Page 88 of Glass Wings
As the boy turned, his bare skin revealed the Kinnari mark on his shoulder blades. A true half-blood who would be raised to believe he would protect the village from the monsters who lived in the forest. Raised to believe that he had any sort of chance for a life after his wings sprouted.
Amis himself couldn’t defend this village against the Vrae, should they choose to come through their portal. All he could do was keep them fed so they wouldn’t come after true Kinnari, so they wouldn’t unleash themselves into human society, slaughtering anything with warm blood.
The children’s mother popped her head out, hearing her child call to her. Her eyes were sleepy, her hair disheveled, and she was obviously not ready to get up for the day. She saw Amis, and her expression changed to that of someone who had just been splashed in the face with cold water.
The mother urged her children back inside and closed the covering over the door, hiding from him. It was so sweet and innocent. His heart ached for the brutality to come for their small family.
A figure appeared far down on the path ahead of him. She movedslowly and hunched her back with every shuffled step. Amis began walking toward her to speed the process along.
“Remind me”—he smiled towards her—“that it’s time to start training your replacement, Mother Waihema, as you look quite old.”
The old woman smiled. It was filled with mischief and fire. She had been working with him for most of her life.
“There are not many old women to replace me, friend,” she teased. Amis saw her as he had first met her, in the ceremonial hut while she undressed to do her village duty and provide children. Amis looked her up and down and watched her tremble. They were all always scared of him, but he did his best to be quick, touching them as little as possible. He got little joy from it, less and less as the years passed. He had never been with a woman in any other way though. He thought of Roksana, her magic driving him mad whenever they were together, to get the climax out of the way.
“I imagine you are here to impregnate more villagers? I will gather anyone eligible,” Mother Waihema informed him, touching her hand to his arm. “If you still feel the need, we can also cull the new infants.”
The old mother shot him a look, one that glinted with hope. Amis knew that look only too well these days.
“Do you still feel that we must cull?” she asked, watching his face for any sort of reaction.
Amis could have told her the truth. He did trust her.
He could have told her that if they allowed any infants to grow and breed that didn’t have even the smallest hint of Kinnari blood, then this farm would grow useless. The Vrae would stray and look elsewhere to satisfy themselves.
He could have told her that the monsters that appeared in the woods and devoured their winged creatures the moment they sprouted and claimed themselves as Waihema protectors would hunt him down out of desperation and hunger.
He could have told her that he was working with his enemy to satisfy their lust for blue blood—that he feared what would happento the entire world if that was disrupted. He never said any of that, and he never would.
“It’s so hard to cull, I know. The screams of the mothers haunt me daily. There are simply not enough resources to keep so many children fed. We must give priority to any who inherit magic blood.”
Mother Waihmena nodded, her eyes disappointed.
“There are six women in the ceremonial hut waiting for you on their backs,” she said and turned to lead the way.
26
Hadley | Sacramento, California | Early 2000s
The room had emptied,the chanting had stopped, and yet Hadley remained staring into that mirror at her wings. They were so beautiful, something that she could never have imagined. The windowlight hit them at an angle and they shimmered. Streaks of color flooded the carpet underneath her.
In that instant, she was a rainbow, yet she had a shadow so alive, currently in hiding. She wanted nothing at that moment but to learn about it and let it guide her.
Sheng walked up behind her, embracing that they were alone, grabbing her hips, letting his lips graze her neck, and kissing her wound.
“You want us to have children?” she asked, remembering his words from the last ceremony.
“We need to unite your kind and mine,” Sheng answered coolly, stepping away from her. “We could create something this world hasnever imagined, or we will create an army to protect it. Either way, impregnating you was always the plan.”
How boring, she thought, while a hundred more questions popped into her head. She selected her next one carefully.
“What if I don’t want it? What if I leave instead? It looks like I can simply fly away.”
Sheng genuinely laughed, grazing her wings with his finger and setting her on fire again. Her eyes fluttered, her body ached.
“No one here can teach you to use these wings properly. No one is willing, anyway. I might seem like the bad guy here, Hadley, but I’m only ever working towards one goal.”
“And what’s that?” she asked as she saw new movement in the mirror, the shadow of herself creeping back into her vision, walking on her tiptoes as if she were a cartoon character.
