Free OwlsFair by Zenina Masters Page B

flight.
    The parliament of Atkinson was in the air, and the night was sweet to Ezmerelda’s feathers as her snowy white wings slowly gained her altitude while she worked her way to the treetops for a flight with her family on this momentous birthday.
    Her shift-sharpened gaze caught the movement of a mouse, but the freedom of flying over her family’s forest was far more of a draw than her instinct to feel the small body beneath her talons.
    Their flight was silent, but nothing had to be said—they were shifters doing what they were born to do with the best of company.
    Ezzy screeched, and her family took up the cry as they banked and circled the forest. Her sister’s small brown body darted past her, and Ezzy couldn’t resist. The race was on.
    Two hours passed while they played tag in the branches of the oak forest. When her blood was humming happily and her sister’s feathers were fluffed in every place that Ezzy had caught her, the birthday girl returned to her clothing and her patient friend.
    In the morning, she would go to the travel agent and learn what she needed to about going to the Crossroads. Family was great, but she wanted someone all her own.

Chapter Two
    Nerves were jangling, but Ezzy was confident that she could do this. It would have been easier if Kris could have helped her, but it wasn’t good to have a witness for this sort of thing—at least that was what Kris said when she dropped Ezzy off at her home.
    The building that the travel agent was in was a standard office building. Shrugging, Ezzy got into the elevator and made it up to the fifth floor.
    She wiped her hands on her jeans, dragged in a deep breath and surged through the door with the number five on it.
    Krisia was sitting at a desk with a number of pamphlets in front of her. “Good morning, how may I help you?”
    Ezzy’s mouth opened in shock. “You? The travel agent to the Crossroads is you?”
    “Of course it is. My family has been sending shifters to the Shifter’s Crossroads for generations.” Krisia chuckled. “Please, take a seat.”
    Surprise was rippling through her with a hefty dose of confusion. “Why haven’t you ever mentioned it?”
    “You keep your shifter stuff to yourself. I keep my magic to myself. We agreed on that when we were nine.” Kris grinned again.
    Ezzy sat in the client chair and ran through the moment in her mind.
    With her first change just behind her, Ezzy was smug with her newfound talent. “I am not allowed to talk about it though. My mom said so and Grandma agreed. They never agree.”
    Krisia sat and frowned. “But we tell each other everything.”
    “I can’t. I can’t talk about the shifting stuff. Can we still be friends?” It was more of a test of their friendship than when Ezzy had challenged Krisia to eat a bug.
    “If you can’t talk about shifting stuff, then I won’t talk about magic.”
    Krisia stuck her hand out and they shook on it. “No shifting, no magic.”
    The veil of silence had lasted twenty-one years. Krisia smiled. “No shifting, no magic.”
    Ezzy looked at her oldest friend in the universe. “I am guessing that I got the short end of that deal.”
    Kris laughed and waved her hand. A chocolate mocha latte appeared in front of Ezzy.
    “Now, Ms. Atkinson, what would you like to know?” Smiling but formal, Kris waited.
    Ezzy touched the hot sides of the cup and took a sip. “What can you tell me about the Shifter’s Crossroads?”
    Kris touched the blotter on her desk, and a map appeared under her palm. “The first Shifter’s Crossroads was designed over a thousand years ago. When shifters wanted to run away and find a mate that spoke to their hearts rather than their family connections, they needed a safe place to meet that person. They paid one of my people to come up with a solution, and we did. Some call it a place out of time, others an inter-dimensional space. I just call it nifty.”
    The map was laid out in a simple design, a basic crossroads with