Page 77 of Forged in Twilight: The Complete Series

His feelings were obviously returned. Polly stood right at his side, slipping her hand in Sam’s.

“Don’t blame, Ace,” she said, squeezing his fingers. “I got the key. I should’ve put it somewhere safe—”

“You did, baby,” murmured Sam. “It wasn’t your fault what happened.”

Her expression said she wasn’t so sure about that.

Micah still didn’t understand. “What happened?”

Polly finally met his confused stare. “We had it, but then a crow stole it.”

Fallen angels didn’t need to breathe. Not technically. They were immortal, and if Micah held his breath, the most that might happen to him was that he got a little light-headed. It was a habit, something that helped him fit in with humans before he settled in a faction-run city and he didn’t have to hide anymore.

So when he stopped breathing? It wasn’t on purpose. Shock stole the air right from his lungs.

When he finally remembered to inhale, he choked. “Did you say crow?”

It had to be a coincidence. He knew of quite a few witches who had familiars. Most chose cats for obvious reasons, though Hilda had a little mutt who loved a cup of whipped cream, and her Aunt Bertha kept a garden snake slithered around her wrist when it wasn’t living in her oversized handbag.

But Phoenix… she’d had a crow. A big, black demon of a bird, she called him Crow because, like her own chosen name, that was what he was.

Micah always thought her familiar perished with her. There’d been no sign of him after her spell turned on her, and just seeing any kind of black bird on the rare occasion he took flight himself was enough to cause a pang deep in his chest.

His head shot toward Sam. His brother would know. He would assure him that the crazy thoughts running through his head right now were just that: crazy.

Only… he didn’t.

With a look of his own that said Sam would rather be doing anything else than having this conversation, he nodded.

And then he said, “Crow took it,” and Micah was glad he was still clinging to the doorjamb.

Because if he wasn’t? He would’ve landed right on his ass when the whole world seemed to shift under his feet, and wasn’t that a wonderful first impression to make on his brother’s soulmate?

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