I opened my mouth and let out a long strange call. I heard an answering call beside me. I swiveled my head – how wonderfully flexible my neck had become! I would never need a chiropractor again! – and met Duncan’s azure eyes, only now they were set in the face of a great horned owl. He stretched out his wings and lifted off the ground. I raised my arms – now wings so long and strong I felt I could touch the moon – then swooped them down and felt myself rise on the night air, into the trees. I would have gone higher, but I heard Duncan’s voice in my head calling me to land beside him on a branch. I settled beside him, tucking my wings in and swiveling my head around to check that we were alone. We were. The other owl had flown away.

Listen, Duncan’s voice said in my head, do you hear the water?

I twisted, bobbed and dipped my head, twitching my ears toward a faint sound threading through the branches. I noticed that one of my ears was higher than the other and that by positioning my head just right I could not only hear the faintest sounds, I could also tell exactly how far away they were. Yes, I heard running water: thirty feet southeast of us.

That’s the Undine. We’ll follow it south through the woods. I’ll take the east side, you take the west. If you see anything, call out.

I hooted a reply. Words seemed superfluous in this sound-rich, moonlit world. Not only could I hear every branch-creak and leaf-sway, I could see through the darkness as though it were day. Duncan hooted back and launched himself off the branch. I couldn’t hear him moving as he glided in between the trees. His enormous wings rode the wind silently. Then I couldn’t see him either. He had vanished into the thickly intertwined branches.

For a moment I had a pang of human fear. I was about to dive into the dark woods. Jen Davies had told me that the fey were flocking to Fairwick to be ready to return to Faerie if the door were closing. I sensed, from deep inside me, that there were many otherworldly creatures in the woods now, lurking in the shadows. That place inside me seemed to call to them – as if it knew them. Lorelei was not the only monster in these woods.

A breeze ruffled my feathers and I heard the sough of wind through the branches. My feathers itched to take flight. I stretched out my wings and plunged headlong into the woods.

Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN