Page 38 of Feathers and Scales

“Do you think a Persian would give me a break?” He sent a jab toward her forehead. She dodged left. “You know by now—”

“Humanity is the hurdle to reaching strength.” She tried to blank out her concern, but it raged inside her. “Come on. I can defend myself. I’d rather learn more about your theory of Fallen energy being in other humans.”

His hands dropped. “Remnants.”

“Right. Tell me more.”

His mouth twitched, jaw tightening and…

He schooled his face, concealing whatever had just surfaced. She’d once been able to read complete thoughts from his expression, but he was a blank canvas to her now. Her stomach twisted. What was he hiding?

Hands grabbed her shoulders. Warmth spread. Walls receded. Eyesight cleared.

Daxton.

“Take a deep breath,” he said.

She did. And repeated until air circulated again through her burning lungs, and she could push away the memory.Daxton rubbed soothing circles on her back. It took a moment, but her tense muscles loosened under his gentle touch.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “We stopped it. Come sit back down.”

He led her back to her chair, and the closed laptop, void of sound, sat in the chair next to Daxton.

“I’m back,” Daxton said toward his phone.

“You’ll need to send that to me as soon as possible,” Simon said. “If that was a bug, I don’t know how it got on there since the laptop has been on airplane mode.”

The logical move was to ignore the fear of Daxton asking questions and send the laptop straight to Simon, so she concentrated on the laptop. Drawing the energy from her Fallen wings,she pushed the laptop through space straight to Simon using a miracle. The laptop disappeared. Something pricked her spine, and she acted as if she were itching her back to crush the fragile feather into dust behind her. The loss weighed on her mind. She may have just hunted with Thea, but she only had twenty-three left.

“I received it, Izzy,” Simon said.

“What did you—” Daxton jumped in his seat. “The laptop’s gone. How did you do that?”

“It’s an ability I have,” she answered absentmindedly, hoping he’d drop it.

“Did that quote mean something to you?” Simon asked.

“It’s from the Archfiend, I think.” Her voice sounded far away.

“How do you know?” Daxton asked.

“The quote is dear to my past.”He must have known Fotios.

“Can you find where the code came from?” Daxton asked.

“I’ll do my best, but it might take time,” Simon said.

“Is this his first move?”

Her mouth dried. She wanted to scrunch up into a protective ball.

“Izzy?” Daxton asked.

“At the hospital.” She swallowed and rubbed her hand across her wet forehead. “Darcy tried to kill me.”

“Bloody hell!?” Simon said. “Are you okay? I mean, I knew you weren’t close, but she’s your mum.”

The attempted murder stabbed at her insides, pushing her toward the darkness again. Darcy was a cold mother, but Izzy never thought her capable of murdering her own daughter. The person who was supposed to love her the most was the one who tried to take her life. That pain and loneliness did nothing for her, so she kicked it to the back of her brain. “I’m fine.”