Page 27 of Magpies & Mayhem
I turned my death glare on Huck. “Don’t touch him while he’s sleeping,” I breathed.
Huck replied with a happy sounding trill, as usual, and went back to piling his rocks.
My stomach was rumbling again, so I dug out an apple and another granola bar and settled in. Once I’d eaten, I rebraided my hair and dug out some knives from my bag that I could work on sharpening. I was the type of person that always needed to be doing something productive or I’d get fidgety. Sitting and guarding Huck and Jordan was productive, but it didn’tfeelproductive, so I was getting itchy. By midday Huck was slowing down and so was I. He curled up around his rock pile in the back of the cave and decided to take a catnap, and after sitting there twitching for another half hour, I decided that wasn’t a bad idea. Jordan hadn’t moved all day—he’d slept like the dead. I knew we should probably stay on opposite schedules, but at least I would wake up if something went wrong.
I stretched out next to him as best I could without bumping him or getting too close, but there wasn’t a ton of room to keep my distance. He’d probably be irked if he found out I’d slept in the dirt again after all the trouble he’d gone to last night to keep me clean, but I didn’t really have it in me to care. He was sleeping in the dirt—so could I. It didn’t take me long to drift off, even though it had only been a handful of hours since I’d woken. Being sleep deprived for several weeks was going to take a while to fix.
This time, I dreamed I was fighting: fighting as a child to defend my little brother from bullies on the playground at school, fighting to protect Elara from Phantoms who were stalking her from the shadows, fighting to keep Huck safe from people who wanted to keep him as a showpiece or sell him for parts. And I just kept failing. It was never enough.Iwasn’t enough. No matter how fast I moved or how hard I punched, I wasn’t enough to save the people I loved.
I woke up panting for air, only to feel a spike of panic as the fog of sleep cleared and I realized I wasfirmlywrapped around Jordan. “Oh shit!” I rolled away, flinging myself across the small space to the other side of the cave. With eyes as wide as saucers, I looked back to see that he hadn’t moved at all. I should have known better than to sleep next to him. I turn into a total octopus when I sleep, always waking up clutching something like a pillow or, lately, even Huck.
It didn’t seem like my heart would ever slow down, but eventually it did as I lay there cursing my grabby tendencies and my own subconscious’s desire to mess with me lately. I cleaned myself up and propped myself back against the rock wall. Judging by the fading daylight, Jordan still had a bit to sleep, so I pulled out another book I had stuffed into the bottom of my bag and got comfortable. This one was about a bunch of human women who get lost on an ice planet and rescued by a tribe of purring blue aliens. I wasn’t willing to donate this book for a prank.
I’d made it a few chapters in when Jordan suddenly exploded off the floor in a fit of hisses and snarling, crouched in the middle of the cave with his hands curled into claws. It was all I could do to stay in my skin and not sprout wings and bolt. I kept my butt glued to the dirt while he calmed himself, heaving huge breaths and looking around as if he were confused. He still had his helmet on, so I couldn’t see his face, but I imagined he looked as startled as I felt.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, after he’d been crouching there holding his pose for a long moment. He turned his head toward me, and I made a big show of turning the page andnotlooking at him. I knew what it felt like to wake up scared.
He took another deep breath and pulled his helmet off, dropping it on the floor beside him. He froze when he was straightening up, sniffing at his jacket right where I’d had my arm wrapped around him.Dang it!I’d hoped he’d just assume my scent was from when I slept on his scarf. His expression was confused when he looked at me.
“I didn’t mean to! I took a nap while you were sleeping and woke up next to you.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Hugging you,” I admitted grumpily. There was no need to call me out like that. “But I didn’t touch your neck.”
Jordan ignored my pouting and plopped down against the far wall, facing me. His throat worked a few times before he asked, “What’s the plan?” in a scratchy voice.
I shrugged. “You gotta stop asking me that. I never have a plan. We could check in with your team and take Huck for a walk.” Time for another granola bar.
Jordan grimaced as I pulled one out. “Don’t you need more nutrition than that? I haven’t been off food long enough to not know granola bars aren’t healthy for three meals in a row.”
“I’m hungry. I had an apple earlier. Call your team.” Why was he fussing over me so much? He didn’t even like me.
While I ate, he sent a message to his boss with a spectral, but didn’t get a response right away. Huck woke up and slunk to the front of the cave to sniff around, and after he decided it was safe enough, started stretching his wings and legs. Eventually, he stood and stretched as tall as he could, beating his wings in the air and flinging sand and dirt every which direction. I was glad I’d finished my food already.
“What’s he doing now?” Jordan asked with a frown, clearly not a fan of the miniature sandstorm.
“He’s building muscle,” I explained, shaking dirt from my book and replacing it in my backpack. “Winged animals aren’t born strong enough to fly. They have to work at building up muscles while still on the ground for a while before they’re ready for lift off.” He’d been doing it on my bed every night for a week already. I preferred that to the dirt shower.
When I went to stand and groaned like an old man, Jordan shot me a concerned look. “You should shift,” he said.
“I already told you I don’t want to be dragon food.” It was unfortunate that I didn’t feel safe taking his suggestion, because my back was going to be jacked up for at least another hour. I counted my lucky stars for shifter genes, knowing most people would take much longer than that to heal, and checked the worst burn on my arm. Almost gone. It itched like crazy though.
“Sidney, do you trust me?” His voice was exasperated, but the way he said my name made me shiver anyway.
I gritted my teeth and squinted at him, because how did he want me to answer that? Was Jordan a decent person? Absolutely. Would he kill me if I spooked him and startled him too much? Probably. Jordan had made it abundantly clear that he wasn’ttame.
He sighed. “I’m not going to let anything hurt you, Sid. I’m doing my best to control my reactions around you, and I’m not going to let Huck hurt you either. I want you to shift so we can see his reactions to your other form. I’ll keep you safe.”
I frowned at him, thinking of all the damage that could come to my feathers. I’d been working extra hard not to give in to my startle response and shift, lest Huck decide to turn me into charcoal, and if even one piece of plumage got charred, we were going to throw hands. “If you’re just trying to see my boobs again, all you have to do is ask,” I grumbled.
Chapter 17
Jordanmadeascoffingsound and shook his head like I was ridiculous, but he did look up at me with mischief in his eyes when I pulled my shirt off. “Why do I need to do this?” I asked. “Huck’s either going back to the refuge or he’ll take off into the wilds on his own after he gets his bearings. I can just wait to shift until he’s gone!” I was doing what he asked but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to gripe about it. His eyes were firmly glued to my boobs as I tossed my shirt and bra onto my bag and stepped out of my boots.
“Because you’re not always in control of when you shift—”
“Hey, I stayed in my skin today when you came out of sleep like some kind of hell hound.”
