Chapter Twelve
I didn’t slow down until I neared the entrance hall, and then I crept as quickly as I could, peering into the shadows and straining my ears for any sign that I might not be alone. If a professor found me now, I’d never be able to explain what was going on without getting us both in serious trouble. And if I saved Kelsey’s life, only to get her expelled, she’d kill me herself.
As I approached the large oaken doors, they swung slowly open, unveiling the dark grounds ahead. I threw one last look over my shoulder, and slipped through, out into the cold night air. It was just as well I was still clinging to my cloak. I took a moment to swing it over my shoulders. The grove was about as far away from the castle as you could get. Kelsey probably hadn’t reached it yet. If I ran, maybe I could catch up with her before she got there. As long as she hadn’t been running herself. I set off at a fast jog – I was fit, but there was absolutely no way I could sprint that far. As I got further from the castle, the ground became uneven. The earth was damp underfoot, sending me slipping and sliding each time I followed a turn in the trail. I was breathing heavily, head down watching where I put each foot, when I heard it.
A snort. Loud.
I skidded to a halt and pivoted my head round, searching the darkness. Movement to my right caught my eye and I twisted round to face it, taking in the darker patch in the darkness – the massive darker patch. I started to back away, not taking my eyes from the creature. Yellow eyes blinked at me and it stretched its neck. The clouds rolled back from the moon and its light glinted on–
“Stormclaw!”
I gasped in relief, and he snorted softly, stretching out his massive wings.
“I thought you were Ares,” I told him. He trotted towards me, pushing his beaked head out to nudge me.
“Sorry, fella, I don’t have any fish.”
He tilted his head, squinting at me with one bird-like eye, then butted me again, pushing me back a step.
“Not now, Stormclaw. Kelsey’s in trouble.”
He snorted again, louder this time, and butted me a third time. Before I could say anything, he bent his front knees, lowering himself right to the ground – the position I’d seen other gryffs take to allow their riders to mount.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I breathed. He just blinked in response, keeping his front end low. “You know I can’t ride.”
And even if I could ride, I’d seen the other riders – they used saddles. And head collars. And they wore safety equipment while they were learning. And Professor Alden said no-one could ride Stormclaw.
And if I didn’t do it, Kelsey was going to land herself in serious trouble.
I let out a long breath, gritted my teeth, and stepped closer.
“I’m trusting you,” I told the gryff. He stayed perfectly still, as if he could sense the anxiety churning in my gut. There was a reason I’d never ridden before – like it was absolutely insane. Humans were not meant to ride on the backs of half horse, half eagles.
I closed the gap between us, and tried to work out how I was supposed to get on his back without any stirrups or mounting blocks. Apparently aware of my dilemma, he lifted one clawed foot, forming a platform in front of his wing.
“Right. Of course.”
There was no other way to beat Kelsey to the grove. I had to do this.
“We’re just going to run, right? On the ground.” I said to the gryff as I climbed onto his leg then scrambled onto his back. I was absolutely certain I imagined the amused glint in his eye.
I sat astride his shoulders, one leg hanging down on either side of his neck. Without a head collar and reins there was nothing to grab hold of, and I didn’t think he’d appreciate me grabbing a fistful of his feathers – I’d accidentally plucked one from one of the other gryffs, and I knew how badly that ended.
He took off at a lope before I could work out what to do, leaving me clinging to him with my knees and bouncing against him with every step he took. He rustled his wings, but otherwise made no objection, though it had to be as uncomfortable for him as it was for me – and I was certain if he picked up pace or took a sharp turn, I’d be thrown off his back. We were going fast enough that any sort of fall was going to break my all-too-human bones, and leave me stuck in the hospital wing, trying to explain what I was doing on the grounds after dark. And it would be worse for Kelsey, and whatever trouble she’d walked into. Instinctively, I took a deep breath and released it slowly, then loosened the death grip I’d made with my knees, wrapped my lower leg around him instead, and tried to relax my hips. Immediately I felt myself moving with him, rather than being jolted around by his odd stride. My hands hung by my sides, clenched into fists as I fought the instinct the grip something – anything – to keep me on board the massive animal.
