by Ivy Asher
“It didn’t work,” I tell him, more whimper than words.
Ryn pulls away, his gray eyes confused and bleeding concern. “Wekun!” he bellows. “I need Vian!”
I flinch away from the booming command of his voice, not sure how he even expects Wekun to hear him. He pulls me in tighter against his chest, and I can hear him saying something, but it takes me a minute to understand what it is.
“Please, please, please, please, please,” he whispers against my head, the plea spilling from his lips over and over again.
I try to lift a hand to his head to try and comfort him, but my arms suddenly don’t work. Shit, I think I’m in bad shape.
A warm hand touches my forehead, and another pushes against my stomach. I wince but can’t open my eyes to see what’s going on.
Wait, when did I even close them?
A flash of heat rockets through me, and suddenly the throbbing pain that’s been coursing through my whole body starts to fade. My panted breaths start to smooth out and deepen, and the anguish I was fighting through disappears, lost to the heat the hands are bathing me in.
I open my eyes and find the darker blond healer from the camp standing over me.
Fuck, that’s a handy gift.
He chuckles, and I realize I must have said that out loud.
“Pigeon,” I tell him, panic suddenly blazing inside of me as I try to sit up more in Ryn’s arms.
Vian, the darker blond healer, furrows his brow in confusion.
“My gryphon, she’s hurt,” I explain, and he nods like he already knows.
“I did what I could to help her stabilize, but you’ll need me and Wrye both to fix everything when this is over.”
Relief slams through me at the realization that I won’t lose Pidge. I figure Wrye must be his lighter blond brother, and I’m half tempted to demand that they fix her now, but we’re clearly in the middle of a fucking war zone, so it will have to wait.
“Thank you,” I offer Vian as the last of my throbs and aches fade.
He just looks at me funny as he pulls his hands away, and I have to stop from rolling my eyes.
I need to teach these gryphons manners. I add it to the list of shit to tackle when we’re not on the brink of extinction, and try to push out of Ryn’s arms to get on my feet.
He doesn’t let me go.
Instead, he wraps me up in a bone-crushing hug and buries his face against my neck.
“Careful or we’ll have to call Vian back,” I tease, but my arms are just as tightly wrapped around his neck, and I’m breathing him in deeply as his scent and presence ground me. The citrus part of his lilac-on-a-warm-breeze smell is gone, and I inhale him deeply, loving this smell and how it makes me feel safe in ways I didn’t realize until now.
I kiss Ryn quickly on the lips and then put my game face on. I look up and see gryphons flying and fighting all over. It’s hard to tell which side we are and whether or not we’re winning, but I scan the air for the sky shadow and Lazza, the dick who has a date with destiny.
“When this is over, I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” Ryn declares, and then he also slams his Altern mask in place and starts assessing the situation.
Both of our gazes land on the fight we’re looking for at almost the exact same time. I see Zeph and Treno both working together to attack Lazza high up in the air, all of them flying toward the peaks in the distance. Lazza seems like he’s trying to get away, but between Treno and Zeph, he can’t escape.
Just then, I spot a handful of gryphons who seem to be doing warp speed in the direction of the three battling leaders.
“He’s going to make a run for it,” Ryn declares, and he takes off in the direction they’re flying.
“Ryn, I can’t shift,” I yell at his back as I rush to catch up behind him.
Ryn curses something I don’t catch and turns back to me, like he’s not sure what to do. A spark of something lights up his features for a split second, and then he’s closing the distance between us and picking me up and flinging me onto his back.
“Then hold on, Huntress,” he shouts over his shoulder, and then all of a sudden, feathers, fur, and wings explode all around me. I’m no longer holding Ryn’s neck, but choke-holding his gryphon as he leaps into the air and flaps furiously to join the fight.
Well, holy fucking shit, don’t mind me while I ride my gryphon mate into battle. I just hope I don’t fall off!
22
I was obsessed with horses as a preteen, and then I rode one and learned that shit is not as easy as it looked. All the graceful equestrian riders who just appeared to be comfortably mounted on their trusty, sure-footed steed are lying liar faces. Because when I got on the back of one of those things, I bounced around so much I thought I broke my ass, and then I got bounced right off when the big beast hit the brakes but my body did not.
