Chapter One
Glimmering black feathers and beady little eyes that never seemed to move from me—that was what flashed through my mind seconds before the blue truck clipped my car—images of the watchful crows from my backyard.
The crows, which had stalked the twisted, bare branches behind my house for days, watching me as though they knew something I didn’t and were waiting for me to figure it all out.
I slammed my foot on the brake pedal in a foolish attempt to stop my car, knowing it was beyond too late for that; impact was seconds away, teasing me in the distance.
The three crows fluttered through my mind again. I remembered vividly how the darkness of their feathers stood out drastically against the powder-white snow below and the endless gray sky above. This was the last image to fill my mind before the sound of metal crunching against metal and shattering glass forced all other thoughts away.
My air bag deployed, snapping my head back as my car continued to slide across the icy blacktop in perfect uncontrollable circles. At some point I closed my eyes, giving in to the darkness which feathered my vision, letting it swallow me whole.
I came to, slumped over the steering wheel, dazed and disoriented, with the front of my car neatly tucked into the snowy folds of a ditch. Sirens began to fill the eerie stillness that surrounded me, while an array of flashing lights bounced off the sheet of snow that had replaced my windshield, blinding me.
My driver’s side door opened with a groan and the shadowy figure of a man took its place.
“ Miss, are you okay?” he asked.
The word yes formed in my mind, but I couldn’t be sure of whether or not it found its way to my lips.
“ You’re lucky you were wearing your seat belt; the kid in the truck wasn’t,” the man said while moving to lean across me. “I’m just going to unbuckle you.”
I felt the release of my seat belt as gravity slumped me forward, crushing my ribs against the steering wheel.
“ Can you walk?” the man asked, seeming kind and concerned.
“ Yeah, I think so,” I said, my voice sounding strangely far away and not my own.
“ Lean on me; I’ll help you.” He was insistent.
“ How is she?” Another voice from somewhere in the darkness asked. A female.
“ A little disoriented, possible concussion, but no broken bones as far as I can tell,” the man helping me replied.
A tall, slender female stepped to my side. “I’ll take a look.”
I walked with them toward the back of an ambulance, my mind caked in a thick fog. They seated me on a stretcher with wheels and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders.
“ That was some accident you were in back there,” the female paramedic said. “My name’s Claire; what’s yours?”
“ Rowan—Rowan Harper,” I answered, sounding far more calm than I felt.
“ Rowan; that’s a pretty name.” She smiled.
“ Thanks.”
“ I’m going to hold a finger up and I want you to follow it for me,” Claire said.
I tracked her finger with my eyes and let her poke and prod at my face.
“ Well, I think you’re going to be just fine. Does your neck hurt at all?”
“ No, not really,” I admitted while she gently rolled my head from side to side.
“ Good.” She smiled. “You’ve got a slight gash above your brow here.” She touched it with an alcohol-drenched piece of gauze, and I winced. “And your nose might end up being a little swollen and tender for the next few days, but I don’t think it’s broken.”
I could already feel a dull, pulsating pain in my nose and wondered how swollen it would be by tonight.
“ You sure are one lucky girl; your injuries could have been far worse,” Claire said.
I forced a slight smile and tried to sound grateful. “I know.”
“ Is there anyone we could call to come get you, a parent maybe?” she asked.
I heard Claire’s question, but my eyes had traveled past her to the chaotic scene in front of me. I didn’t know how I
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