Free The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey

careful out there, okay?”
    “Careful is my middle name.”
    Rowan’s chuckle was nice and soft. Like how the feathers on his head felt when she ran her fingers through them. “I thought your middle name was danger,” he said.
    “That was last week.”
    “Of course.”
    “Of course.”
    Rowan slipped his hand from hers, though his fingers lingered a touch longer than they needed to. “I should go,” he said. Echo didn’t think she was imagining the note of wistfulness in his voice.
    She had the unacceptable urge to ask him to stay. Instead she said, “Altair awaits.”
    “Yup.” Rowan tucked his hands back in his pockets. “Wouldn’t do to get on his bad side right out of the gate.” He leaned down, closing the distance between them. His mouth was mere inches from Echo’s, but he waited for her to makethe first move. Ever the gentleman, no matter what Ivy said. Echo wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her. She could feel the curve of his smile against her lips as they kissed.
    Kalverliefde
, Echo thought.
The euphoria you experience when you fall in love for the first time
.
    For a word that contained only four letters, love felt like a monumental leap, so she kept the thought to herself. Her fingers slid into the fine feathers at the base of Rowan’s neck, causing him to grin against her mouth again. When he pulled away, Echo felt as though he were taking little bits of her heart with him. He dropped a tiny kiss on her nose and said, “I’ll see you later, okay?”
    With that, he turned back the way they’d come, heading to the barracks on the other side of the Nest. Echo raised a hand to her mouth. She could still feel the phantom touch of his lips on her skin.
    “If you’re quite done, Echo dear, I have a task for you.”
    Echo spun around, blushing with a vengeance. The Ala was standing in her now open doorway, eyes alight with silent laughter.
    Echo’s blush felt as if it were powered by lava, simmering just beneath her skin. “How long were you standing there? Were you watching? How much did you see?”
    The Ala held her hands up. “I’m a thousand years old, Echo. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before. Now, come along so I can fill you in.”
    Without waiting for a response, the Ala retreated into her chamber. With a last glance back at the corridor—Rowan was long gone—Echo followed her inside. The chamber was exactly as she had last seen it, except for the whoopie pies.They’d been replaced with a bowlful of coconut macaroons. A vastly inferior cookie.
    The Ala walked to a table in the center of the room and picked up the map from the music box. She offered it to Echo. “I have a favor to ask of you.”
    There was a somber quality to the Ala’s voice that settled deep in Echo’s stomach. After a tense few seconds, Echo took the map, cradling the fragile paper in tentative hands. The Ala cleared her throat and settled onto the chaise that Echo had sprawled across earlier. A few crumbs of the whoopie pie she’d eaten littered the velvet, and the Ala brushed them off. It was as if she was stalling.
    “Ala?” Echo sat down next to her and placed a hand on the Ala’s arm. “What’s going on?”
    The Ala finally looked straight at Echo. “I want you to follow that map. If it leads to a clue about the firebird’s location, I want to find it before Altair—or anyone else—does, but I can’t exactly saunter into Japan myself. Kyoto is in Drakharin hands, but you’re human. Your presence will go unnoticed.” She cleared her throat and smoothed her skirts. “If you don’t want to go, I won’t force you. You are just a child after all.”
    Echo knew the Ala meant well, but hearing those words strengthened her resolve. If Rowan could be sent off to war, the least Echo could do was go on a little scavenger hunt behind enemy lines. She glanced down at the map, eyes roving over the words written in neat block letters at the bottom.
Beware the price that you must