Feather Bound by Sarah Raughley Page A

and failed.
    It was going to happen to me. That awful thing they only talked about in hushed voices. It was going to happen to me. His hand pressed against the small of my back and I prayed he’d simply kill me instead.
    Somebody…
    The door opened. Silence.
    â€œHey,” said Slick Hair, but he was cut off.
    â€œGet out.”
    It was Anton. Anton ?
    â€œI said, get out. This is my room now.” There was a cool chill in Anton’s voice as he strode inside clad in the three-button charcoal suit and black tie he’d probably worn to the cover party. “You’re done,” he said. “Leave the keys on the table.”
    The three muttering boys packed out of the room, one of them tossing a pair of keys onto the table next to me before slamming the door behind him. It clattered against the glass surface.
    Anton stepped around my feet over to the couch and gave the blonde girl her feathers. It was incredible. The second she touched her feather robe again, the second she held it against her chest it fell apart. Feathers burst into a pile on the ground, a stream of down. And then the light returned to her eyes. She was herself again.
    â€œAnton?” I coughed.
    â€œShe’s fine,” Anton said. “Once you get your feathers back, you’re your own boss again. They won’t go back in. But swans’ll always grow more.” He turned to the girl. “You can go now.”
    She grabbed her lost shoe and left. She was her own boss, but she obeyed him anyway. It didn’t make sense. She was here because she’d been paid. But this was a burlesque club.
    Unless it wasn’t.
    â€œSwan… parlor?” I whispered, tucking my hands under me, hoping I had enough energy to boost myself up.
    â€œYeah, that’s right,” replied Anton, as the swan closed the door behind her. “Stylo’s one of a few in New York.”
    He was too calm. How did he know I was here? Where was Ade? As soon as I started my struggle to sit up, Anton knelt beside me and helped me the rest of the way.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” I gazed at him sideways, but that was mostly because my head was still throbbing. “Those guys–”
    â€œDrugged you,” answered Anton, simply.
    My blood ran cold.
    â€œGo on,” he whispered, his breath hot against my ear. “Ask me why.”
    My fingers grasped for the table. I was almost on my knees when Anton picked me up by the stomach and flopped me onto his shoulders. I screamed, screamed so loud it could have torn my larynx to shreds. No one came. I knew no one would. Anton slipped Ade’s phone out of his jacket pocket with one hand and waved it in my face. The men. The bartender too. Anton had paid them all.
    Slipping the phone back into his pocket, he swiped the keys off the table and strode over to the cage in the wall. My prison. He tossed me inside and shut the metal door in my face.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” I clung to the iron bars, shaking and shrieking. “What are you doing? Let me out!”
    Anton took a seat over by the couch and, with his foot, brushed aside the pile of feathers left behind by the swan. “I will.” He crossed his legs. “But not yet.”
    I swallowed tears with each gasp. “Why? What are you going to do to me? How did you even get my sister’s phone?”
    â€œIt’s easy enough to have someone followed.” My fingers curled as Anton took out Ade’s phone and turned it around in his hand, considering it like a work of art. “You know, I couldn’t believe it when I saw you leave my loft. That feather you left behind.”
    Blood drained from my face. So he’d noticed.
    â€œIt was yours. Who else’s could it have been? The look on your face pretty much said it all.”
    He dropped the phone back into his pocket. The iron bars slid against my sweaty palms.
    â€œSwans.” He laughed, shaking his head. “To some