Trees rushed by on either side of us as we raced away from the castle, and somehow I stayed astride the massive beast. A branch hung low over the track ahead. I leaned forward, ducking low against Stormclaw’s neck, and narrowly avoided being catapulted back. For a full thirty seconds I had myself convinced that he would listen to me, and we would just run to the Unhallowed Grove. Then another branch overlapped the track – this time level with his shoulders. He took a sideways leap to dodge it, almost tossing me into the dirt. I let out a squeal of panic, and then sucked in another breath. Behind me, I felt feathers brush the back of my legs. Dread welled in the pit of my stomach and I risked a look over my shoulder, and blanched.
“No, Stormclaw, don’t!”
But he didn’t listen. His wings were already stretched out, the speed of our gallop running the wind through his flight feathers. He flapped them twice with lazy grace, and we lifted a few inches from the ground. Another flap, and we rose higher, and then higher still. I glanced down over his shoulder to the ground and my stomach lurched. We were already high above the trees. The galloping motion stopped and his gait became smooth as his wings propelled us through the air. Every few seconds he flapped them, raising his shoulders – and me on them – and then the movement would flatten out again, like a boat being lifted by a gentle current. It felt… magical.
Laughter bubbled up through my lips. We were flying, outlined high above the night sky, the full round moon so big I could almost reach out and touch it, and I had never felt so completely free. Graceful. Perched on his shoulders as he bore me faster though the night air so that it chilled my cheeks and nose. The sound of my laughter was ripped from my lips and left far behind us, and I could hear nothing but the beating of wings and the whoosh of air passing us. I could fly like this forever, far above all my troubles, far above the castle where I was an outcast, far above Felicity and her taunts, far above– Far above Kelsey and whatever dangers she faced.
I set my jaw and fixed my eyes on the grove in the distance. Almost as if he could sense my change in mood, Stormclaw beat his wings faster, then pinned them closer behind him, propelling us through the air more quickly, more determined. We had to get to the grove before she was hurt.
“Come on!” I urged him, crouching low over his neck. He pushed on again until the ground was a blur and I’d have been screaming in terror if I wasn’t so focused on getting to the grove. The faster we moved, the harder it became to stay relaxed and fight the little voice that told me I was going to plummet to my death. I forced each breath in and out of my lungs, and tried to unclench my hands that had balled into fists again. It wasn’t going to happen. I gave it up for a bad job, instead working on keeping my lower legs round his shoulders and resting on his chest. Soon, impossibly soon, the grove loomed ahead of us. Stormclaw dipped his shoulders and the trees came rushing up towards us, and I knew without a shred of a doubt that we were going to thud into the ground and I would be thrown clear over the gryff’s shoulders. A scream burned its way up my throat but I bit down on my lip, hard, trapping it in my mouth. The last thing I wanted to do was disrupt the creature’s focus while we were plummeting towards the ground. His wings flared out wide on either side of me and
stayed out, slowing our descent. At the last moment I leaned back. His front legs hit the ground with a thud, tossing me forward, and a split second later, his back legs touched down, tossing me back again. He slowed to a trot, then a few strides later a walk, and then came to a complete stop, inches from the first tree.
I let out a shaky laugh, counted my limbs and found them all intact, then gave the beast a heavy pat on his shoulder. He snorted and tossed his head, then crouched low on his forelimbs.
“Yeah, good idea.”
I slid down from his back and landed on shaking legs which gave way the second they touched the ground. The gryff butted his massive shoulder against me, propping me up before I hit the deck. I reached a hand out to him for support, and found he wasn’t even breathing heavily.
“Guess that’s everyday stuff for you, huh?”
He made his thrumming noise and curled his head into me. I gave him a scratch between the eyes, then peered into thicket. It was gloomy beyond the treeline, dark enough that once inside I wouldn’t be able to see more than an arm’s length in front of me.