Riding a gryphon is a lot like riding a horse, only there’s no saddle or reins to hold onto. And it’s not bumpy so much as jarring in a one wrong move and you’ll fall to your death kind of way. Oh, and you’re doing all of that while sitting behind what feels like a running jet engine.
Tears streak horizontally out of my eyes from the wind whipping past me as I tighten my death grip on Ryn’s gryphon’s feathers in my efforts to hold on for dear life. The hurricane it feels like we’re flying through shoves up my nose, and it feels like I just accidentally inhaled water, but nope it’s just fast-moving air.
I’ve always loved speed, and I love flying, but I realize that my body just isn’t as cut out for this convertible airplane ride like Pigeon’s body is. Worry pools in my stomach, and I check on the other part of me. She’s still wrapped up and safe, but I need to rip Lazza apart soon and get her the help she needs…and a nap. I feel like we’ve both earned like a month-long nap at this point.
Roars and screeches reach my ears past the sound of the wind. We must be getting close. I can’t exactly see to tell, because I just so happened to not have my gryphon riding goggles on me for this little adventure. Ryn and I streak right past what sounds like one semi-truck slamming into another, and I turn to clock what the hell that was and see we just flew right past Zeph and Treno and the handful of gryphons they’re fighting.
I turn back around and blink back the fresh set of wind tears that steadily flow out of my eyes and see Lazza not too far out in front of us. I home in on him like a sniper, tracking his every movement, and a weird sense of calm comes over me as we close the distance between us. I think he’s hurt, because he’s not moving very fast, and I suddenly feel like a lioness assessing injured prey.
I call on my magic and wrap myself around Ryn’s neck, because we’re coming in hot as fuck and I know shit’s about to get a hell of a lot bumpier. Ryn doesn’t release a warning growl or make any kind of vengeance-filled gryphon declaration, he moves like a Stealth Fighter I saw once at an air show when I was younger.
He slams into Lazza so hard I hear bones crack. It’s like Lazza had no idea he was even there, and the next thing he knows, he’s being bulldozed. Despite my koala grip on Ryn’s neck, I go flying forward and off of him. It’s like horseback riding all over again, only this time I won’t land in a puddle of mud, I’ll fall to the earth and discover what a pancake feels like.
I know Pigeon can survive that kind of experience, but I’m not sure I can.
I’m flung so hard off of Ryn that I can’t even coax a scream out of my panic tight throat. I’m just weightless, flying past the snarling that starts, and I know I need to think fast. I call on my whip swords and flick them out, hoping they find purchase somewhere and I don’t start my plummet back to the ground.
I’m jerked to a stop, and I look up to see the blades of one of my whip swords wrapped around Lazza’s gryphon’s thigh. It cinches tighter as my weight pulls the blades deeper, and blood starts to pour out of the wound, down my weapon, and out into the sky.
Lazza and Ryn go at it, clawing and snapping and trying to shred one another. I’m hangin
g onto the handle of the whip sword for all that I’m worth as I’m yanked around and flung about as they battle. Ryn and Lazza break apart and then slam back together. It forces them into a dive, and I quickly go from hanging on for dear life to being pulled down through the sky like a doomed kite. I hold on with every ounce of strength I have in me, and then a crazy idea pops into my head.
I check on Pigeon out of habit because normally I have her to thank for the crazy, but she’s still out, so this one is all me. I let go of the whip sword I’m clinging onto, and it disappears. I free fall toward Lazza and Ryn and where they’re snapping and clawing at each other as they fall. I can’t dive as fast as they can, but I know at some point they’ll have to pull up, and that’s where my crazy idea comes in.
I watch as Ryn tries to break away from Lazza to get to me. “No!” I shout at him, not sure if he can hear me in his head if I’m not in gryphon form too. “I’m fine, just do as much damage as you can and catch me if this doesn’t work,” I shout out mentally, hoping somehow he can hear it. I extend my arms and legs like the skydivers I’ve seen in movies do, and it does help to stabilize my fall a bit.
