Free Sleeping Angel (Ravenwood Series) by Mia James Page A

over, not feeding the goat, something like that. Well, Katrine ran out of the house, went to the forest and, using a forked stick, picked up a bee’s nest and dropped it through the shutters of our cottage.’
    ‘No way!’ gasped April. ‘What happened?’
    Thomas shook his head. ‘I was only a baby at the time, but they tell me I was stung all over my body. In the confusion, my father kicked over a lantern and almost burned the house to the ground.’ He chuckled softly. ‘That is what I mean when I say strong. We have fire in our bellies. Back in the old country, they used to say that the first head of our family was half man, half dragon.’
    April looked at him wide-eyed, then Thomas cracked up laughing.
    ‘That kind of nonsense was one of the reasons I left the country. They believe all that crap over there, I swear.’
    April laughed along, but inside she was thinking that maybe being a Fury wasn’t so unusual after all. Maybe it ran in the family.
     
    Settled in her bedroom, April curled up on her bed and picked up her mobile. It had been a terrible day by anybody’s standards and she was desperate to speak to Gabriel about it all. She had only just persuaded him to join the 21 st century and get a mobile, but it went straight to voice mail.
    ‘Hey babes, just wanted to hear your voice,’ she said. ‘Been a crazy day at Ravenwood. Or should I say another crazy day. Call me, huh? Kiss.’
    She dropped the phone and looked up at the ceiling, wondering how often her mother had lain in this very spot, looking up at the same ceiling; had she ever felt the same way?
    April’s room, if she could really call it that, was a rather grand bedroom on the first floor overlooking the street. It was the same room which had once belonged to her mother. April smiled as she imagined Silvia growing up here and in equally grand houses in Belgravia and St. James’s. With that sort of upbringing and Gramps’ endless declarations about how she was his “special princess” how could she have failed to turn out like she did: arrogant, snobbish and rude? Oh, and explosive, don’t forget that one. Around April Grandpa Thomas was sweet and gentle , but when he and Silvia got together, it was like a match had been tossed into a box of fireworks.
    April giggled: were those cracks in the ceiling the result of endless shouting and throwing of ornaments? But the smile quickly faded; thinking about her mother only made April feel sad. She felt a horrible sense of guilt at having abandoned her in Highgate, but what else could she have done? Shrug and say her mother’s actions were okay? April knew making a stand had been right, but that didn’t make it any easier. The truth was: April was lonely too. However useless Silvia was as a mother, at least she was there – most of the time anyway. Increasingly, April felt that she was getting further and further away from a place of safety. It was as if she had fallen overboard in the middle of the night and was watching the boat sailing into the distance without her. April hadn’t even realised she was crying until she felt the warm tears trickling down her cheeks.
    ‘Sod this,’ she muttered, wiping her face. She grabbed the phone and scrolled down to “Fee” and pressed “Call”.
    There was a long pause, and just as April was thinking about hanging up, she heard her best friend answer.
    ‘Sorry babe,’ said Fiona, ‘Just playing high-stakes poker on the net. Had two pair – didn’t want to miss the bet.’
    April laughed and immediately felt better. The world could be falling apart and you could always rely on Fee to be thinking about something else.
    ‘How are you doing?’
    ‘Oh, about a mil and a half up. Loads of idiots in Slovenia who don’t know a flush from a straight. Not real money, unfortunately, but one of these days when someone lets me have a credit card, I’ll buy an island in the Caribbean and we can all move there.’
    ‘Knowing my luck, it’ll be full