“Come on, then,” I said, and stepped forward. As I moved into the shadow of the first tree, there was a loud snort from behind me. Stormclaw tossed his head and snorted again, scraping at the ground with a talon.
“Guess I’m on my own.”
He jostled his wings and backed up restlessly. I crossed back to him and rubbed my hand along his beak.
“Good boy. Go on, go home.”
Without another backward glance, I stepped into the grove. Immediately, the darkness swarmed around me, like a living, breathing creature that was determined to smother me. Low hanging branches snatched at my clothing as I passed, and long vines as thick as my wrist tried to entangle me. It was impossible to move any faster than a walk, and even then, the thick roots of the trees caught my feet and threatened to send me tumbling to the ground.
More than once, I heard something moving in the leaves. Just the wind. It was just the wind. There was nothing there. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I worked my way through the damp woods, keeping to the narrow animal track as best I could. Something clung to my face and I barely bit back a scream. A cobweb. It was only a cobweb. A thought occurred to me and I frantically brushed my hands over my face, my hair, my shoulders. Where there were cobwebs, there were spiders. I hated spiders, creepy little things with too many legs and eyes, and their hairy black bodies, and– I shuddered, then forced the image from my mind. There were worse things in the grove than spiders. Not creepier, but worse.
By now it was so dark that I had to walk with one hand stretched out in front of me, protecting my face from vines, low-hanging branches, and yes, cobwebs. More than once I thought a damp vine under my hand moved, and was glad the moon was hidden by the clouds and the canopy. Some things it was better not to see.
How the hell was I supposed to find Kelsey out here? What was she even doing creeping around this place in the dead of the night? I didn’t care who her boyfriend was, there just had to be better places to meet. No guy was worth getting killed for. Or getting spiders in your hair. I could blunder around all night and not find her – assuming I lived that long. I didn’t dare call out to her, lest I alerted whatever lived here to my presence, and some deep-seated dread told me exactly how much of a bad idea that would be.
High above me, something rustled in the canopy. I looked up just in time to see a dark shape outlined against the sky, leaping from one tree to the next. I really hoped it was a monkey. Somehow, I didn’t think it was. I froze in place, not even daring to draw breath, but it moved on without paying any attention to me.
I pressed on carefully, slowing my progress to little more than a crawl. Far to my left I caught a sound of the very edge of my hearing, like a distant gurgling or… splashing? A stream, perhaps. Weird. I’d seen this place from the air, and there weren’t any streams running in or out of here. No matter. Running water had to lead somewhere, and it beat wandering around in circles in the dark. I changed my course and worked my way towards it. With each step the sound became more distinct until I could I hear the water rushing over rocks and foliage in its bed. I came on it all of a sudden: one moment I was pushing through a thick wall of greenery, the next I was on the riverbank with clear sky above me. The stream itself was narrow, littered with rocks and broken branches in the inky-black water that seemed to babble over them in a leisurely fashion. Every now and then there was a silver-yellow glint in the water as the moon peeked from behind the clouds, and then vanished again.
I eyed the gap between the banks. I could probably clear it with a jump if I took a run up, but this side was a good as any. I looked left and then right, and decided to follow it downstream, since that was closest to the direction I’d been moving in before I heard it. I didn’t want to end up back where I started without having found Kelsey.
I tracked the stream from its bank, taking care with my footing in the damp mud. When I saved Kelsey’s backside, she was going to owe me some new footwear. Then the moon emerged again, and footwear became the least of my worries. Sunk into the mud was a massive pawprint, edged with smaller, deep grooves that only could have come from a set of razor-sharp claws. My feet rooted themselves to the ground and I looked around me frantically. I couldn’t see any sign of the beast that had left them, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t out there, watching me from the treeline. A shudder ran the length of my spine, but I forced myself to keep moving. If you act like prey, you are prey, someone had once told me. Of course, they were talking about schoolyard bullies, not man-eating monsters living in magical groves. I wasn’t entirely convinced the same principles applied out here. But I had nothing to gain from standing around, waiting for it to happen. The sooner I found Kelsey, the sooner we could both get out of here, and back to the safety of the castle, hopefully without being expelled, eaten, or both.
