Page 2 of An Oath at Midnight

When his black eyes met mine, he jolted, and his lids slammed down. The fan of his thick, black lashes quivered against his cheeks for several seconds, before they slowly opened and he looked at me again.

I had no idea what he was thinking, so I swiped my tears away and smiled tentatively. “Thank you for stopping them.” His head was dipped, his glossy black hair hanging forward, obscuring some of his face, but there was no missing how beautiful he was in this form as well. His brow was broad, his jaw square but a little pointed. His nose was prominent but refined, and his cheeks were sharp. I wanted to brush his hair out of the way and get a better look at him.

He said nothing, just studied me with those obsidian eyes.

“You’ve been watching me,” I said.

He nodded.

My hands trembled with excitement, with fear that he’d leave again. “Why didn’t you say hello?”

Still, he said nothing, but his chest rose and fell faster, his eyes searching mine.

“You don’t need to be afraid of me or hide.” I smiled gently and took a small step closer. “I’d never hurt you. Not ever.”

His feet shifted, his head still dipped.

“My name’s Magnolia, what’s yours?”

His chest expanded and a shaky breath rushed past his perfectly formed lips. “Bram.”

Goose bumps lifted all over me at the sound of his voice. It was impossibly deep, deeper than I expected, yet soft as well somehow.

He didn’t move, didn’t look as if he were going to try to leave again, and I couldn’t hold it in any longer. “I’ve been waiting for you,” I said. “For so long…my whole life.”

His head jerked back, his hair falling away from his face, and his gaze grew impossibly intense.

“You know, don’t you? What we are to each other? That we belong together?”

His fingers curled and uncurled at his side, and his nostrils flared. “Yes,” he said, and something changed in the way he stood, in the look in his eyes. It was understanding. Relief. And the wall he held between us dropped and crumbled to dust.

I needed to get closer to him. I let the feeling fill me, guide me, and closed the space between us. He didn’t step away as I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek to his chest. “You’re finally here. I finally have my familiar.” His arms tentatively wrapped around me as well. “We’ll be together forever, and nothing will ever tear us apart.”

CHAPTER 1

Magnolia

Six years later

I laughed as Bram dipped low, spinning as we flew above the forest canopy.

His low chuckle rumbled through his chest, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. He’d partially shifted, so instead of going full crow, he was wings only. He looked like a dark angel in this form, a deadly, tattooed, obsidian-eyed, goth angel.

He tightened his arms around me and did another wide loop. I cackled again, and he flashed me a grin.

How long had it been since we’d done this? Hung out, laughed, just…had fun. Too long. Things had been strained between us for so long, but today we’d both called an unspoken truce, and I refused to be the one to break it and dredge back up all the hurt that had been simmering between us—or let my anger get the better of me. Today he was here, we were together, and I would bank the inferno constantly blazing in my gut and enjoy every damn moment.

Bram pointed to the forest floor through the trees. A group of demons looked up at us, pointed teeth bared, running to try and keep up, as if they had a hope in hell at getting anywhere near us. This part of the forest was infested with demons and other creatures. The hounds had killed and driven most of them from their territory, and a lot had settled here. This area had always been infested with monsters, though, and they all wanted to take a bite out of you.

We were on the outskirts of the Roxburgh State Forest and far from civilization. The area had been left to run wild a long time ago, and Bram’s people, who also lived out here, and the bat shifter colony not far from it, used it to their advantage.

If you didn’t have wings, getting anywhere near them was impossible.

They used the deadly forest as a first line of defense, and it had worked for them both for a very long time.

A cluster of tree houses appeared in the distance, and Bram changed direction. My hair whipped around my face, and I shoved it back so I could take it all in. The tree houses in Bram’s village were all different shapes and sizes, eclectic and beautiful in their own way, and were joined by intricate swing bridge-like walkways high in the trees. The village was fairly spread out, and their warriors set up their places on the outer edges, protecting those more vulnerable from attack—if anyone managed to make it through the first line of defense, that is. Bones, demon mainly, hung from the branches and swing bridges like macabre wind chimes, skulls mounted on every post and above every tree house door, a final warning to any enemies that might come too close.

The demons heeded that warning and avoided the crows’ territory. They’d learned long ago that getting too close would cost them their heads. Crow shifters were a rare breed, dark and deadly and preferring their own company. Most of the people here barely left the area or ventured to the city.