Page 85 of The Garnet Daughter
“Thank you, Calliape. I swear it was not to mark you,” she defends.
August’s eyes flare when she addresses me, his arm only stopping from rising again when I step between them both.
“Let’s just sit and rest.” I walk to the other side of the fire, far enough away from Sav that we can watch her and still have our backs pressed against a cliff for safety. “Come on, August. You can point that at her from over here.”
Sav sits up, her legs crossed as she wraps her hand with the scrap of fabric we found, not helping her claims of innocence at all. “It is not kind to accuse. I have walked you across the birthlands, to be treated like this.” Her tone changes from pleading to almost annoyance.
August steps backward with caution until he is next to me. We observe her carefully, not engaging as she curses her hand wraps and starts again.
Her behavior becomes more alarming.
“I could have left you there!” Her eyes are wild with rage as she barks across the fire.
I press my side against August’s, disturbed by the sudden mood change as soon as August did not have a gun pointed in her face. His movements are slow, almost undetectable, but he is getting ready, placing his shoulder overlapping mine. He can sense the situation rising, of her doing something he will be required to act on.
“There is a them and they would have ripped you apart,” she mutters, her teeth gritted with hatred, her words trailing off as something floating down to the sand next to her captures herattention. She leans forward, pouncing on it like a cat. She holds it to the firelight, a fluffy feather dancing between her fingertips, changing her demeanor again to one of awe.
Small pebbles fall on her hair from high above the cliff’s sharp peak. She brushes it off and leans her neck back to see the cause of the suddenly falling debris.
I follow an ember of dancing ash from the fire, up the wall of rock to the top. The small flames don’t illuminate that far, the surface above just out of reach of their glow.
My vision adjusts the moment August’s does, the source of the falling pebbles perched at the ledge of the cliff above. Huge talons are cast in shadow but close enough to view the shine of sharp claws.
Sav gasps. The muffled sound of wings unfurling and diving downward on top of her cuts off her scream.
The creature launches itself on her form, wrapping her in a bundle of feathers before she can take in another breath.
It rolls itself and Sav out of the firelight, in a blur of sand and squelching blood.
August’s body is draped over mine. His weapon’s drawn and pointing out into the darkness.
He shoots blindly. Blue, streaking light illuminates the space beyond our campfire.
He adjusts his aim and fires again. And then again until his weapon has nothing left.
We listen as the monster tears into Sav’s body. She makes no sound, either long gone or unable.
My breathing is shallow and unproductive as August’s back presses into me, pinning me to the rock. He struggles to reach for his larger weapon.
And then it is silent. So silent my ears pop.
“August?” I whimper.
“Don’t move.” He shakes his head, slowly leaning down, spreading his arm across my chest, not willing to leave me completely exposed.
And then the attacker walks back into the orange light of the fire.
The monster strides on large, taloned feet, its four arms stained in blood, making its slate-blue skin purple.
Omnesis.
Its floating starlight eyes blink and watch us. Watch me.
The feathers of its massive wings shimmy as they unfold, and with a powerful beat, they lift off, shooting the old god into the sky and extinguishing the fire with a cloud of dust and sand.
Chapter
Twenty-Six
