Page 96 of Faerie Fate
The crash of underbrush behind us gave the fae soldiers away. We were outnumbered. There were too many of them for us to fight even with the pixies using the trees themselves. The limbs of a nearby oak knocked a soldier off his feet but the roots missed the next wave. Several warriors hopped over the roots like hurdles on a track field.
Then the world tilted.
My sneakers met open air. My arms windmilled to slow my momentum but I’d barreled out of the forest right to the edge of a damn cliff. The wet scent of churning water and moss belched up from the rapids below. Way below.
When the world righted, I slammed back onto my tailbone, my heart pounding like a jackhammer. Excruciating pain arched up my spine one vertebrae at a time.
Poppy nearly followed me over the edge. It was pointless to yell out.
Luckily she recovered much faster than I did. She paused at the edge of the cliff and stared at me, lines drawn around her eyes and mouth. “Dammit. Is there any way down?”
My mouth went dry and I slicked my tongue over my teeth. “I have no clue.”
Bright panic forced me to my feet. Poppy’s hair was illuminated by the dull glow of the moon. She was a bright spot in the gloom. She looked back the way we’d come, her eyes wide.
Another tumultuous roll of magic rippled the earth and the fae behind us fell. Trees circled the downeds soldiers and took them away, bodies pinned to the gnarled trunks.
Elfhame came at me from the right with her sword at her side, barely out of breath. “We have to go down,” she directed. “You see the boats there?”
I didn’t, actually. I clenched my jaw and peered over the side of the cliff. It took me a second to pick out the dock below and the two longboats tied against the ever-changing tempest of the river.
Okay, but how did we get down there? It seemed impossible.
The pixies had wings. Poppy gave a yelp as several pixies grabbed her by the arms and helped her over the side, into the battering wind, their wings beating sharply.
“Don’t worry, Tavi. We’ll take your wolf too.”
Elfhame motioned the others forward, and once Poppy was safely on the dock below, more pixies came for Noren. They plucked Noren off the ground together, struggling against his massive weight.Bronwen.
Bronwen shifted into a giant bird and swooped to grab Noren and help.
“Do you need—” Elfhame began.
“I’ve got it.”
Magic burned through me. I closed my eyes, taking a moment to gather my reserves. The largest form I came up withwas the form of a giant golden eagle. My arms stretched and bones cracked, shifting and curving. Feathers burst from my skin and my eyesight sharpened, my spine curving.
When I had a moment to sigh, I would sigh in relief. But I’d wait until we made it out of this clusterfuck.
“Tavi?”
Mike pulled up short and I craned my head at him, bird eyes taking him in. With a sharp cry, I pushed my wings, gaining air, and grabbed his outstretched arm.
We went over the edge of the cliff right as the last line of fae soldiers burst out of the trees.
Wind battered us toward the side of the sheer cliff. Hitting those rocks meant instant death and I pushed my wings harder against the current of air. It swatted me back for every foot I gained, rolling off the river below. My night vision expanded the details until every crag and sharp point became clear.
Each flap of my wings was a struggle. Mike weighed more than I’d bargained for. Or maybe eagles weren’t capable of actually holding a person’s weight despite their size. I struggled to keep him aloft, rapidly plummeting then soaring out to keep us from going straight into the river. Bronwen struggled with Noren too, despite the assistance of the pixies, and down below, Poppy bellowed out a warning for us tohurry our asses up.
Another strong gust of wind shoved us hard against the rocks jutting out of the cliff. I ducked my head against the blow and went into an accidental barrel roll, upside down and powerless.
Mike yelled, slipping through my claws. He dropped and the world slowed. Panicky, I plunged to grab him, to stop him from breaking his neck against the ground or the water’s surface. My shifted eyes picked out the terror in his eyes, the paleness of his skin. I swooped underneath him and he landed against my stomach, bouncing. I struggled to grab him as the scent of fresh blood filled the air around us.
I’d punctured him. He’d heal; at least he wasn’t dead.
His weight sent us down, falling too fast, and I hit the water first, protecting Mike with my wings. The fall sent us down into the blackness, under the waves. The impact stunned the sense right out of my head. I blinked against the gloom and the rush of water from Mike’s powerful kicks.
Water seeped into my feathers, the weight dragging me like an anchor. I couldn’t shift. Not immediately. Not with everything else going on and my panic a block to my magic.