The fast approaching night turns everything around me into shades of blue and purple, and I fall through wispy barely-there clouds and know the ground is getting closer. But thankfully, it’s shrouded in growing shadows and darkness, and it’s hard for me to gauge how far impending pain is.
Lazza kicks off Ryn and spreads his wings. My heart leaps as his rapid descent stops, and he’s lifted back up on the current, his back headed right for me.
I call on my whip swords again and aim both of them for the ends of his wings as I get closer to him. Both weapons hit their mark, and I would roar in celebration, but the wind has stolen my voice, and I know that the hard part is just about to start. I’m about to wrestle a gryphon midair which, depending on how it goes, will either be the smartest or most idiotic move I’ve ever made.
I slam into Lazza’s back as gently as one does when they’re hit by a car. It knocks the wind out of me, but thankfully I still have the wherewithal to yank on the whip swords that are wrapped about midway on both of Lazza’s wings. I shove magic into my arms in hopes it will help fortify my strength, and fuck does it ever, because both of Lazza’s wings snap back, and we start to flat spin down.
I gasp, trying to pull oxygen back into my chest, as Lazza roars and tries to snap at me over his shoulder. I’m too far back, thank fuck, and when he realizes he can’t get to me, he twists his body so the flat spin becomes a barrel roll. He strains against my hold on his wings, trying to put them in a better position to help him navigate through the air. But the blades of the whip swords dig deeper into the muscles of his feathered appendages, and part of me hopes he struggles enough that it cuts his fucking wings off midway. He could use a taste of what his parents did to Zeph’s brother.
I shove more power into my limbs to keep his wings from moving an inch and do my best to hold on as the velocity of our spin tries to fuck with my plan to ride this Syta bitch down to the ground. Each revolution threatens to rip me off of Lazza’s back, and I know I can’t let that happen. I can’t let him get away again.
Since crazy as fuck ideas seem to be a new forte of mine, I snatch on to another one. On the next spin, when we reach the point where gravity is working in my favor again, I let go of the whip swords and dive for Lazza’s gryphon’s neck. I call on my swoosh blades, and instead of trying to hold onto him with my hands, I dig the blades into the sides of his throat, hoping the speed of the roll he’s executing helps to decapitate him.
Warm blood leaks out of the wounds I’m pressing into his neck. It makes it hard to keep a hold of the weapons, but I grit my teeth and divert all energy into doing just that. Talons rake down my shoulder and arm as Lazza tries to rip me off him. I’m unfortunately within striking distance of his front legs again, but as he attempts to pull me around and off of him, he also helps to move the black blades in his throat. A gurgled scream rips out of his beak, and I send a mental, “That’s right, motherfucker, you’re going down if I am,” at him.
A roar sounds off behind me, but I don’t pull my focus from Lazza and my efforts to inch by inch remove his head from his body as we fall like a meteor to the ground. I dig in even harder as I start to make out the details of the ground.
Just a little longer and—I’m yanked off of Lazza’s back before I can even finish that thought. Strong, warm arms wrap around my waist and pluck me off like I’m a tick. I lose my hold on my weapons and cry out as I’m torn away.
I call on another swoosh blade, twisting in the arms of whoever has me so I can shove it in their neck. The sight of tan skin, onyx scruff, and wavy black hair that’s being windswept away from an entirely too handsome face makes me pause.
“What are you doing, little sparrow?” Zeph asks me evenly, like it wasn’t obvious.
“Saving the day,” I croak back in answer, pissed that he just rained on the hero shit I was trying to pull off.
Gryphons are battling in the distance, and I can hear faint growls and cries carried over to us in the wind.
“By killing yourself?” he demands tersely.
“No, by killing him,” I snap back, turning and looking for Lazza in the sky around us. I expect him to be trying to get away again, but I’m surprised to see he’s still falling to the ground.
I don’t get my hopes up that he won’t somehow be able to stop his trajectory; I’ve seen and also survived too much to think we’ll win this easily.
