Storm's Arc

Chapter 3 of 6

The feather opened the road, but the twin sisters still would not climb it. They led Storm off the stone path and back down through the clouds, into a sprawling stone mansion with red banners and training grounds carved into every wing. Raven called it their guild's home. Storm followed, the black feather warm in her fist, and tried to understand why her guides looked so bored. Inside, Lucy dropped onto a long black leather couch and swung her boots up on the cushions. "So you want our wings to carry you to a throne," she said. She yawned. "Why should we? We don't know you. You could be lying about all of it." "The hermit sent you," Storm said. "To stop Jeru," Raven corrected. She stayed standing, arms crossed, white wings still. "Not to serve you. We owe you nothing. Give me one reason to climb that path." Storm had no proof. She had only the feather and her word, and neither moved them. She saw it plainly now. These two had beaten every challenge their clan had set. They were not afraid of her. They were tired of easy days. So she stopped trying to earn their trust and offered them the one thing they lacked. "Then come for yourselves," Storm said. "Not for me. The temple turns away strangers. No one in your clan has walked that path and stood at the throne. You'd be the first." Lucy's boots came off the couch. Raven's ears turned forward. "A challenge no one else has won," Storm went on. "Climb it, and let your blood call you a trespasser then." Raven's eyes sharpened. The line had found its mark. Lucy was already grinning, teeth showing. "I like her better now," she said. "We're not doing it for you," Raven said flatly. "I know," said Storm. Raven uncrossed her arms. "Then we climb. Dawn. Keep up or we leave you." She turned toward a side hall, then stopped. A tall man stood in the doorway, white hair spiked, arms thick with tattoos, a guild leader's crest on his chest. He looked the sisters over and frowned. "Your brother left three days ago," the guild leader said. "Alone. Told no one. He went to finish what your grandfather couldn't." The room changed. Lucy's grin dropped. Raven went still in a way the standoff with Jeru had never made her. "Marcus," Raven said. Just the name. Her hand closed. "He said he'd wait." "He didn't," the man said. "And the thing hunting your family doesn't wait either." Storm stood holding her feather, forgotten. She had won her guides. But she had won them on the morning their brother walked into something that had hunted their bloodline for three generations. The path to the throne was open. The two who had to climb it now had somewhere else to be.