Boiled As An Owl Novels & Stories

Lirien murmurs, eyes distant, “he did.” The word did sits heavy in my chest. Before anyone can say more— A shadow sweeps across the table. Wind rushes through the hall, sharp and sudden, extinguishing several candles at once. Plates rattle. Someone curses. Then something lands on the table between the fruit bowl and Ezra’s coffee. An owl. It’s massive. Bigger than it should be, feathers ink-black and silver, eyes glowing faintly gold. It stares at us, unblinking. Every muscle in my body locks.

Tyllu clicked his beak in response. She remembered a much smaller owl tucked inside her cloak as she smuggled him into lessons. Remembered feeding him strips of rabbit beneath the dining table while her tutors pretended not to notice. Remembered long afternoons in Greenborne when he would swoop between the trees while she raced beneath him, convinced they understood one another perfectly. The sight of blood on his feathers reignited her anger. Somewhere among the gathered people, the bird of prey had found its master, and that master was about to discover that attacking the owl of a Greenborne princess was a very grave error indeed.

Tang Xiao forced and smile, grabbed Tang Hao by the back of his neck, and pulled him away. "Didn't you see that owl? I specifically took you there to see that owl!" Tang Xiao hissed. "Owl? That parrot is a shame to all owls! Owls are majestic!" Tang Hao looked away. "That's the rarest species of owl— Human-tongue Owl— that can achieve human speech before even reaching 100-year-old of cultivation, much less the legendary 100000! Bastard! We snuck into grandpa's scripture room together and got our asses bled! Didn't you learn anything there? That bird was in Grandpa's journal!"

The steam rising from it was thick and smelled like blood and rot. “Aiden!” I shouted. My voice broke, and everything seemed to slow. Before Aiden fell into the cauldron, a blur of wind rushed past us. A wolf—fast like lightning—rammed into him and knocked him away from the edge. They rolled hard across the floor, both of them tumbling. “What now?!” Olivia screamed, her voice sharp with rage. I stood there, breathing hard, trembling, and confused but suddenly filled with a small spark of hope.

While his face was a soft greyish black the tops of his wings a dark black. Another moment and she cut the neck of the owl with the sharp blade of her knife. The owl screeched as his eyes moved in pain, the blood streamed down the floor and on her hands. She filled the blood of the owl on the big bowl and tied his feet with a thread, making him upside down. "I am not here to watch this shit," he said before turning around to go back. "This is all happening for the sacrifice you are going to make," she answered after a moment of pause.

She pivoted, sending her owl forward with talons extended as the witch reappeared at the exact spot she’d anticipated. The owl’s cry pierced the air as it struck, its beak elongating and driving deep into the mayor’s throat. It resembled a feral predator, more a vulture than an owl, in the savage way it pressed the attack. A guttural sound escaped the vampire witch, but even as blood trickled down her chest, she refused to surrender. The mayor’s fingers twitched. The fountain water quivered, and the surrounding hedge walls rustled, ready to obey her command again.

The owl took its chance and flew into the room. It flapped its large wings a few times and cooed at the sight of Harper. All the blood left my face as I watched the bird transform from merely an unsuspecting owl to a full-grown woman with delicate features and long blonde hair. The words were caught in my mouth. “...Aurora.”

I drew the curtain in vain because the entire room reminded me of him, but at least nothing in that room brought old memories to life again. Right then, there was a soft knock on the window glass. I frowned as I cautiously slid the curtain by an inch to see what made that sound. On the snow of the window sill perched a snowy white owl, gazing at me with its large yellow eyes. It tapped on the window again with one of its claws, and my heart skidded. In my chest. That’s something I taught Snow White to do. I instantly opened the window, and the owl flew to me, almost crashing against me. I wrapped my palms around it and it dropped into my stretched out palms, spreading out its wings.

Everyone agreed. King Ortiz didn't waste a second. He stood, went to his private shelf, opened a carved wooden cage, and lifted out the little owl-tiny, white-furred, its eyes like glowing pearls. The room fell still. He whispered into its feathers. The owl blinked once... stretched its wings... and hopped to the center of the table. Every gaze followed it. Its eyes gleamed. The air shifted. Magic hummed. The little owl hopped twice across the table, claws clicking softly on the polished stone.

Her glowing yellow eyes blazed into Gera’s Gera was only a snowy owl because it fit her natural appearance best; most owl shifters were barn owls, brown-haired and black-eyed. She was the only one of her kind as far she knew. As the two women stared into each other's eyes she felt the nagging sensation of someone trying to get into her head to speak to her. She opened the connection, too curious to refuse. "It is so nice to see you back to your old self, daughter."