Page 71 of Glass Wings
The air was growing thinner, and Reign’s throat clenched until it seemed easier to hold her breath. She could do so forever, not breathing but sitting with the ache.
She pushed her wings harder now, looking to break the stratosphere, something she had never done before. She reached her hands out as if she could pull herself through, beating down with the powerful muscles in her back.
Reign had so much speed that she would join the gods, the Life Gifter and Ayurveda. They existed out here, watching humans build their satellites and explore places where they were not welcomed.
Suddenly, she jumped.
The time hop had been accidental, as it always was when she flew with too much intensity. This time, she was so focused that it scared her as she let herself fall, tumbling out of the sky while her stomach dropped over and over again.
She flexed her wings after several hundred feet, hitting hard turbulence before she found herself in a glide, shaking and thrashing in the air until she got through it, peace and ease welcoming her on the other side.
The clouds were under her now, and she was hesitant to drop below. Reign didn’t know where she was. She didn’t know what directionshe had fallen in or where her wings had taken her once they caught the air.
She also didn’t know what period she had hopped into. What world waited for her underneath those clouds? She hoped that her townhome still belonged to her so she could go to bed and figure out how to return in the morning.
The Kinnari let her body slowly dangle and fall. Reign didn’t stop until her feet touched the ground, in this case, pavement. She was standing in the middle of a residential street that she recognized. She was still in Sacramento.
The cars parked in the driveways and on the street looked current to the year she lived in.
Had she jumped at all?
She walked down the street, the mini-mansions of East Sacramento lining both sides until she stopped to peer into a window of one of the homes. A woman was removing ornaments from a large, lavish Christmas tree facing the street.
She had only traveled a couple of weeks into the future.
The faint sound of a high-pitched scream, a woman’s scream, made the hairs on the back of Reign’s neck stand. She turned towards the sound of that scream, a large home with an even larger driveway, and walked toward it, curious about what she was being shown.
Reign passed a fountain as she walked up to the house and heard the scream again, louder this time. She had no doubt it was coming from inside.
Not being able to see much from the front door, she jumped up, unbothered in the moment about her wings being seen. Glancing through the glass on the second story, she gasped. A Vrae had its mouth around Hailey’s neck, blue blood pooling at her feet while her arms were tied above her. She hung from a chain touching the ceiling with her toes grazing the ground.
Hailey was unconscious.
Reign gasped, and the Vrae noticed, looking up at her through the window. Its entire body was black and shiny as oil, its eyes a terrifyingblood-red. Its fangs were long and the purest white, as Kinnari blood dribbled down its chin.
It froze, as did she, until it took a step in her direction. Then another. Then another.
Was it going to jump out of the window at her?
Reign didn’t wait to find out.
She flew up in a panic. She flew so hard and so fast, terror pulsing as she saw Hailey covered in blood, saw flashes of Tristan ravaged, and wished that time was something she could master. She wished it wasn’t accidental or dumb luck as she flew with all intentions of returning to the timeline she belonged in.
The warmth of the morning sun crept across her closed eyes, and for a moment, everything was quiet bliss. Then, the realization hit her, and Reign opened her eyes in a panic. She was in bed, the silly embroidered quilt she had found at a secondhand shop curled intricately around her limbs.
With a jolt, she turned to her nightstand to pick up her phone and check the date.
November twenty-second.
She did it. She made it back. Her head throbbed, as it often did after time-hopping, and she blew out a breath, readying herself for the multi-day hangover she would now have to endure.
But now what?
Her best friend was gone. Maybe she had been completely eaten by the Vrae that had Hailey.
“Oh, no, Hailey.” Reign jumped out of bed, realizing she needed to get to the girl. She had to warn her. The cost of revealing the future didn’t matter this time either. She was given an assignment. She was made that child’s godmother. She willingly would forfeit her life.
Reign picked up her phone and pressed the call button on the only person she could turn to.
