Page 21 of Feathers and Scales

A staccato of beeps.Damn monitor.

He chuckled. “Can’t say I blame you. It scares the shit out of me, too. But I want to figure out why the link happened.”

The monitor gave three spiked beeps. She also wanted that.

As she reached for her body, she prepared for the impact of immersion.

A woman’s tone cracked like a whip. “What are you doing in my daughter’s room?”

Izzy reeled back from connecting.

That voice belonged to Darcy, her biological mother—or Camilla Andrews’s mother—since the woman knew nothing about the Fallen. Izzy flinched in her Cavity. Darcy shouldn’t have known Izzy’s location.

Before Daxton could speak, Darcy asked, “Are you a professor working with her?”

Izzy cringed at her mom’s tone when using her current human name, as if Camilla was a product to own.

“No, ma’am. My apologies. I’m Daxton Dupont.”Daxton fell into character like a professional actor. His voice charmed in its lowest register.

Izzy’s heart monitor broke into clipped beeps. She might have thought he was attractive, but his confidence was a hook in her, drawing her closer.

“What are you doing here?” Darcy asked, her voice growing louder as if she had walked farther into the room.

“Camilla’s been interning with us at Prater Properties for a while now. And I wanted to check in on her.”

Her tone rose in disbelief. “ThePrater Properties? You have an office in Tennessee?”

Izzy groaned. Darcy wouldn’t appreciate her daughter working at another corporation when she refused to take over the family business in the scientific instrument industry.

“Yes,” Daxton said. “There’s one in Memphis.”

“Ah, I see. You’ve actually worked on a building for us.” Her heels clicked on the floor, getting louder as Izzy assumed she went to shake Daxton’s hand. “I’m Darcy Andrews of Andrews Precision Systems.”

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“As for Camilla, she’s been suffering from these episodic comas ever since childhood.” Izzy pictured Darcy rolling her eyes and shaking her head. A decent mother might keep the confidential information to herself, but Darcy was a narcissist, always looking for a way to garner sympathy. “Doctors haven’t found a reason for it. It’s nothing to fret about. She usually comes out of it within a week, then she’ll be back to interning.”

“I hope she recovers soon, then.”

A heavy pause filled the air. “Yes, well, excuse me. I would like some privacy with my daughter.” The words sounded nervously rushed for Darcy’s usual demeanor.

“I am sorry to have bothered you. Have a good day.”

With an impersonal tone, she said, “Goodbye, Mr. Dupont.”

Izzy needed calm to think, so the moment his presence left the room, Izzy leaped from her emotionally charged body and transferred into her spirit form, dimming her energy so Darcy couldn’t see her. She conjured an image of herself in jeans and a shirt to give her spirit an appearance. Wings tucked to her back, she paced as a humanoid figure.

A thread of agitation coursed from the link to Daxton. The link grew taut, as if he were pulling the string tight between them. Movingto the other side of the bed from her mother, she placed her hand over her chest.

This link between her and Daxton was strong.

The heart monitor sounded off in another rapid succession of beeps. Her spirit felt constricted, a pressure squeezing her from all sides. An unfamiliar loneliness crept through her. She grabbed hold of the link with her mind, as if it was the only floating object in her lonely sea. She took meditative breaths and mentally blocked herself from the link.

“I hate when you do this,” Darcy said to Izzy’s unconscious body. “Do you enjoy punishing me?”

The words pricked at Izzy’s nerves. She stopped pacing.

Darcy stood with her phone in front of her face, staring at the screen. She crafted her image with skill, from her tailored suit and pinned-back hair to her brilliant, masking smile. The one she used to steal companies from under people. Though her mothers had different faces from generation to generation, they always had the same cold personality.