Authors: M. R. Pritchard
Nightingale Girl (27 page)
“Clea!” I shout.
My mother appears in the room; Lucifer, too. They take in the scene, with me on the floor, Vine a motionless mummy, and Sparrow with bones for wings.
Clea smiles proudly.
“I knew you’d figure it out.”
Her voice is in my mind.
Lucifer goes to Sparrow and touches his head; the leather returns to his wings.
My stomach sinks. I bow my head, fighting that familiar feeling of hopelessness.
“Will you let him be done now?” I ask. “Is Sparrow through?”
Lucifer shakes his head. “He’s left me without a head Demon.” He taps his chin with his index finger. “The only choice I have is for him to take Vine’s place.” Lucifer smiles.
Clea pales. Didn’t think that was possible. The look of shock on her face is surprising. Noah warned me that she might be devious, but now I know that she never was. My grandfather, however, is a very different story. I’ll be damned to stand by and put up with this bullshit for one second longer.
“No!” I reach for my blade, ready to
poof
Sparrow out of here like I did in Heaven. We can escape to the earthen plane; I don’t care if he’s cursed. Dealing with a little crazy is a thousand times better than this.
My grandfather takes one look at the blade in my hand. “You’d dare threaten the king of Hell?” Lucifer spreads his wings, forcing the others away and encircling me. In a second I am surrounded by nothing but blackness. “I gave you a wish.” Lucifer’s voice drops to a whisper. “I gave you a wish, and you used it on something as petty as
friendship
. There are no differences between friends and enemies. You could have used it for something real. You could have used it for
love
.” He spits the word like a curse.
My stomach feels like it’s dropped to my feet.
“You could have used it for
Sparrow
.” Lucifer’s eyes glow. He grins, sharp toothed and wide. I have never seen evil like this before. He’s frightening. “You wasted the most valuable gift I have ever given a soul. And you. Chose. Wrong!”
Lucifer’s wings whip away from me. Only silence follows.
I make eye contact with Sparrow.
“Do you remember?” I ask.
Sparrow’s lips are pressed in a tight line. He doesn’t move an inch.
I take that as a no.
Poof.
I return to the earthen plane.
Alone.
FREEDOM
I send myself to a beach, an island in the Bahamas, a place I saw in a magazine once. I can’t go home, being a wanted felon and all. I look around the beach I’ve landed on. Get ready to move, to make a plan. I’ve got plenty of money. Just have to get a new identity or a really good lawyer to fix the mess I stepped in while I was in Canada. There is no body, but after finding all that blood, I’m sure the Mounties are gunning for me. If there’s anything I’ve learned about law enforcement, they’ll never stop until you pay for your crimes.
Poof.
Sparrow is standing in front of me.
I step back. “How did you do that?”
Sparrow licks his lips.
Perhaps it was the fresh blood? I’m betting Archangel blood mixed with mine could make a person powerful. Bet it could raise the dead, kill a god. A person could really
do
things with that kind of power.
“You’ve changed,” I say.
“You, too.”
I will never forget the sound of Sparrow’s voice: deep and smooth.
“This is so far from where we started.” I’m not sure I’ll ever see the Sparrow I fell in love with again.
“We’re not the same. After all that”—Sparrow waves his hand behind him—“who could ever be the same after finding out what we really are?”
I look away. Who could ever be the same after everything we’ve gone through? The realization doesn’t lessen the want.
Sparrow tips his head to the side, quirky and birdlike. “How many times do I have to die for you, Meg?”
“I never asked you to do it. I never asked you to join Lucifer’s robot army. That wasn’t me. That was you.”
“I have to cure my bloodline.”
I shake my head. Wishing this had gone another way, into the sunrise instead of the sunset.
“How many times do I have to die?” he asks again.
“I didn’t ask you—”
Sparrow smiles, both beautiful and dark. I forget my words.
“That’s what makes it worth it every time.” His fingers touch my cheek. He is warm, solid, and strong. His finger trails down my jawline, my clavicle, resting over my heart, on the tattoo of the sparrow.
“I am Sparrow. You are mine, and I am yours.”
Staring into his green eyes, so much darker than they were before, I know this is true.
“We are broken.”
“Unpossible.”
“You can’t make up words.”
“I can do what I want.”
Why can’t he see that this isn’t going to work? Sparrow rarely gets angry at me. Not when I almost killed him, not when I lied to him, not when—
“I killed your father.” I confess.
