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The feather falls froers He snaps his head to the side and holds out his ar me from the door

“What?” I whisper, heart racing “Do you hear so?”

“Shhh,” he tells me and motions for me to move back My heels softly click on the dusty hardwood floor as I take a step away fro the lock, and thenme protectively in his arel out

I close y ball that was floating above us back into oes dark I can’t see a thing, but Lucas can

“I think we’re alone,” he tells ers wrap around ainst his chest, scared that if I conjure another energy ball, light will fill the rooels, eyes narroith anger, looking at me like I’m an abomination that needs to be eliminated

“I never thought I’d be scared of angels” I splay ers on Lucas’s broad chest There’s no heart beating beneath my palm It used to unnerve me Now it comforts me

“I won’t let anything happen to you”

“I know,” I say softly, but that thought scares et tohim

A fasmy hand out toward the door

“What is it?” he asks

“My fa to open the door”

Lucas sidesteps closer to the doors, ready to attack anything that tries to get into the house who isn’t ic and let it go into the air It hovers about a foot abovein the dark

Binx, Pandora, and Freya are closing in on the porch I can feel when they slip past the warding I’ve placed on the house Waving my hand at the door, I undo the locks and open one of the double doors My fa the door shut behind them

“Did you sense anything out there?” I ask as Pandora and Freya shift back into cat foruided tolike the black shadow creature frohtmare

“Not in the woods,” he says, deep voice echoing all around us Pandora and Freya sniff the feather, and Binx shifts into his forates the feather too

“He says it feels fa up the feather once my familiars are done with it “Does it smell like the other one I had?”

Lucas brings the feather to his face and inhales “It’s strange…I can’t tell”

“What do you mean?”

“It doesn’t smell like a bird It doesn’t s further froiven that we know it’s angelic”

“Well,” I start and wrap ers around the vane of the feather, careful not to crush it “We can’t stay here forever, and I’ht now”

Lucas and my familiars stare at me like I’m crazy

“What?”

“Maybe we should go back to your house and order food,” Lucas suggests

“Nothing delivers all the way out here”

“Then I’ll pick it up”

“You can’t order amy life and that’s what I want do Besides” I hold upa beat for a different reason “We have a lot to celebrate” Blue light reflects off the large engageht We’re going out, we’re celebrating, and I’ to post on socialperson”

“My love,” Lucas says gently, still looking atclippers, and shaving ether You kno I feel about them—andon social media is a terrible idea”

“Dah So el Half witch Deels want to kill ainst uilty of associating with vah Priestess is the one who’s supposed to punish me