I crawled forward, reached over the ledge for Auriel. “Get in!”
He stumbled back as a soturion grabbed hold of his neck. His meaty hands wrapped around him, squeezing violently, as another trapped Auriel’s right arm, forcing it back at a disturbing angle.
He grunted in pain.
“Get off him!” I screamed, and smashed the hilt of my sword into the nearest skull I could find. Auriel’s face reddened, hisairway cut off, as he struggled to free one hand, attempting to twist the fingers of his first captor. But the bastard was holding on for dear life, choking him even harder. I dug my hands in to help, desperately trying to free him, even as I felt the injury from my arm spreading.
Fuck. I had to do this. I pulled harder, until I finally managed to snap one finger. But it wasn’t enough. I reached for my blade again, preparing to strike, but Auriel’s eyes met mine. For a second, they were full of desperation, and then his lips curled into a vicious snarl. His eyes moved to my hands then lifted up, signaling for me to let go. I frowned but did as he asked just as he threw his head back, knocking out the soturion behind him.
Coughing, Auriel reached for me, his fingers tight around my wrists as he leapt up into the carriage. I pulled him onto the floor, and together we slammed the door shut. I’d barely bolted the lock, forcing it into place, before the metal started to shake. The bastards were pulling on the knob, trying to rip the door off its hinge. Auriel thrust his body forward, both hands on the door as the bolt rattled. Glass shattered, exploding across the floor as a blade pushed into the window behind us.
Auriel wrapped his arm around my waist, practically lifting me against him to pull me away from the glass. More shadows filled the windows.
“GO!” I screamed at the seraphim. “Fly!”
“Volara!” Auriel yelled. He reared his elbow back and then launched his fist through the window.
The carriage floor vibrated, rocking side to side as the seraphim rose to her feet.
“Come on, come on!Vra! Volara!” I yelled. But we were still on the damned ground.
“They’re on the wings!” Auriel spun wildly on his heels, and grabbed the sword I’d strapped to my back, the metal singing as he withdrew it and returned to the window. His eyes narrowed,moving back and forth across the glassless pane. He wrenched his arm back, adjusting his hold of the sword just so, then hurled it through the window.
Screams exploded outside, the sound ending in a heavy thud. Auriel crouched on the ground, picking up the largest shards of broken glass, and with a speed that was almost hard to comprehend, he approached a second broken window, flinging shard after shard at the soturi.
The floor tilted, the entire carriage was shifting as the seraphim stood, preparing to take flight. She was agitated, but I didn’t blame her. Another sharp tilt of the floor flung me against the wall. My head slammed into a cabinet. Heart racing, I looked out of the window just in time to see the seraphim rising. We flew, ascending higher and higher, the shore falling away from us. In the middle of it all was the Guardian’s headless body, growing smaller and smaller as we rose.
“We need to tell it where to go,” Auriel said, rushing to the window. “Fuck!”
“What?” I yelled.
“They’re following. We have three carriages on our tail.”
Where could we go that was safe? Safe enough to hide?
Auriel turned to me, our eyes locking. And we both seemed to know the answer at once. Nowhere. I was wanted across the entire Empire. And he wasn’t supposed to exist.
“We just need to get ahead of them,” Auriel said. “Then it doesn’t matter where we go. As long as we get there first. So pick something.”
“Elyrian outpost,” I blurted out.
“You sure?” Auriel asked.
I nodded. It was the first thing I could think of. The outpost took us west to the Bamarian border. If we could outfly the enemy, we could land and vanish into the woods. We’d be nearthe brothel where Rhyan and I stayed. They’d kept us hidden before. Maybe they would again.
The carriage shifted, gusts of wind blasting through the broken windows as the seraphim turned west. I lost my balance, falling into a seat. My vision doubled, sweat pouring down my forehead and back.
Auriel rushed toward me, crouching low, as he took me in.
“Lyriana! Your arm! What the hell happened back there?”
I shrugged, wincing. “I stabbed a soturion through the gut.”
Auriel’s eyebrows knit together with concern. “I see. And did you stop to think when you went in for the kill about protecting your flank?”
“No,” I seethed. “I was thinking I needed to kill him.”
“Kill him, but not keep yourself from injury?” I looked away.
