The Boi of Feather and Steel
The Metamorphosis duology
The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass
The Boi of Feather and Steel
The Boi of Feather and Steel
ADAN JERREAT-POOLE
Copyright © Adan Jerreat-Poole, 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Publisher: Scott Fraser | Acquiring editor: Rachel Spence | Editor: Shannon Whibbs
Cover design and illustration: Sophie Paas-Lang
Printer: Marquis Book Printing Inc.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: The boi of feather and steel / Adan Jerreat-Poole.
Names: Jerreat-Poole, Adan, 1990- author.
Series: Jerreat-Poole, Adan, 1990- Metamorphosis duology ; 2.
Description: Series statement: The metamorphosis duology ; 2
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2021011004X | Canadiana (ebook) 20210110058 | ISBN 9781459746848 (softcover) | ISBN 9781459746855 (PDF) | ISBN 9781459746862 (EPUB) Classification: LCC PS8619.E768 B65 2021 | DDC jC813/.6—dc23
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Ontario, through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and Ontario Creates, and the Government of Canada.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.
The publisher is not responsible for websites or their content unless they are owned by the publisher.
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For monstrous feminists, queer witches, and magical enbies everywhere
Contents
Part One: Exile
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Thirty-Five
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine
Forty
In Between
Part Two: Homecoming
Forty-One
Forty-Two
Forty-Three
Forty-Four
Forty-Five
Forty-Six
Forty-Seven
Forty-Eight
Forty-Nine
Fifty
Fifty-One
Fifty-Two
Fifty-Three
Fifty-Four
Fifty-Five
Fifty-Six
Fifty-Seven
Fifty-Eight
Fifty-Nine
Sixty
Sixty-One
Sixty-Two
Sixty-Three
Sixty-Four
Sixty-Five
Sixty-Six
Sixty-Seven
Sixty-Eight
Sixty-Nine
Seventy
Seventy-One
Seventy-Two
Epilogue: Homemakers
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Part One: Exile
One
TAV
Tav was dreaming.
The river was frozen over with thick black ice. When they knelt down, they could see blue-and-white flames trapped under the surface. They placed a palm over the ice, feeling the cold burn like fire. The flames flickered wildly, trying to reach their hand.
A hairline crack snaked its way between their feet. Tav stepped back, uneasy. As they watched in horror, the river tore itself in two, ice and water and earth splitting apart. Tav stumbled and fell, narrowly avoiding the spears of ice stabbing the air like a fractured bone puncturing skin.
A great chasm stretched across the frozen river. Tav found themselves on one side of the fierce water, which gushed through a cracked mirror of black ice.
A boy climbed out of the depths of a world splintered by frost and starlight.
Cam. Eyes like stone, hard and cold. Blue veins glistening on exposed skin.
Cradled in his arms lay the crumpled body of a girl, a sprig of hawthorn growing from her chest.
She was dying.
“I brought your Heart,” he said, stepping onto Tav’s side of the river. The curve of his smile was a fish hook. He stopped an arm’s length from where Tav crouched, their fingernails etching lines into the crystalline landscape. He waited.
Tav rose slowly, unsteady on their feet. Sweat dripped down their neck. They could smell rot.
Pain surged through their shoulder blades. They cried out as great feathered wings burst from their back. The wings were black as ink, with an oily lustre of gold and purple and green. As the pain began to subside like a waning crescent moon, Tav found Cam’s eyes and forced the breath from their lungs into the shape of a single command.
“Give her to me.”
“You’ve left me no choice,” he said. His fingers curled around the hawthorn, twisting brutally. The girl whimpered.
“Let her go!” Tav beat their wings and white flames burned through the ice at their feet. The ice floe was unstable, and one wrong move could lead to hypothermia and drowning. The stars glittered overhead, their lights reflected in the dark mirror. The universe was burning.
The branch snapped, and the girl screamed, a body made of bone and glass crying out in agony.
Tav lunged, nails like talons curving around Cam’s throat.
When it was over, Tav was on all fours, frost licking their knees. Blood everywhere. Body parts were scattered across the ice. Tav wetted their lips and looked down, catching a glimpse of their reflection —
the face of a witch.
Tav woke suddenly and found themselves back in their apartment, the sheets soaked through with sweat. In the dim room lit only by distant streetlights, the shadows looked like blood. Tav fumbled for the bedside lamp. When the yellow pool of light showed no evidence of a crime scene, the anxiety curling its claws around their wrists and ankles released its hold. It was just a dream; already it was fading. Tav listened to the sound of their pounding heart, waiting for the rhythm to slow. Proof that they were human.
Tav closed their eyes against the pain of sudden brightness, but it was too late. Already a headache was spreading through their temples and pushing into the corded muscles of their neck.
They switched off the light and lay back down, opening their eyes to the dark. In the distance sirens sang out, the clear, sharp pitch breaking through the dull roar of engines that never ceased. Threaded through the darkness was the magic of the Heart, which wound its way through walls and doors and flesh and bone. Tav fought the urge to reach out and grab it, to make themselves strong, to heal their pain, to take that power all for themselves and use it.
Use her.
Eli was sleeping on the couch with only a wall between them. The thought sent a shiver of excitement through Tav’s body, but of a different kind. They kicked off the lounge pants they’d fallen asleep in and lay
