Page 59 of A Fate of Wings

“You might as well go bathe while you’re waiting.” She scampered off the floor and strode from the chamber as thoughshe carried pretty flowers in her palms instead of my severed toes.

“Should I be worried?” I asked Rexan.

He shrugged. “Tay is Tay. We’ll have her back whenever she needs us.”

I nodded and staggered to my feet. Balancing on the heel of my foot, I hobbled over to the door. “I’ll be back soon.”

“May as well meet us in the war room. That’s where I keep all the maps.”

Freshly bathed and dressed in clean leather pants and a jacket, I made my way down the stairs to the demon’s war room. It’d been a few hundred years since we’d seen war. The last one ended when someone killed our parents in the conflict. Rexan had come into power as the king of the demons and enacted a treaty with the angels. They stayed well away from us in the heavens, and we never stepped a foot in their realm. Not that we wanted to go. The war had been all the angels’ doing. Humans thought demons were evil. If only they knew.

As I stepped through the doorway into the cavernous room, Tay bounced on her feet as though eager to try this thing called bone-throwing. A collection of white bones, feathers, and buttons laid on the table before her. Rexan spread a yellowed map of Earth on the circular table, pinning the corners to the table with smooth obsidian rocks.

“How does this work?” I walked closer to the table, glad my toes had grown back while I bathed in the bathtub because walking toeless had been difficult.

“I pick up my collection, give them a shake, and throw them over the map.”

“Any idiot can do that.” I scooped up the collection, and at once, a strange sensation cascaded through my bones as though my body recognized the other parts of itself. “Ah, here.” I thrust the bones into my sister’s hands. “Is that a siren feather?”

“Yes, idiot. Here goes.” Her gaze flickered back and forth between the map and her hands as she shook once, twice, three times, then released the contents of her hands onto the map.

The bones tinkled as they bounced over the stone table. The feather rolled and fluttered across the map. While the black buttons turned end over end as they appeared to spin off of their own volition. Magic swirled, sending up sparks of glittering white amongst the rolling items. End over end, the bones tumbled. My bones. I kind of wanted them back, but what would I do with extra toes?

All at once, the air stilled. The items stopped as a whoosh of air and the atmosphere left the room. My ears popped. I stuck my fingers in my ears and wiggled them about, attempting to relieve the pressure.

Tay peered over the table at the disarray of objects that appeared in no order or correlation at all.

“Looks like it didn’t work.” I placed my hands on the rim of the table and leaned over the map.

“See here.” Tay pointed at a white toe bone. “This bone is pointing toward this feather over here. Thea’s feather might I add.”

My gaze snagged on the lone feather. I wanted to snatch it up and smell the feather to see if I caught the sweet scent of my mate. Tay slapped my hand. I hadn’t even realized it’d moved.

I growled.

“Dick, I’m trying to help.”

“Well, hurry.”

“You can’t hurry divination.”

I cocked an eyebrow. The only seer I knew of was Saltine, and I’d want to throttle her if I ever saw her again.

Tay touched a black button, followed the line to another small bone, and over to the rest of my toe bones. As her finger moved along the line, it gave the impression of being a point on a pentagram star. Hope flared. Perhaps Tay had picked up more than I gave her credit for with the sorcerer.

“She’s here.” Tay slammed her pointy finger on the map.

Rexan leaned forward, frowned a tad, and said, “Ireland.”

“Well, shit, that’s where the most fae live beside the Summer Court. If Thea’s sister is there searching for her, then I have little time.” I placed a swift kiss on top of Tay’s head and waved a portal into existence. “Thanks, both of you.”

“If you don’t come back soon, we’ll come to find you this time,” Tay said, shooting Rexan daggers with her eyes.

My wings flared, the large, black leathery appendages taking me to my mate once and for all. Thea would be back in my embrace, and then I’d never let her go again.

Chapter twenty-seven

Thea