On a Dark Wing by Jordan Dane

Author:Jordan Dane
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781459219106
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-02-14T10:00:00+00:00

Palmer, Alaska

Jackie Holden hadn’t gotten much sleep since her husband and son had left for Denali, but last night had been the worst. Zoey came to her room, telling her that she had a bad dream, without any other explanation. Normally her daughter told her everything, but it took effort to calm her down and get her back to sleep. With just the two of them in the house, Jackie drew comfort from hearing her daughter’s quiet breaths in the dark. Even if the reason Zoey came to her bedroom had been a nightmare too scary to talk about, Jackie needed to feel the weight and the warmth of her youngest child in her arms.

Now this.

She broke the bad news about Nate to her daughter and waited for the girl’s reaction. Although Zoey’s eyes welled with tears, she hadn’t said anything. She looked visibly shaken, but Jackie knew something else was wrong. She’d expected more from a child so attached to her older brother.

It was as if Zoey already knew.

“Is Nate dead, Mommy?”

“No…no, why would you…?” Jackie was surprised at how fast she answered Zoey, telling her “No.” She had no idea if what she’d said was a lie or not. She only knew that she was unwilling to accept the alternative. Yet with childlike innocence, Zoey asked the question and made it all too real, like Nate was beyond help.

Hearing Zoey say it felt like getting hit in the stomach.

“He’s missing, Zoey. That’s all we know right now. Daddy is looking for him. Lots of people are.”

Jackie pulled her daughter into her arms and rocked her with eyes shut tight, desperately clinging to the hope that her son was still alive.

“I think I saw him,” her daughter whispered, “last night.”

“Saw who?” Jackie grimaced and pulled away from Zoey, gripping the girl by the shoulders. “Who did you see?”

“I saw Nate, Mommy.”

“That’s not possible, honey. You know that. Your brother is on Denali…with Daddy.”

“I know. That’s what I thought, too. But I saw him, Mommy.”

Jackie stared at Zoey, trying to figure out what to do. Clearly her daughter had been more traumatized by the bad news about Nate than she’d let on. She had to be careful and not make things worse for her daughter....if that was even possible.

“Did you see him in a dream?” She forced a weak smile. “Dreams aren’t real. You know that, right?”

“But I wasn’t sleeping.” A tear rolled down her daughter’s cheek. The sight of it broke Jackie’s heart. “I heard a bird outside my window. It made a loud noise…at nighttime, so I got up and looked out. It was a big black one.”

She’d been ready to dismiss her daughter’s story and chalk it up to the worry the girl had for her brother’s safety, but when Jackie heard about the big black bird, a gasp caught in her throat. Zoey could have seen a raven, like the one outside Nate’s window on the night before he left for Denali. Holding her daughter by her thin arms, Jackie let out a deep breath.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.