My heart was heavy with disappointment. I was no closer to finding my dad and proving that he wasn’t a traitor than I had been six months ago. Every lead had turned into a dead end, and based on some rumors I had heard, I had a feeling time was running out for him.

My sister and my mom had died several years ago. He was my only family and I missed him so much. Sometimes I couldn’t even breathe when I thought about it. This was one of those times.

Snow was falling in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and dusk had fallen early. Icicles were forming on the tips of my wings and the end of my tail. I was too tired and too miserable to keep going and landed in a small meadow. I dropped my bag in which I had packed a change of clothes, a journal, and my longbow and arrows.

It was too cold to shift back into human form, so I curled up into a ball and rested my head on my talons. Tears froze on my cheeks, but I didn’t care.

Damn Cormac, King of the Unseelie.

This was all his fault. He knew where my dad was, but stubbornly refused to tell me. After losing the battle against the Defenders and our allies, he said my dad was hidden somewhere that I could never find him–and so far, the bastard had been right.

I wasn’t sure where else to go. What else to do.

Exhaustion washed over my tired muscles and breaking heart. I closed my eyes and sighed, letting the quietness of the forest and the falling snow lull me to sleep…