Just a few more minutes and Skye would be there—he just needed to buy some time. Pulling a dagger from his belt, he ran his hand along the blade. “Hey!” he screamed, waving his bloodied palm in the air. The aether in his blood would be more than enough to lure the beast away. “Over here!”
The beast gave him an uninterested glance before reaching out a feathered claw and smacking Aimee to the ground. She fell and started backpedaling, thinking the harpy would pursue her. But it didn’t. Instead, it turned its eyes on Taly.
What is it doing?! Taly was mortal, and Aimee had just used magic. Harpies craved aether, not flesh. None of this was making any sense.
Three gunshots rang through the air as Taly pulled out a pistol—the old metal firearm he had made her last year—and fired. The harpy stumbled back and screeched manically. Three more shots. Skye knew she was aiming for the beast’s vulnerable points—head, heart, and knees. And while Taly was a good shot, harpies were notoriously hard to kill. Their skin was like iron, and the bullets most likely just embedded themselves beneath the beast’s scales. Nothing more than an irritation.
Taly lifted the gun to fire off the last two shots she’d likely get before the shadow crystal powering the gun’s firing mechanism depleted itself, but the harpy had already recovered. It slapped the pistol out of her hands. Scrambling away, Taly rolled and somehow managed to stand, but her leg immediately gave out beneath her.
Aimee hadn’t given up yet. She was back on her feet, feebly flinging whips of water magic at the enraged beast. But it still wasn’t enough aether to tempt the creature. Its rage-filled eyes never wavered as they followed Taly’s retreat. It took a step, shaking off a spray of mist as Aimee continued to pelt its retreating form with long ribbons of water. Taly’s scream carried on the wind as the harpy reached for her, raking a claw across her back as it dragged her across the ground.
Skye was starting to run low on shadow crystals—he’d stupidly left his pack back with the horses. His legs began to burn as he pushed himself to go faster, trying to drag out every last ounce of magic that he could muster as he clung to the augmentation spell. “Hey!” he screamed again. His palm had already healed, so he dragged the dagger over the mended flesh, deeper this time. The harpy finally looked at him, its unblinking eyes riveted on the blood dripping from his fist.
That’s right. Come and get me. You want me, not her.
But once again, the creature didn’t do what Skye expected. It just gave him a disinterested snort as it turned back to Taly, and the pained wail that tore from her lips when it dug its claws into her back cut him to the core. It started to beat its wings, lifting her into the air just as Skye finally got close enough to reach for her. He jumped, just managing to grasp at her fingertips.
“Skye!” Taly cried, struggling to hold on. But her hand, slick with blood, slipped away, and he began to fall.
Skye slammed a fist into the dirt as he landed, the ground trembling from the force of the blow. The entire field shook, and small fissures opened and branched out across the surface of the red dirt. “Taly!” he screamed, despair in his eyes.
But there was nothing he could do.
Sinking to his knees, he watched the harpy carry her across the field and out of sight.
Chapter 7
-An excerpt from the Bestiarium Compendium: A Practical Guide to Staying Alive When Vacationing on Tempris Island
Though small, Tempris is home to a wide and varied array of wildlife. Wyverns, basilisks, grendels—as a result of the many dimensional gates found on the island, populations of creatures that were once separated by both time and space have migrated and now live side-by-side.
Those traveling from Lycia to Tempris for the first time may be particularly surprised to see that this island is home to one of the few remaining undomesticated populations of harpy. It is highly recommended that tourists refrain from approaching these animals. While the Glynadwyr and Lycian harpies are inordinately docile creatures, making them popular household pets among the nobility, Tempris harpies exhibit high levels of aggression and are extremely venomous. A single scratch could prove fatal if not treated properly.
Taly felt weak.
There wasn’t a single part of her that didn’t ache. The back of her body was completely soaked with blood, both from the puncture wound that had reopened during their mad dash back to the forest and from a new gash that ran across her back.
The pain was excruciating as it pulsed and throbbed, keeping time with her erratic heart.
The harpy’s claws were still wrapped around her, and she winced when she felt one of the rigid talons pierce the flesh of her shoulder, burrowing deeper and deeper with each flap of its wings. The forest canopy loomed below her, looking more like a woven tapestry than a real forest. Leaves of all different colors—varying shades of brown, green, yellow, even red—all woven together in a chaotically beautiful display of imminent springtime renewal.
Shards. This couldn’t be real, could it?
But the bile rising in her throat, as well as the continuous swells of pain assaulting her senses, told her that this was indeed very real.
Questions bounced around Taly’s mind. Why had the harpy chosen her? Why hadn’t the creature gone for Aiden or Aimee? Or even Skye when he cut open his hand and waved it around like a big, red target?
Idiot.
She didn’t even try to convince herself that they would find her at this point. While they might have been able to pursue her on horseback around the Aion Gate, skirting around the uneven terrain, they had almost certainly lost the trail after the harpy veered off over the forest. The tree cover was too thick, and there were no roads on this part of the island. It would be impossible to track the creature’s path from the ground.
