John Langan

She knows, in the way you just know some things, that this is speech Helen has brought back with her from the grave. It is a death-tongue, the tongue you learn once you leave this life for lands uncharted, and Lottie realizes she understands what Helen is saying

For her to attack him here, the last bastion of his pride and self-respect, is the kind of betrayal of which only someone you love is capable

No nightingale, it regards him from gold eyes that shine in the moonlight. Dark hair floats around its head, coiling and uncoiling as if with a life of its own. Its arms stretch to either side of it, slowly waving up and down, the light sliding back and forth along them