I ducked low to avoid a broken branch hanging in the narrow track in front of me, and as I did, my foot snagged in a tree root. My arms windmilled frantically, but the wet mud slipped and slid underfoot and I hit the ground with a heavy thud, knocking the wind out of me. For a moment I laid there in the mud, trying to catch my breath, then I stretched out my leg tentatively, and flexed my ankle. It was throbbing, but I didn’t think anything was broken, thank God. The thought of being stuck out here, unable to run, was more than I could bear. Another shudder ran through me, and I started to push myself up from the mud. And froze. Across the stream, a pair of yellow eyes were watching me. My breath caught in my throat and my limbs all locked up. The eyes were round and bright, like a wolf’s… only bigger. I’d seen wolves at the zoo, and these eyes were too high up. Much too high. Whatever this was, it would dwarf a wolf. And it was way too interested in me.
If you act like prey, you are prey.
I took a slow, shuddering breath, and forced myself upright, gripping a tree to help me get my balance. Pain lanced through my ankle as soon as I put pressure on it, and I shifted my weight onto the other side. Running was officially out. Walking seemed unlikely, without something to support my weight.
Across the stream, the eyes tilted, like the creature was cocking its head as it assessed me.
“Get out of here!” I screamed at it with as much anger as I could muster, hoping my voice would scare it away. But whatever it was, it wasn’t afraid of humans. It stalked closer, emerging from the treeline, giving me my first look of its wet, pointed muzzle, furry face, and large triangular ears. It was a wolf. Only, more like a wolf on steroids. This thing was massive, the muscles on its shoulder so pronounced I could make them out from here. It curled its lips back and the moonlight glinted on a row of razor-sharp teeth, tipped in red. Its paws were bigger than my hands, and it had to be nearly as tall as I was. Its shaggy coat was a reddish-brown and slicked flat with mud. I took a step back before I could stop myself, bumping into the tree behind me, and still the creature stalked forwards. A low growl erupted from its throat as it reached the ed
ge of the stream, and sank back on its haunches, preparing to jump. As soon as it reached my side, I was dead. I had no weapons, I couldn’t run, and it wasn’t afraid of me. Those teeth would grab hold of me, sink into my flesh… I whimpered in terror and threw up my hands. The stream rushed furiously in sympathy, and the creature sprung.
A surge of anger ran through me. Everything I’d been through, everything I’d overcome, and I was going to die out here at the whim of this feral beast – what the hell was it even doing in a school anyway? What sort of moron would let something like this roam free and not tell anyone? A tingle started up in my hands. Of course! My powers. It wasn’t afraid of me, but maybe it was scared of fire. It was the only hope I had.
I channelled all my fury into my hands, reminding myself of every cutting insult Felicity had thrown at me, every sneer and snigger, every failed class and every time Atherton had kicked me out for no reason. My hand flared bright red, illuminating the trees around us, and the creature skidded to a halt, sinking back and fixing its yellow eyes on my hands.
My heart leapt – it was working. Relief flooded through me, and then the light in my palm faltered. The creature cocked its massive head again, as though contemplating me. I gritted my teeth and pictured this… thing towering over Kelsey. Whose blood was on its face? If it had hurt her, I would find a way to kill it. Fury rushed through me and my blood pounded in my ears. My hand flared so strongly that I could feel the heat it was giving off. The creature whined and backed off a step.
“Yeah, damned right you better run,” I told it through clenched teeth. “You come anywhere near me or Kelsey and I’ll kill you.”
It whined and backed up another step, sinking low on its haunches. I limped forward, still aiming my blinding light at the giant wolf.
“I sure as hell hope Kels gave you a taste of this,” I told the animal. It whined again, as though it could understand me. I paused. The gryffs seemed to understand at least some of what I was saying, too. Maybe this creature had some grasp of human speech. Maybe all magical creatures did. And there was no way this beast was anything but magical – nothing naturally occurring could be that big.
Druid Magic (Druid Academy Book 1) Page 9