Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“It’s part of our identity as a clan,” he added. “Built into our very being, the language a living, breathing element of who we are as WindHaven. All the fledglings speak it because they hear it every day.”
He squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry, though, wild bird. We welcome our mates into the clan and embrace their own histories and languages. It is a thing of winged clans—we’re used to distant travelers flying into our lives and our families.
“Amir, my brother-in-law, was born in the Persian Gulf, while Dahlia’s mother flew in from Ecuador, though her own parents are based in Iran. Harper’s parents were born in the Arctic, went adventuring as young adults, and ended up in another part of Arizona.” Every winged clan had stories of distant origins among its population. “Pascal, who you haven’t met yet, was born in Belize, joined the clan as a young man.”
To date, he didn’t know of any Psy who had mated into a winged clan—but that would change if he had anything to do with it. “Careful here,” he said, “we have to go downhill a bit.”
He used his thighs to stabilize them down the slope, Eleri held close to his side, until they emerged into a much wider and higher conduit where they could walk with ease again. “Let’s see, exactly fifty steps.” He counted them out. “Turn left.”
And there was the entrance.
Smiling, he led Eleri to it after turning off the phone flashlight. “Look. I named it Mirage as a kid.”
A small gasp of air. “What is it?” she asked, walking inside to run her fingers along the sparkling lines of minerals that held a bioluminescent glow that turned the huge cavern into a wonderland.
“I managed to get a sample to Bayani to test. He said it’s bioluminescent moss that’s growing over particular minerals.” He leaned against the edge of the doorway as she walked deeper inside, toward the sound of rushing water from an underground river behind the back wall of the cave.
Eleri stopped in the very center of the cavern, her gaze tilted up. “It’s so quiet here, Adam,” she murmured…just as what felt like a thousand bats took flight from the ceiling and dived down to exit past Adam.
Laughing, he ran in to rescue Eleri, who’d ducked down with her arms over her head. “Sorry!” He put his arm around her. “They don’t usually move at this time of day—we must’ve disturbed them.”
They ran out and down the passageway, Eleri’s breath fast and shallow when they stopped. “I’ve never seen bats before,” she gasped out. “Much less in flight.”
“Hang around the Canyon at sunset and you’ll get quite the show.” He began to walk them out, phone flashlight back on. “I still haven’t figured out how these exit to the outside, but they’re part of why I haven’t brought others down here. It’s their home.”
Eleri leaned into him, her hand tight on his. “Thank you for showing me. It’s been a day beyond anything I could’ve imagined.”
Adam nuzzled her. “Do you have the energy for one more thing? I’d like to introduce you to my sister.”
A long pause before Eleri said, “I would be so proud to meet her…though I will have to shower beforehand.”
Throwing back his head, he laughed, because there she was. His girl. Locked behind the gray walls of reconditioning, but still fighting, still breaking out of her cell at unexpected times.
No matter what Eleri believed, she was far from done.
• • •
Since Saoirse was at work at the lab where they manufactured delicate and cutting-edge aeronautical parts, he messaged her to ask if she could take a break that afternoon. That wasn’t always a given with Saoirse—if she got into a project, she’d work straight through for hours.
Her response was very Saoirse: You finally going to introduce me to the woman at whom you are making goo-goo eyes per my eldest and very smart child? I was about to disavow you as a sibling. Bring food with you—I forgot to eat lunch. I also want to interrogate her in private, so we’re not going out.
“My sister’s protective of me,” he told Eleri as he drove them to the plant through Raintree, the requested food in the back of the car. “Can’t quite stop seeing me as her little brother.” She’d held him tight after their parents’ deaths, the two of them locked in a grief only they could understand.
Because in that moment, they’d lost the twin anchors of their world.
“Even though you’re her wing leader?”
“Context,” he reminded her. “Family interactions are a different matter from clan interactions.”
Eleri looked forward, at the low curving building toward which he’d just turned. “Underground?”
“Yeah, most of the facility is underground. Easier to maintain climate control.” He took a minute to park the vehicle in the spot assigned to the CEO.