Well, if she was going to die, at least she had the satisfaction of knowing she was right. Bringing Aimee was a terrible idea. And that outfit was ridiculous. They might have made it to the safety of the forest if her skirt hadn’t caught on a stray piece of scrap, forcing them both to stumble and fall to the ground. The harpy had been pursuing Skye and Aiden until it heard Taly’s cry of pain and turned.
Taly groaned as the harpy readjusted its grip and jabbed a talon in her side. “Watch it!” she grumbled weakly.
The harpy’s head swiveled, and it eyed her in irritation before giving her a rough shake.
Taly cried out as she felt her wounds deepen. “I’m going to turn you into a feather duster, you heinous bitch!” she screamed. The screaming helped—helped her fight against the wave of blackness that threatened to drag her under. It would be so easy to give in—to let herself drift off and leave the pain behind.
But sleep meant death.
Another long stream of cursing tore from her lips followed by an enraged shout when the harpy gave her another jolt. Apparently, it didn’t like its meals to talk back.
The harpy was headed east, towards the seaside cliffs on the northeastern edge of the island. Taly had only been there once, shortly after she had taken up salvaging, and she’d vowed never to go back. The harpies nested on the far side of the cliffs, and there would be hundreds of them out right now as they waited for dusk to fall. If she ended up there, Taly knew that she would die slowly and painfully as her flesh was ripped from her bones. Her last moments would be spent screaming in agony as she prayed for the painless peace of oblivion.
Personally, she would rather take her chances with the ground.
Taly wriggled in the harpy’s grip, trying to jerk her arm forward. The beast’s claws dug into her back, and each movement only intensified the excruciating bite of those razor-sharp talons. Her skin ripped, her muscles tore, but she kept at it. She didn’t have any other choice at this point. She needed to make the creature drop her.
Finally, she just managed to grasp one of the hyaline pistols holstered around her waist. She didn’t even know if it would shoot, but she had lost her old handgun back at the Aion Gate. This one would have to do.
Taly tri
ed to turn her head, but she still couldn’t see well enough to aim. So she pointed the pistol up and over her shoulder, trying to guess where the center of the harpy’s body might be. Murmuring a short, earnest prayer to the Shards, she pulled the trigger.
It was loud. That was the only thing she could think as she felt the harpy falter and loosen its grip. A sharp, almost painful ringing pierced her deafened ears, momentarily drowning out the beast’s enraged yowl. She shot again, smiling when she felt a wave of heat wash across her skin. Moments later, a guttural scream tore from the harpy’s mouth as it burst into flames. She barely had time to register the sound of ripping fabric before she felt the unmistakable sensation of falling.
The incendiary rounds work! Taly thought excitedly as the wind whipped at her clothing and hair. She had grabbed them from her old workbench on a whim that morning—an experimental ammunition she had developed last year but never gotten a chance to test.
For one breathless moment, she was mesmerized by the sight of the harpy exploding midair, flaring bright as a newborn star. But when leaves and sprigs started tearing at her skin and clothing as she shot through the forest canopy, she quickly turned her attention back to staying alive.
She reached out an arm and desperately grabbed at the scattered branches, trying to slow her descent.
She landed flat on her back—the air rushing from her lungs. Wheezing and gasping, slightly dazed, she stared up at the broken branches above her, blinking furiously as she tried to refocus her blurred vision.
She was bruised and bleeding—but still alive.
As she regained her breath, Taly managed to push herself to a sitting position. She patted down her body, taking stock of her injuries. By some small miracle, she didn’t seem to have any broken bones, just a web of scratches and lacerations that coated every visible patch of bloodied skin. Some of the cuts looked superficial, but others, like the slashes ripping open her palms, had cut deep. Of all her injuries, her left leg was by far the worst, but her right arm—her dominant hand—wasn’t in much better shape. A long, angry gash bisected her forearm, starting at the back of her hand and ending just above her elbow. She must have caught it on a branch when she fell.
With a crazed shriek, the harpy landed about 15 yards away, rolling around on the ground frantically to put out the flames. While the effect of the experimental rounds had been painful, the fiery blaze was already starting to fade.
Shit! Hurry…
She had two options at this point. She had landed near the edge of the forest where the tree cover was still thin. She could try to retreat further into the woods, but she had no doubt that the harpy would easily catch her before she managed to make it to the safety of the thicker underbrush.
The cliffs were option number two. She wasn’t very far away—maybe 20 feet. The cliff face towered over her, blotting out the sun and casting a long shadow. She would have to cross a narrow, treeless space where she would be vulnerable, but she could just make out a small gap in the wall of stone. If it was deep enough, she might be able to wedge herself inside and wait out the harpy. After all, she had no aether, so it would likely lose interest in her eventually.
Taly blinked, trying to summon the premonitions—something that might give her a hint about which choice to make. All she saw was an erratic haze of indecision, her golden, spirit-like body flickering as it considered her options. Meanwhile, the harpy was wild, driven mad in its thirst for aether and screeching as it whipped its head to and fro. Gold dust encircled its body in a roiling cloud. It wasn’t making conscious choices at this point. It was just acting.
She had better do the same if she wanted to live. The beast was already starting to regain its footing. It was decision time.
