Read Online Aerie by Maria Dahvana Headley - Free Book Online Page A

“The world’s shifting, Aza Ray, all the time.”
    And, oh, OH , that just pisses me off. Boysplaining.
    â€œYou’re such a cynic,” he says, and touches my cheek. I barely keep myself from biting his finger. “You have too many factoids, too many details, too much wiki.”
    I sing furiously out to Caru. More nothing.
    â€œHe’s probably just flying out of range,” Jason tells me. He knew exactly what I was doing. I feel a snarled kind of despair.
    Jason takes my hand. “It’s going to be okay.”
    â€œIt’s already not okay,” I say, and I shudder, because my own words remind me of dying in an ambulance, Eli crying to my mom, that same sentence coming out of Eli’s mouth, me in the middle of leaving.
    Déjà vu all over again.
    Happy birthday, Aza Ray .
    Am I mad at him? I can’t tell. Is he mad at me? I can’t tell. We’re not looking at each other. We stare out at the sky.
    â€œDon’t go looking for her tonight,” Jason says. “Promise?”
    â€œWhat if she’s down here? Do you think I can just let her—”
    â€œAza,” he says.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œDon’t do it. Promise me.”
    â€œYou’re not in charge of me,” I say, and my voice gets a little out of control. “I’m not a project you’re running. I’m not an experiment!”
    Jason looks at me, and his face is exhausted. “Please,” he says. “I can’t lose you again. I’d die. Okay? I’d die.”
    I wonder about everything.
    â€œFine,” I say, after a minute.
    I pull out my compass as he’s driving away. It points north despite him driving east. I almost text him to say something about that, but I don’t, because that suddenly pisses me off too. I just wait for his taillights to go, thinking we’ve never done this before, pretended it was fine when it wasn’t.
    I go back into my quiet house, with my sleeping family, my flight suit still on.
    I’m curled up in a nervous, angry, fully dressed ball in the middle of my bed a few hours later, when FLASH!
    Caru shrieks into my heart, into my lungs, and I gasp. Ropes, whipping out, things that are birds and aren’t, black wings. Caru’s screaming. Tangled.
    NO, NETTED.
    Caru’s caught, twisted into a harsh, thorny net, and he’s terrified. I’m off the bed in agony, unable to do anything. I look through Caru’s eyes and I see—
    OH NO, NO, NO.
    It’s Dai. His face is contorted. Indigo skin, new tattoos. White ones, lightning strikes up and down each of his arms, the rigging of a ghost ship on his back as he spins to reel Caru in.
    Dai looks back at me, through Caru, and I swear, I swear he can feel me here. He knows he has my heartbird. He has my heart.
    Blackness. Caru’s nightmare, being caged in the dark again. He’s been hooded.
    He screams something at me, to me. Where the air is mad! Where the wild birds are!
    Then the vision ends. I’m in the dark too, in my room, shaking, and I don’t know what Caru meant.
    I’m panting, gasping, tears streaming down my face.
    All that zugunruhe meant something. I was at the top of my cage, and the world was spinning out there. My body could feel something. Magonia is calling me back.
    I have to get to Caru, NOW. I’m up and stuffing thingsfrantically into the pockets of my flight suit, compass, little knife—
    A sound from outside my window jolts me.
    I turn, but I’m not fast enough. Someone’s here. All in black. Face covered. More than one someone.
    Heyward? A team of Breath? That’s who it has to be.
    One sound is all I get. There’s a hand over my mouth, and I bite, but there’s nothing but glove between my teeth as someone gags me with tape.
    I get my fists up, try to get my knee up and stamp my foot backward.
    Whoever has me makes a sound of pain, but still heaves me over their shoulder.
    The tape