Page 2 of Hopeless Realm
“Kara, get up.” Ryder pulls at my hand and I keep my eyes fixed on the creature that’s ten yards away. Slowly, I stand with tension strung through my legs.
“Ryder, hold on to me,” I say in a cautiously low tone.
“What?”
Uneven breaths heave from him. Exhaustion and confusion fills his features.
But I don’t answer him.
I sink my nails into his back as I hug his large body to mine. With as much strength as possible, I push off from the ground, arching my back as my wings take flight.
My sword dangles from his hip, shoved into his belt and it bumps reassuringly against my thigh. It fuels my strength just knowing it’s near.
Ryder’s heavier than I expect. His weight’s hard to hang on to, my fingers gripping his shirt while his strong arms hold tightly around my neck. It makes it hard to catch the air.
Right now, I’m cursing every small ounce of food I’ve ever seen this man eat.
I’m just off the ground when pain stabs through my calf with so much intensity I cry out. My scream mingles with the shrieking death calls of the nix. Furiously, my black wings beat against the cold winds, attempting to pull us higher as the nix’s talons embed deeper in the flesh of my right leg, shredding through the leather of my black boots.
The skin tears and the weight of the creature drags the flesh painfully down. Another screeching cry leaves its thin lips as it gnashes at the sole of my shoe.
My heart thunders to life but I shove the fear down low inside myself.
I refuse to believe I escaped the mortal realm just to die by the hands of a sinister creature on the very first day.
White eyes narrow on my tense face and I give it one more long hard look before raising my other boot and slamming it down in the center of its slick, boney face.
Another scream accompanies its tumbling fall to the ground and I shove through the air hard with so much power my shoulders begin to shake.
It’s exhausting. Every single sweep of my beautiful wings is slowly draining my energy. Tree limbs break beneath the power of my flight. One stabs deep into my feathers and I try to ignore the throbbing pain of it. On uneven and reckless wings, I carry us above the trees. Ryder’s arms are wrapped around my slight shoulders and I feel his attention on me.
Neither of us speak or make note of how terrible I am at flying. It’s like the wind itself has holes in it, making me lose my balance and dipping us to the earth every few seconds before I right myself once more.
I chance a glance at the ground below and gasp from the sight I see. Thousands of shining, white eyes look up at us, following our bobbing trail through the sky.
“Where am I going. How far is it?”
I don’t say it, but I can’t keep this up for much longer, a few minutes at the most.
“It’s a mile ahead.”
A mile. Never in my life has a mile seemed like the longest distance I’ve ever heard. I sweep my wings through the air harder, and my eyes close as sweat beads down my temple. Ryder’s grip on me hasn’t loosened at all, he won’t let me go. That thought makes my worry slip away, at least I can count on him right now.
Chanting screams are heard from below, beckoning me to return to the demon-like creatures awaiting my failure.
Our flight becomes jarring and stumbling.
“Just soar, Kara,” he whispers against my neck. “You don’t have to do everything to the max. Just relax and let the wind catch your wings for a bit.”
A shaking intake of air hits my lungs and I nod to him, expanding my large wingspan to its fullest. Strong winds carry us a bit higher into the sky, caressing my feathers as I keep my eyes tightly closed.
It is oddly relaxing.
“You’re doing great. I can see the gates, we’re almost there.”
My eyes open slowly and a single shining light is seen in the distance. Long iron spikes surround it, interlocking like a gate formed from the center of the earth, striking through the dirt just to encompass the towering building within it.
“That’s an excessive gate.”
