Read Online The Unfinished Song (Book 5): Wing by Tara Maya - Free Book Online Page A

shiny crusts of red and white
skin, the inerasable memory of burns.
    She had once confessed to Umbral that unlike the
rest of the Deathsworn, she remembered everything about her first
life.
    “I told you, I have a use for her,” Umbral said.
    Ash snorted.
    “Then use her, and get it over with!”
    “No, I must let her rest first. She’s exhausted from
the War Dance and the battle and…” And the Vision she’d caused
before, fighting him when he tried to kill her. “I will wait.”
    From the dell, gentle blue light gleamed. Umbral
glanced that way reflexively, and caught a glimpse of Dindi
standing naked behind the silvery veil of a melted waterfall, while
Blue water and air fae danced all around her in a whirlpool of
purifying energy. He looked away again quickly, but the image was
incised on his memory. Nor was he subtle enough that Ash hadn’t
caught the direction of his attention.
    “I don’t see how much rest she requires to lie on
her back and spread her legs for you.” Ash snickered unpleasantly.
“But, fine, have your fun with her. Obsidian Mountain will overlook
it. But let me warn you, Umbral, they will not forgive you if you
let your games interfere with your duty. Don’t spend so much time
toying with her that you let the White Lady get away. And if you
take a woman against her will, you’d better kill her after, or else
she might decide to make you pay for what you took.”
    Ash grinned. She would know.
    “I’ll do what must be done.” He let a note of
bitterness creep in. “I know the Elders of Obsidian Mountain still
don’t fully trust me, but I thought that you, at least, did.”
    That stung her.
    “I trust you with my last thread of light, Umbral. I
just don’t trust you with yours. That girl can hurt you.”
    In more ways than one , he thought. But Ash
still did not suspect who the girl was.
    Ash placed her burned hand against his cheek, so
that he could feel her scars and ridges of melted flesh.
    “We aren’t part of their world anymore,” she said
softly. “We belong to Death now. They can mean nothing to us. You
helped me to understand that. Now I’m trying to help you. If you
try to hold onto a life that is dead to you, you will never stop
dying.”
    “Shadow Sister,” he said, and kissed her forehead.
“You are precious to me. But you worry too much. I know what I am
doing.”
    “You’ll kill her?”
    “I’ll do what needs to be done,” he replied with
deliberate ambiguity that was not lost on Ash.
    “Fa!” she snorted. “Well. Your pretty little kitten
is finishing up her bath now—and don’t pretend you weren’t peeking
and don’t know it—so I will go. But Umbral, if you cannot do it,
remember. I can. And I will.”
Dindi
    Though the fae had warmed the water for her, Dindi
still shivered as she dressed. Orange pixies twined themselves in
her hair, blowing it dry.
    Umbral had left her a beautifully tooled outfit. A
simple tunic and legwals of soft white wool hugged her form, so she
could wear them under heavier garments. The outer legwals were made
from strips of waterproof reindeer intestine and salmon skin. The
downy breasts of seventy-eight skinned birds, waterfowl with slick
feathers, had been sewn together in squares, to create a dense and
warm feather parka with full sleeves. The cuffs at the neck and
wrists were made from beaver fur. Umbral had even left a hood and
matching boots, also white, reindeer fawn edged with winter
foxtails.
    The pixies stirred and squawked in alarm.
    “Flee, flee!” they squealed. “Danger!”
    All of them flew away. Even the ice wisps dispersed,
though they were normally loath to leave their icicles.
    The man in black returned to the clearing. Umbral
had bathed and changed. He wore black tanned bearskin legwals, the
full-body pelt of a black wolf formed into hood and shoulder pads
over a dark waterproof gutskin parka, and a fur-lined raven-feather
cape. His black horse-which-was-no-horse trotted after him. He did
not tie