The Secret of the Emerald Sea by Heather Matthews Page B

high, that he felt butterflies in his stomach. He cared not that Jane was alone. He cared not that some creature might see. He was free. He thought for a moment of flying onward, flying anywhere, anywhere he could be free. Back to the island where there was no one to see or care, or to a new place, a place where he did not need to hide his true nature.
    At last, I’m free again, he thought, staring out at the blue-black sky that surrounded him. He felt all the power in his muscled legs and his powerful chest. He felt all the vigor and passions of a man.
    “Jane...” he whispered into the cold air as he gently banked and turned back toward the forest once more. “I must protect you.” The girl was all alone and his head cleared, the ecstasy receding as he realized the chance he was taking right now, flying where anyone on the ground could see.
    He had always believed his powers were only visible to those who were not human. Why he felt this, he was not certain, but he had no proof that others could not witness the change. Of course, they would not know he was the little boy in the village, but it would cause such talk, and trigger some sort of witch hunt.
    As he flew over the village road, back over the thick forest that would hide him once more, he saw a figure in the distance, so far away he could hardly make it out. Man or woman, girl or boy, he didn’t know. He quickly banked in the air, turning away from the silhouette that had suddenly stopped moving. He knew the figure was watching him. He cursed under his breath and prepared to land some minutes later in order to wait out the night.
    He could go into the farmhouse, of course, where it was warm, but he felt no discomfort and had no earthly needs in this current state.
    “Who was it?” he asked aloud as he ran his hands through his hair, hovering just above the ground. He prolonged his landing and stared down in joy at his man’s body. His folded wings felt as light as gossamer despite their amazing strength. There was no pain now, only a dark, sensual feeling of pleasure that warred with his worried thoughts of the person on the road who had watched him so quietly. In this state, it was difficult to be unselfish and hard to be rational.
    He wanted to fly . He wanted to show the whole world what he really was, and to flaunt his power. He must think of Jane, always, but tonight it was so hard. So long he had waited and paced the secluded patch of forest he had selected, wondering when the change would come once more. He always dreaded it and desired it at once.
    He looked like a man, a tall, handsome man, and yet he knew, since Jane had told him, that there was an unnatural glow to his skin, and glimmering jewel brightness to his eyes when he was in this state so that he seemed to glow in the darkness. He might seem human to someone at a distance, when he was not in flight, and his wings were folded behind his body, but he would never pass as a man in company.
    “Always, I must pretend,” he whispered, frustrated. Anyway, as soon as my feet touch the ground, at first light, I am doomed to change back, and so no one will be able to say who it was. And he set himself fully upon the ground just as dawn broke, and then he was a boy once more, though his mind was caught between the two states of being.
    He thought of Jane as he hid in the forest, still unwilling to go back into the farmhouse to gaze upon her beauty and her innocence. He knew he loved her when he was in the air and a man, though she was now only fifteen and he would have to wait so long to really know her as a young woman and not a girl. The mere thought of Lord Stirling still filled him with a blue-burning anger.
    She should be mine, and yet, it is my doing that her heart burns for another ... I cannot understand, he thought sadly. By day, I destroy what I long for by night . And he walked about for a while, a strange, small figure in an ill-fitting cloak that was much too large for him.
    There were