The Forbidden Doors Box Set by Cortney Pearson

Author:Cortney Pearson [Pearson, Cortney]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2017-10-24T23:00:00+00:00

four

It doesn’t make sense. Why would Nikolay’s father be hiding upstairs if Nikolay told us he wasn’t there? And those credentials. Thaumaturgy? I’ve never even heard the word before.

I sit so long in my car the fleeting heat is slowly replaced by cold. Exiting a car shouldn’t be this hard. But the base of my skull prickles.

It’s nothing. It’s daylight.

Encouraging myself, I push out into the flurry of wind blustering through bare branches. My keys clink to the pavement, and when I bend for them, I stiffen.

A faint caw hangs on the air. My shoulders seize. The sharp feel of a beak against my back grows, tacking its way up my spine, forcing my feet forward until I’m jogging, running, breaking for the apartment.

My shoe slips on a patch of black ice beneath the newest layer of snow. I hit the ground, landing hard on my backside. Pain springs up into my leg, but I push back to my feet, panic surging in my veins like carbonation, pop-popping its way along as it propels me to run, to get inside, get my back against the nearest wall, to not let them near me.

I glance frantically behind, but there’s nothing there. The cawing grows as I thunder up the steps. My key slips from my trembling fingers. The cawing increases, beaks pounding on the door, thud, thud, thud, hitting everywhere around me as though I’m on display for a knife thrower.

I dive for the key, hurrying to unlock the door. I push into number fourteen and scream.

Layla is pinned to the couch, her arms up to block the flurry of black birds beating around her head, cawing violently.

“Layla!”

“Get it off!” she screams, shrieking as they pull at her hair with their beaks and draw blood from her cheeks. One dives for her eyes, pecking between her fingers, and all I can do is stand there in horror.

I should move. Get a broom, dive in, shoo them away. But I’m frozen. Powerless.

Someone shoves past me, knocking me into the open door, which smashes into the wall behind it.

Piper’s brother, Joel, pushes through the birds, somehow managing to grasp Layla’s shoulders and shake her. Every shake jostles me as well, and I tremble as the birds fade. They don’t fly out through the door—I’m not even sure how they got in here. They just disappear.

The blood at her eyes, dripping from a pinpoint in her cheek—it makes my skin tighten, and I swallow the bitter tang in my mouth. Slowly, like clay being molded by patient fingers, her disheveled hair tames itself. The blood fades away, and her eyes return to their normal, untarnished brown. It all disappears, leaving Layla sitting there, gripping Joel’s arms, searching his face for some sign of reality. For a confirmation that she isn’t going crazy.

“Are you okay?” Joel asks, crouching on one knee in front of her. He doesn’t take his worried face from hers.

“What was that?” Her hands visibly shake, and she continues clinging to his arms.

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