Free A Circle of Crows by Brynn Chapman

soothingly. She again made eye contact with Rae while she struggled to subdue Rachael. Rae nodded back curtly.
    "Let's come up with a plan; we need to think. If there's a way in, there must be a way out."
    Rachael stopped struggling and fell limp in her sister's embrace. She began to silently cry again.
    Bella walked to the mirror and placed her hands on it, then peered into it as if she could see past it. She wondered if Morgana could sense her presence. “We'll begin tomorrow by visiting all the bodies of water in town,” said Bella decisively.

Chapter 16
    In the dark, Morgana lay on top of the hay bale, with Eva and another little girl, Emma, curled front-to-back for warmth and comfort. She looked around at the children on the makeshift beds and sighed. Night was always the worst; she couldn't keep her fears away. During the day, there was always so much to do, and so many of the children had come to depend on her, that she rarely found time for thoughts of hopelessness.
    But in the dark, there was plenty of time to think of home, her mother, her aunts, and Chloe. Morgana shut her eyes tightly and willed sleep to come. She prayed for deliverance from this situation. As far as she could figure, most of these children came from different time periods and some were even from places she had never heard of. Why or how they were all here, she had not yet been able to decide.
    Morgana laid her arm across Eva and Emma and took a deep breath.
    Something moved in the dark. It sounded like her mother's laundry when it would blow on the clothesline on a windy day.
    She rolled over, but could see nothing. Suddenly, through the bars on the window, came a flying line of black birds, small enough to fit through the spaces. They began to swirl around the room and Morgana was frozen in terror.
    Children woke and began screaming at the top of their lungs. They all began to make their way toward her and she was soon surrounded by them.
    Morgana shook with fear and pulled them to her.
    The black swarm began to dive-bomb and peck any child they could reach, drawing blood on many, who wailed in pain.
    A little boy, no more than four years old, was crouched by Morgana when a larger magpie came, and embedded its beak in his arm and ripped off a piece of flesh three inches across.
    Morgana screamed in fury and began to smack it with her bare hands.
    Blind rage took over; she looked around the room for a weapon and spied an empty manacle gleaming on the floor.
    She leaped for it and began swinging it into the flock over her head in a circle, making contact with several of them as she did so.
    The flock began to shriek in protest and began to concentrate on Morgana. Soon, all the birds in the room were headed for her. Five landed on her arms, which she shook wildly. She bent over and three landed on her back. She fell to her knees and two landed on her head.
    Now Eva left the makeshift bed and was running to defend Morgana, her tiny body useless against so many creatures.
    Morgana could see a stream of images in her mind's eye—her home ... her mom ... her daddy...
    The chamber was illuminated by an oil lamp, which was casting eerie shadows as the guard ambled into the dungeon.
    The largest bird spied the guard and gave one long cry, then the whole flock simultaneously lifted away from Morgana and flew out the window.
    Morgana could feel Eva's tiny hands on her head before she drifted into oblivion.
    * * * *
    Raena sat in her suite on her couch facing the window. She gazed out into the moonlit yard and felt a loneliness she had not experienced since her mother died. Thoughts of Morgana drifted in and out of her consciousness, intermingled with wondering whether she would ever have children of her own.
    She shivered and walked over to the heating duct, which was a grate on the floor, and sat down with her blanket on top of it.
    She placed her head in her hands and let the tears come. She cried for several minutes and then wiping her eyes, attempted