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

it up, but the unhorse did not stray. It did not nibble at
shrubs or grass poking up from the snow, as a real horse would
have.
    “Why do the fae avoid you?” she mustered the courage
to ask him.
    He took his time finding a response for her.
    “One might say that I have a permanent dispel geis around me,” he answered finally.
    One might say . What did that mean? That one
might say it, but it wouldn't be the full explanation?
    “You still plan to kill me.”
    “True.”
    “But not yet.” Or else why give me such warm and
sturdy clothes?
    “True.”
    “Why?”
    He gazed at her steadily without answering. He still
wore Kavio’s face, and now he adopted Kavio’s pensive stance as
well, as if he were studying one of this piles of thinking stones.
It unnerved her.
    “Have you a name?” she asked after a moment. “I am
Dindi of the Lost Swan Clan, of the Rainbow Labyrinth Tribe.”
    “You know my name. I know yours.”
    “Besides Umbral. I mean your clan and tribe.”
    “The dead have no clan, no tribe.”
    “But…once…before… you must have…”
    Anger flashed in him, the same deadly rage she had
seen before, straining at a leash. “Enough, girl! Never ask, never
speak of it!”
    He looked like he might fly at her and slap her, but
he only stood very still and simmered. His fists clenched and
unclenched at his sides. She refused to cringe.
    “My name is Dindi. You may be dead, but I am
not.”
    She thought she might trigger his fury again, but he
was back to cool and brusk.
    “We best gather more wood for the fire before it
gets dark,” he said. “We will camp here. You are tired. Tomorrow
will be a hard ride.”
    “Will you tell me what it is you want from me?”
    “Not tonight,” he said. “Once we are away from
hostile territory, I will bargain with you for your life. If you
accept my terms, maybe I can spare you. If you refuse…. You already
know.”
    “I thought you believed you were fated to kill me,
and my fate could not be changed.” I don’t trust you to keep any
bargain, you lying murderer .
    “Sleep will keep even a bear from his fate, if he is
tired enough, and after a whole day of slitting throats, I am sick
of murder and bone-tired.”
    Tired enough that she could let him fall asleep,
then try to pull free of the leash?
    He shook his head, smiling faintly. “But not yet
that tired. Truce, girl? Until you hear out my offer?”
    She nodded unhappily, then helped him start to
gather sticks and branches.
    After they had the fire secured, he laid his raven
cloak on the ground for her. The underside was soft black mink.
    “Sleep here, girl.”
    “My name is Dindi.”
    “Dindi.” The way he said her name made her shiver,
and she wished she had not corrected him.
    “What about you?” she asked, lying down on the black
cloak, nervous from his nearness.
    “I’ll be fine.” He tucked the black cloak around her
like a blanket. It was the finest, softest fur Dindi had ever felt.
Umbral himself settled down on grimy leather bedroll on the
opposite side of the fire.
    She didn’t think she would be able to sleep with
Umbral so close. The leash chaffed her neck. The dark energy
pulsing through the collar unsettled her stomach. But the fur was
so soft. She was sick of fear; she was bone-tired. Within moments
she was asleep.
Umbral
    Umbral speared and cooked a fish before the girl
stirred awake at dawn. She accepted her portion of the meal
gravely, watching him as an antelope would while deciding if it
should stay stock-still or spring away.
    “You said you would offer your bargain today.”
    “Let’s eat in peace first.”
    “Being your captive brings no peace to me.”
    Indeed.
    He reached out for her aura with his own, to reflect
her own light back to her in order to lull her fears, but she
recoiled in horror when his shadow started toward her. He withdrew
his Penumbra, annoyed. He had forgotten his powers of deception
were wasted on her. Because last night she had been tired, she