Pushing herself to her feet, Taly bit back a cry as she began hobbling toward the cliffs, praying she would make it before the harpy completely recovered. Every step she took was agony, but she kept going. She felt her flesh tear as the wound in her leg deepened, and a trickle of fresh blood streamed down her thigh, staining the ground behind her.
The harpy let out a shriek as it shook its body. It had caught sight of her as soon as she moved, its head swiveling in a way that should’ve been impossible as its mad eyes homed in on her.
Although Taly had dropped her original handgun during her descent, she still had her backup. The twin hyaline pistol only had standard slugs, but at least it would slow the beast down. She winced as the grip of the pistol dug into the cuts on her palm, biting her lip as she tried to curl her finger around the trigger. Turning her head, she clumsily aimed over her shoulder and shot blindly, ignoring the sharp jolt of pain that raced up her arm as the gun shuddered in her hands. She heard a howl as the first bullet made contact.
She shot again.
Missed.
Again, and she heard another injured cry.
Taly was at the cliff face now, and she groped for the narrow opening. She tried to re-holster the pistol, but her hands were slick with blood, and it clattered to the ground. Deciding to leave the gun, she pulled her body between the narrowing walls. It was uncomfortably tight, but she kept going, trying to put as much space between her and the entrance as possible.
Before she knew it, she was out of time. The harpy slammed its body against the cliff, setting off a concussive wave of sound that seemed to vibrate the very stone. It jabbed its face through the gap and sniffed, saliva dripping from its decaying grin. It could sense her vulnerability. It stretched, its claw raking against the stone walls and stopping just a hair’s breadth short of her bloodied shoulder.
The harpy, newly enraged, threw itself at the crevice. A rain of stone and sand shook loose, coating Taly’s body and mixing with the blood on her skin. A flurry of bronzed scales ripped from the beast’s body and fluttered to the ground as it desperately tried to wedge its gangly form inside the gap. Even in its emaciated state, it couldn’t fit.
Undeterred, it reached for her, writhing and moaning in a hideous dance. Every so often, it would manage to graze her arm or her cheek, and it would pull back to frantically suck at its claw.
It wasn’t losing interest. No… if anything, each drop of blood it managed to collect just made it renew its efforts to reach her.
I must smell like magic after staying at the manor. That was the only explanation. With two shadow mages in residence as well as its own aether core, Harbor Manor had more aether than anywhere else on the island.
The rock face tore at her skin as Taly pushed herself farther back, and she twisted and squirmed, groping for the daggers still strapped to her thighs. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t reach. Her arms and legs were pinned in place, and the harpy was still tearing at the walls.
She was going to die here. The realization made her feel cold. Up until that moment, she hadn’t truly believed it. She thought maybe—just maybe—she might find a way out. She always had before.
Not this time it seemed.
“Please stop!” Taly screamed hopelessly, pounding her fists against the stone. “Stop! Just stop!”
As she shrank away from another sharp rake of the harpy’s claws, her skin began to tingle. It was faint at first, easy to ignore, but the prickling sensation soon began to intensify, morphing into a dull burn that started at her fingertips and radiated all the way up to her shoulder. The searing pain continued to surge, overpowering the collective agony of all her other wounds and adding to her desperation.
“Please!” she wailed. “I don’t want to die here! Just stop! Please stop! Stop! Stop!”
The scar on her palm started to glow an angry violet, illuminating the small space as strange markings flickered to life across the skin of her arm. The pain pulsed, setting her blood on fire as she tipped her head back and let out an agonized scream.
And then, as if in reply to her desperate pleas, everything went quiet. Her ears rang in the unexpected silence, and she wondered briefly if she was dead. But the pain still wracking her body with every tortured breath quickly
told her that she was still very much alive.
For now, at least.
When Taly finally opened her eyes, she saw that the beast stood frozen before her. Its gnarled arm was still extended, its claw fixed in place as it raked across her shoulder. But all movement had ceased. Delicate golden threads spanned the narrow divide, tangling together as they encircled the harpy’s body in a gilded, flickering web.
“What the hell?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but the sound was deafening in the strange silence.
She had no idea how or why this was happening, but she wasn’t going to waste this chance. She looked for a way around the beast. Maybe with enough time, she could climb over and out? If she could get her legs to work, that is. She tried to push herself up, but the stone raked against her wounds, momentarily paralyzing her as a fresh wave of agony shuddered through her.
She didn’t have time to try again. A feeble whimper fell from her lips as the harpy started to move, exaggerated and slow at first but quickly gaining speed as it shook off whatever magic spell had stopped it in the first place.
Taly’s body started to shake as she finally gave in to the hiccupping sobs. The tears rolled freely down her cheeks, streaking the patina of blood smeared across her face. If she were lucky, maybe the harpy would puncture some vital organ, killing her before it managed to drag her back to its nest. Or perhaps she would bleed out, stuck inside this stone prison.
Closing her eyes, Taly pressed her face against the rock face, trying to force her mind to think of something happy. She didn’t want her last thoughts to be filled with pain and fear. There had to be something that would take her away from this hell. Like… like the first time she bested Skye in the sparring ring. That was a good day. She was pretty sure he had let her win, but even now, she still didn’t care.
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