Page 72 of Blood So Brutal

“Shouldn’t I be learning to fight? To protect myself and my people?”

Jessiah flapped his own wings. “If you’re in the middle of battle, sometimes it will be up to you to gauge the advantage point, to see things your weaker soldiers with no wings cannot see. Very few vampyres and fae possess magic strong enough for wings, Huntyr. You have a gift. You must learn to use it.”

My chest tightened. I hated that he was right. I also hated that I didn’twantthese wings. I didn'twantto bear this burden.

But that wasn’t going to fix the problem. These wings were mine, no matter how hard I wished them away, no matter how often I cried to the goddess about it.

“Fine,” I said. “So what’s next?”

“Well,” Jessiah smiled softly, “you can summon your wings now. That’s the hardest part. Now, we just do this.”

I should have seen it coming, but Jessiah catapulted himself forward and gripped me around the waist, flinging us both into the air.

This time, however, I had wings.

“Try!” he yelled through the air. His grip on me loosened but didn’t disappear entirely as I flapped the heavy leather now attached to my body.

It was much harder than it looked. My body felt too heavy, wings flapping at an uneven beat.

I didn’t make it a few seconds before we started to descend toward the city.

“Jessiah!” I yelled—shrieked, rather.

“I’ve got you.” His arms tightened around me, nearly cutting off my breath as they dug into my stomach. His own wings flapped up, sending us back toward the sky. “Do it with me. Act like you’re flying alone.”

“It doesn’t feel right!”

“It never will until you get used to it. Think of it like a child learning to walk.”

I choked down the wave of frustration and did what he asked, pumping my wings repeatedly to match his.

Soon, our wings were moving in unison. We soared through the sky, but I didn’t have time to worry about our height or how quickly I would die if I crashed toward the ground.

Hells, could I die by falling? Vampyres were much harder to kill than fae. Their bodies could handle more, could survive more than?—

“Focus, Huntyr! I’m going to let go now.”

“No!”

“I’ll be right here,” he said. His hands started to loosen, and panic crept into my chest. “Don’t change a thing. I won’t let you fall.”

It was now or never.

Jessiah’s hands slowly left my body.

And then, I was fucking flying.

I half-expected to plummet toward the ruins below us, but when my wings actually held my body in the air, I burst out laughing.

This.This was everything I could have dreamed of. This wasfreedom.

Jessiah cheered behind me, but I barely heard him over the sound of my own laughter. Joy bubbled in my chest—a feeling that had become foreign to me.

Did I want my wings? Did I want this burden? Did I want to be the most powerful vampyre, heir to the blood throne? Definitely not.

But this was making it worth it. This was finally giving me something to work with.

“You’re doing it!” Jessiah yelled from above me. I flapped my wings again and again, soaring higher into the sky. I could see the walls of The Golden City below us, heavily guarded with weapons I had never even seen before. I made sure to turn before we got too close. The last thing I needed was to be shot out of the sky on my first day of flying.

---