Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

He walked forward without hesitation, without fear. I was actually taken aback by how confident he was, especially around a human.

I myself felt nervous. An excited type of nervous. The gentle scent of sulfur dusted the air as he came to a stop in front of me. I found his eyes again before looking to his neck. Slowly, I reached out and gently placed myhand against the side of his neck, his body cool. “Your feathers are coarse,” I noted, dragging my hand down to his shoulder. “I’ve never touched a bird, never seen one, but I assume birds’ feathers aren’t coarse. Probably similar to the Fallen.”

He chirped lightly, watching me inspect him.

I could feel his muscles move under him. The muscular features of a horse, that much I knew. “Do you know if your bones are hollow?” I asked, finding his eyes. “Once for yes, twice for no.”

He chirped twice and I found myself slightly disappointed. Of course, he wouldn’t know if his bones were hollow, that was ridiculous.

I slid my hand down his shoulder, gently lifting his wing, feeling how it connected to him. It felt different than Cole’s. Cole’s wings were thick, muscular, but the zalin’s wings felt almost frail. It didn’t make sense with him being so much bigger than Cole. “Can you lift them up?”

He lifted them, stretching them high into the air, the tips of them reaching for the stars.

“Wow,” I breathed, watching the moon glisten against his gray feathers. “You are beautiful.”

He straightened, standing tall.

I laughed, turning back to his abdomen. I stepped forward, running my fingers over the line where the feathers shifted to fur. Coarse feathers to coarse hair. It was almost seamless. As if the feathers were melting into the fur. “Your skin is black,” I noted, inspecting those three scars. “Is that for all of you demons? Just like you all smell like sulfur?”

He chirped once.

“Interesting. It almost seems like all of you were created in the same image.” I stepped back, allowing him to fold his wings back against his body. “Do you have a god? A creator? Someone who ruled over you?”

His feathered ears folded back, head lowering, pain in his eyes.

No, not pain.

“Fear?” I asked, shaking my head. “I don’t understand. Why would you be afraid of your creator?”

He chirped sorrowfully, but it was something he couldn’t answer, not to me anyway. Gods, why hadn’t there been a book on demon language?

“Okay, well,” I took him in again. “How about a name then? Can I give you a name?” It only seemed right at this point.

He straightened, those cute little ears perked.“Name?”the motion seemed to ask.

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Everyone needs a name. How about…” I thought about it for several seconds. “Oh, Letak. How about Letak?”

He chirped loudly, kicking his front feet up, dancing around, causing me to laugh. “I’m going to take that as a yes.” I just named a demon. I befriended a zalin and I named him. I couldn’twaitto tell Mark about this.

He jumped and pranced, kicking up snow like a child. Gods, he was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Mark would love him more than anything else in the world, I was sure of it.

Letak stopped suddenly, going as still as stone, ears pointed to the dark woods where the moon couldn’treach.

My heart immediately slammed, my breath catching. Oh shit. Please for the love of the gods, let it be Trick. I could handle that.

Probably.

I could convince him not to kill Letak.

But please,pleasedon’t let it be a tycron.

The forest was far too quiet. So quiet, that my breathing seemed like an explosion. I couldn’t hear anything.

Nothing.

Letak turned to me, chirping wildly as he danced on his front feet, looking between me and his back.

I looked to the woods, heart racing, eyes widening. “You want me to get on you?” I whispered, realizing what he was doing.