“Why aren’t you a gryphon?” I ask, settling into Zeph’s arms as his powerful black wings angle us down for a smooth gentle descent to the ground.
“Because you needed rescuing.”
I scoff.
“Totally didn’t. I had that handled.”
“If by handled, you mean a feather’s breadth away from being ripped off his back and shredded, then yes, little sparrow, I agree.”
I roll my eyes, and he nips at my neck as I watch Lazza continue to hurtle toward the ground. I’m certain that at any moment, he’s going to spread his wings and swoop back into the air, rallying impossibly like every fucking annoying villain in every movie ever. But I watch as he plunges wildly, and then with a deep boom and a plume of dirt and debris, Lazza smashes into the unforgiving ground.
I’m shocked and completely speechless. I thought for sure that wasn’t going to happen. A cheer rises up through my chest, but I bite it back down. I survived two falls just like that, and if I can, he sure as fuck will. Zeph aims for the crash site, and I catch Ryn’s and Treno’s gryphons already landing nearby. Red-purple dirt floats heavily in the air as Zeph and I land, and I push out of his hold and immediately call on my whip swords. I keep them in their sword form, and I see out of the corner of my eye that Zeph does the same thing.
Treno shifts out of his gryphon form, but Ryn stays furry and feathered as back up. Treno moves toward us, his mismatched eyes trained on his brother’s body. Worry starts to simmer in my chest. Treno knew that Lazza making it out of this alive was impossible, but knowing something and seeing it through can be very different things.
His gaze hardens, and I can’t even begin to imagine the rush of emotions that must be going through him right now. He closes the distance between us in a few strides, and just when I think he’s going to streak past me to either check on or maybe finish off his brother, he stops and wraps me up in a hug.
The gesture takes me by surprise, but I don’t hesitate to squeeze him back, hard.
“I’m so grateful you’re okay,” he tells me as he presses a kiss to the top of my head. I can feel the relief that washes through him from the contact.
I can only imagine what happened after I disappeared from Ryn’s lap. I’ll ask them about it later, but first we need to finish this. Treno puts me down and calls on his swoosh blades. He keeps his eyes trained on the sky, like he’s waiting for the stars themselves to shoot down in defense of his brother.
Looks
like I’m not the only one who feels like this is suddenly too easy.
We cautiously approach the small crater that Lazza’s crash to the ground created, and I see that Lazza isn’t in his gryphon form anymore, but he’s still just lying there. I wonder for a brief moment if this is how Zeph found me after our first meeting, and this moment feels oddly full circle.
Lazza is bruised and battered all over, but not an ounce of sympathy strikes through me as I take that in. I saw what he’s done to Saner and her mate, and who the fuck knows how many other gryphons have suffered in the past from his wrath.
“Can you break the Vow with him being unconscious?” Treno asks me, and I freeze, remembering my failed attempt earlier.
“I don’t know if I can at all,” I confess, loathing the way it makes me feel as though I’m letting them down. “I tried earlier, I did what I thought I was supposed to do, but it didn’t break. I must be missing something, but I just haven’t had a moment to try and figure out what,” I tell them.
“We don’t have to keep him alive to break the Vow. I say cut his head off and then work on the rune later,” Zeph declares, and bewilderment sifts through me.
“We don’t need him to break it?” I question.
“No, he controls the Vow right now because of his bloodline, but Treno is just as capable. We can have Wekun remove the block on Treno’s Vow, and you can try to destroy it that way.”
“Wait. If we could do that, why the hell didn’t we do it before?” I demand, confused. I thought Lazza was the key in all of this, not just his bloodline in general?
“Because we don’t actually know for sure if that’s correct,” Treno interjects. “We think maybe it could work, but it’s not guaranteed. We all decided that going to the source and breaking it that way was the surest option. But if you can’t break it yet, I’m with Zeph; Lazza’s too dangerous to keep around.”
Ryn growls deeply, and I take that as his vote of agreement too.
I take a deep breath. “Let me try again, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll go with the gryphon way of kill first, figure the rest out later.”