Page 78 of Glass Wings
“Why am I chained here in the dark?” she asked simply.
Amis put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the door frame, smiling down at her.
“On your wedding night,” Amis stated. “The priest said you were an angel. Do you remember that?”
“That was not my wedding night. I signed no certificate,” Hadley snapped back at him, wincing slightly at the throbbing in between her eyes.
“Oh, you are most certainly married,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders. “Not that it matters too much. Just a piece of paper, I always thought.”
“There was no piece of paper.”
“Not that you remember, it seems.” Amis shifted, unable to take his eyes off hers.
“Why am I here?” Hadley demanded.
“Well, that’s very simple. You are still in that jaded, strong, empowered woman phase, not yet thinking about the greater good.Without Sheng’s venom pulsing in your blood, you seemed anxious to run away. As I’ve hinted before, we cannot lose you.”
“And what’s so special about me?” Hadley shook her head. This was all wrong. She couldn’t believe she willingly sat in this house, even unsupervised. How could she not have fought past whatever was flowing inside her blood? Was she really that weak?
Amis responded by flashing a mischievous grin, and then he plunged his hand in his pocket to pull out a folding knife with a mahogany handle.
“Look,” he said as he unfolded the blade and held out his hand in the air before cutting his palm deeply with the blade. “We are the same.”
Hadley let her annoyance at this worthless analogy show on her face. It didn’t matter if they both bled when hurt; they were both human. That wasn’t an answer to her question.
“I don’t understand . . .” Hadley stopped mid-sentence once she realized what Amis was showing her. His wound, the blood that was slowly trickling down the side of his hand, was the deepest, darkest blue.
“I’m guessing by the look on your face that you don’t know what this means?” Amis asked, his blood now dripping down onto the carpet.
“It looks like you broke your nose there. Don’t worry, it’ll heal quickly. I’d say by tomorrow, you will look brand new.”
Hadley touched her fingers to the skin around her nose, wincing from the tenderness as her hands became wet and sticky from the blood. She examined her hand, her eyes wide and confused as she, too, seemed to be covered in blood that matched the color flowing from Amis's hand.
“What did Sheng do to me?” she whispered, horrified, still staring at her hand.
“He didn’t do this to you, little girl.” Amis almost looked sympathetic. “You are here because of what you are. Though we share the same type of blood in our veins, you are the first and only of your kind. We have no rule book for you quite yet.”
Every question he answered, every time he spoke, resulted in more and more questions. Hadley’s breathing began to pick up. She was horrified at the thought that she, too, might have to drink blood or act morbidly in some way.
“My blood was normal, red, just a few days or a week ago. I had pricked my finger on a rose,” she muttered, shock prevalent in her eyes. “What does it mean?” she demanded, bursting out in acute rage. She was scared. She needed Hector. She needed her mom. She needed someone, anyone. Her reality was quite different, leaving her alone and locked up. No one was searching for her. No one would help her screaming in the street.
Her heartbeat began to catch up with her quick breaths, and Hadley leaned over, panting. The pain in her back, in her shoulder blades, was back, creeping its way up through her spine. Then, the invisible axe hit harder than it ever had. She could only stare at Amis with pleading eyes and mouth open wide in a silent scream.
“It means”—Amis cocked his head—“that your wings will be coming in soon.”
23
Arryn | The Kinnari Temple | Early 2000s
She had left him.There was no note, no explanation, only the feeling of inadequacy. Why would such a woman, a woman of power and beauty, stay around to take care of him? He was nothing, no one. He offered her only a life of pain and sadness. Any child that she would birth would share that same fate.
Arryn paced the great room of the temple, the firelight low and burning out, but now he welcomed the cold. He found himself falling into the familiar pattern of wallowing in the despair of his love life, wondering how best he could torture himself. Today, his mind seethed in a new direction, one more sinister. Today, he wondered how to welcome death best, for there was no life without his love, his Allienna.
They had returned that day from their encounter with the gods, with their lives still belonging to themselves. There were looks ofgratitude and relief on the faces of his chosen family, the Kinnari he grew up with.
“She has never done this before. Allienna wouldn’t have left without a word. There must have been foul play!” Arryn’s rage was building while Amis, Reign, Roksana, Djoser, and Precession stood around him, watching.
“Allienna would be concerned for your child; she couldn’t have gone far.” Reign jumped up, putting a comforting arm on his shoulder. “We will find her, Arryn. No one goes truly missing in this world.”
