our veins is the same. Or it was."

It happened so fast that Cat couldn’t have stopped it even if she’d been prepared. One moment they were all standing close together, and the next, she and Bash were both firmly pinned to the ground, her chest crushed under heavy weight. Cat was too shocked to even try to break free.

Two sets of humongous wings with pure white feathers had burst out of his back, destroying his suit in the process and pushing them down on their asses. Cat didn’t even think Jack had done it on purpose.

Jack’s wings moved, somewhat reluctantly, to extend at his sides. And now that he'd revealed his true form, his eyes were dark as night, hollow.

He tucked the wings behind him, and they slowly crawled back inside his skin. The glint in his eyes disappeared. Jack turned around. Four ugly scars ran from his neck to the bottom of his shoulder blades.

"Tell me we're the same now."

Sebastian was speechless.

"Even among the gods themselves,” Jack said, “my kind is known to be wild. The Skylars, we're called. Most of the Enlightened avoid them. The wings have a will of their own. Making them move consciously takes more strength than anything I’ve ever done. There's an actual beast inside. It doesn’t recognize you, or my cousin, or my own mother as an ally. If I let them, the wings would impale anyone who gets too close to me in my sleep. Every day, that thing tries to win, tries to take control of me. There’s a Mr. Hyde crawling inside me. You're no monster, Bash. Not compared to me."

Well, that was quite enough of that.

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