The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey Page B

back.
    “I can’t bring the Ala herself before the rest of the council without evidence of wrongdoing, Ruby.”
    The second voice was deep, with a hint of rumble, like thunder. Altair.
Double crap. Triple crap. Infinity crap
.
    Daring a glance around the corner, Echo swore silently. It was just the two of them, but it was enough. Altair, whitefeathers smooth against his head, matching the white of his Warhawk cloak. The deep brown feathers on his arms were almost black in the dim light of the labyrinth. Ruby’s cloak, dark and shiny as an oil slick, blended with the black plumage on her arms and head, and she was all but lost in shadow. When she was in armor, she had to wear Warhawk white, and the brightness of it made her look sickly and sallow. Echo had heard that Ruby had learned to bend shadows to her will, but she’d never seen her actually do it before. It was one of the reasons she was among Altair’s favorite recruits. Magic came easily to the Avicen—far more easily than it did to Echo—but Ruby was unusually talented for someone her age.
    “After what you just saw?” Ruby asked. “How much more proof do you need?”
    “You forget yourself, Ruby. I’m your commander, not your friend.”
    Embarrassment laced its way through Ruby’s voice. “I’m sorry, sir. What would you have of me?”
    Echo’s stomach performed an impressive bout of calisthenics. If Altair started digging into the Ala’s business, he wouldn’t stop until he uncovered their plans to find the firebird. Calling Altair persistent would be a massive understatement.
    “All I know is that the Ala has been sending that human girl of hers out,” Altair said. “She’s running errands for the Ala that no one else knows about. Keep an eye on her. The Ala may trust her, but she’s not one of us.”
    “I never understood why we let her stay,” Ruby said. Echo bit the inside of her cheek so hard she was in danger of drawing blood.
    “Sentiment.” Falling from Altair’s lips, the word was profane.
    Ruby said something that Echo didn’t catch, but she didn’t need specifics to hear the snideness in her tone. She needed to get out of there before they found her hiding in the dark like this, yet she couldn’t go back, not without more shadow dust. Zipping the locket into her pocket, she squared her shoulders and rounded the corner. At the sound of her footsteps over the mess of loose planks that made up the labyrinth’s floor, two pairs of eyes snapped to her.
    Echo wiggled her fingers at them, silently relishing the way Ruby’s lip curled in a sneer. The feeling was mutual. “Howdy.”
    Altair stared at her, the orange and black of his eagle-like eyes as sharp as ever. “Echo” was all he said before nodding at Ruby once and turning to leave. He walked down a corridor that would lead him to the tunnels beneath Astor Place, shadows swallowing his retreating form.
    When Echo turned back to Ruby, she was greeted to the least amicable smile she had ever seen. She felt small, alone with Ruby like this. As much as Altair considered her an inferior being, she’d felt safer when he was there. He was a by-the-book sort of guy. Echo wasn’t so sure about Ruby.
    “Echo.” Ruby’s voice was cloyingly sweet and so fake that Echo wanted to scream. “And where have you been?”
    Being chased around Japan by a bunch of Drakharin
, Echo thought. But she couldn’t exactly admit to that, so she lied. “Human doctor.” She clasped her hands around her stomach. “Digestive woes.”
    Ruby scrunched up her nose as if she smelled something foul. “And where are you off to now?”
    “Perrin’s. I told Ivy I’d pick a few things up for her.” Not the truth, but close enough. Maybe she ought to make that her life motto.
    “I’ll walk with you.” Ruby said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if their mutual dislike weren’t so thick Echo could have scooped it up with a spoon.
    Echo hesitated a few seconds before nodding.