Aria Blackwing's Arc

Chapter 12 of 24

They drank their tea by the fire and did not talk much. Aria banked the coals when the light went blue at the window. Derek checked the shutter bar. The owl tucked its head under its wing. The raven settled in its box. Aria lay down on her side of the bed and listened to Derek's breathing slow beside her. The cabin went quiet. She thought, for the first time in weeks, that quiet might be a thing she could trust. A floorboard on the porch cracked. Derek was up before she opened her eyes. He swung his legs over the bed and pulled the knife from under the pillow in one motion. The colored grip caught the low firelight. He put a hand flat on her shoulder. "Stay." "Derek—" "Stay with the birds." She sat up. The owl was awake on its perch, both round eyes fixed on the door. The raven made a small sound in its box. Aria slid off the bed and stood between the perch and the door. Her hands shook. She pressed them flat against her thighs to stop them. Derek crossed to the door in his bare feet. He listened. Aria heard it too now — a slow shift of weight on the boards, then a pause, then another step. Not an animal padding. Something heavier, testing where to stand. Derek looked back at her. She saw his face change. He was not deciding whether to go out. He had already decided. He was looking at what he meant to protect. The owl. The raven in its box. Her. He lifted the bar off the door and set it against the wall without a sound. Then he opened the door a hand's width and slipped through. Aria heard him speak once, low and hard. "Off the porch." A scrape. A grunt. A heavier thud that shook the boards under her feet. The raven flapped once in its box and went still. Aria stepped closer to the door with the poker from the hearth in her fist. Then she heard Derek's voice again, closer. "Go. Now." Something moved off the porch and into the yard. She heard it break through the brush at the tree line. Then nothing. Derek came back in. He shut the door and dropped the bar into place. His chest was rising fast. The knife was still in his hand, clean. He hadn't used it. "A man," he said. "Not the animal. A man." Aria set the poker down. "You saw him." "I saw enough. He ran when I named him." Derek looked at the owl, then at the raven's box, then at her. "He knew the cabin. He came for it." Aria drew the curtain across the window. She went to the raven and put her palm over the box until the bird settled. Her sanctuary had a door someone wanted open. In the morning, she would decide what to do about that. Tonight, she barred it twice.