Amelia puffs up in rage, claws raking the sand. Crouched behind a low mound, she watches the hunters run back to gang up on her prey and barely stops herself from screaming. Her wings twich, muscles aching to take off and snatch him back.

She does squawk when Stocke appears behind her, startling her. Amelia turns around and glares at him. After he went to such lengths to steal the human alive, she hadn't expected him the shade to sacrifice him so readily.

I'm planning to kill them all, she wants to say, but decides to not grace him with a real answer. Instead she grumbles: "Don't act so smug. You just gave up a soul."