“Tasted that. Bound to happen one day.” He smiles slowly, sadly. “They said we’d be invincible together.”
“They never said we’d be ruined for it.”
“Some people never go crazy.” Sparrow’s hand moves to my shoulder; he grips me tightly and pulls me close. “They must be exceptionally bored with themselves.” He smiles; his long lashes brush his cheeks as he blinks. “You’re a free soul. Soon I will be, too.” Sparrow kisses me, desperate and hard and promising.
When his lips leave mine, he starts to hum “Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen from Mars.”
“I’ll be coming back for you,” he promises.
And then—
poof
—Sparrow is gone.
I find myself alone on the beach. Behind me, there’s a block of hotels behind a row of palm trees. I trudge across the sand and make my way toward one. I check my pockets for my wallet and pull out a few twenties left over from Christmas with Sparrow. I get a single room, double bed, that’s it. Nothing fancy like before.
Sparrow. I ran from all those people in Gouverneur. Ran from a man who I thought was my father. I never thought I’d run from Sparrow.
I open the hotel door to a wicker and pastel room. It’s small and damp and smells like beach must. I unstrap my blade and hide it on the top shelf of the closet underneath the extra blankets. If the cleaning lady finds that, she’ll definitely report me to the authorities.
I shower, rinse the stench of Hell off my clothes, and hang them in the bathroom to dry. The one luxury here is the bathrobe on the back of the bathroom door. I put it on before crawling into bed.
First order of business in the morning is finding a lawyer. The best money can buy. Maybe I could say I was high on coke when I drove through customs. Go to drug court and do some community service. Worked when I was a kid.
I yawn, listening to the sounds of the beach and the parrots squawking in the trees outside my window. I can never escape them. Birds of a feather.
Somehow I sleep.
“Monsters aren’t so bad.”
Good ol’ Nightingale is here, haunting my dreams.
“Most people are scared of them, but I’m not.”
She’s stretched across my bed, her roller skate wheels spinning, legs slowly scissoring.
“Most people don’t know the monsters keep us safe at night.”
She flutters her downy-white wings.
“They hide under the bed to scare away evil things. Protect us from the Demons of Hell.”
She turns to look at me, suddenly serious.
“He’s your monster now, Meg.”
Nightingale winks.
“Noah says hello.”
I open my mouth to speak, to tell her I’m sorry, to ask for forgiveness, but nothing comes out.
Seems I’ve lost control of everything, even my dreams.
~
M. R. Pritchard recently escaped the frozen north and now lives on the sunny gulf coast of Florida. She spends her days reading, writing, and watching the palm trees sway. Having been traumatized by the northern winters for too many years, she frequently experiences nightmares of returning to the land of cold and snow. Her husband guarantees that this will never happen, and for that she is grateful.
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Thank you so much for reading
Nightingale Girl
! I hope you loved this book as much as I do. If you haven’t already, consider reading the first book in this series,
Sparrow Man
, while you’re waiting for book three to be published. While
Nightingale Girl
may be read as a stand-alone, there’s plenty of awesomeness in book one that you might be missing, like the story behind the snowy owl and when Sparrow remembers who he is—I love that scene.
Get your discounted copy of
Sparrow Man
here
.
To all the fans of
Sparrow Man
who have waited so patiently for this second book in the series, thanks so much for hanging on! I sincerely hope you’re enjoying the series; I just love getting lost in Meg and Sparrow’s world.
Help an author out and consider leaving a review or telling a friend about this series. Reviews help readers like you find great books and help writers like me fund another amazing story. And I hope to write many more stories about Meg and Sparrow. ☺
To my friends and family who have supported me; to my husband and daughter who have to put up with me on a daily basis; and to my great friend and awesome editor, Kristy, thank you all so much!
Thank you to Nastasya Morozova for another amazing cover illustration!
To the Kindle Press team, Megan and Paul and the rest of the crew, thank you so much for navigating me through this journey and for your hard work and enthusiasm with this project. Kindle Press rules!
The Sparrow Man Series:
Nightingale Girl
Scarecrow (2017)
Let Her Go
(2015 Kindle Scout winning title)
The Royals of Monterra: Forgotten Princess
(Kindle Worlds Novella)
The Complete Phoenix Project Series:
Other stand-alone works:
Look for Short Stories by M. R Pritchard in upcoming Future Chronicles Anthologies