Without stopping to think just how absolutely hopeless this was, she yanked her visitor’s pass from around her neck and, holding the end with the pass on it, she flung the loop at the pig as it thundered past, hoping to lasso it somehow, realizingtoo late that the idea was even more ridiculous than she’d first thought.
Even if she somehow managed to get the lanyard around its neck, she would simply lose her grip – or, worse yet, she’d keep her grip, and end up getting dragged along and then flung over the edge of the roof by her own momentum.
Death by roof pig. Of all the ways I could’ve died this week, this is easily the most ridiculous… and that’s saying something.
But still, she had to try. She couldn’t just stand by and watch Rhys get killed by this guy, hopeless action or not.
She held on to the pass as the lanyard drifted toward the pig… completely failed to go around its neck…
And caught around one of its tusks instead.
The pass was almost jerked out of her hands by the movement of the pig, giving her some nasty rope burn – but maybe it was enough. The pull of the lanyard turned the pig’s head for a moment, and it crashed into Rhys not head-on, but on an angle, its other tusk tearing into the griffin’s wing instead of its midsection.
The griffin screeched in fury and pain as its delicate wing was shredded – but, Maisie had to think, that was better than being disemboweled.
“Rhys!” she cried out, relief and fear warring within her. The griffin was bleeding profusely from the wing and staggering, but the wound wasn’t fatal.
Shethought.
But I don’t know if he’ll be flying again anytime in the next few minutes.
The boar shook its head wildly, and the lanyard was ripped from her hands, still caught in the beast’s tusks. After a few unsuccessful attempts to free himself, squealing and roaring, James shifted back to his human form, breathing hard, his face twisted into an ugly rage that bore no resemblance to hisearlier attempts at charm. He jerked the lanyard off his face and unceremoniously tossed it over the side of the building.
My only weapon,Maisie thought hopelessly – and it wasn’t even a very good one. But it had certainly served its purpose.
“You can’t escape now,” James snarled, advancing slowly, as Rhys struggled to stand, his wing limp and bleeding by his side. “Instead of joining me, you’re going to die here and end up as a feast for my wild boar, the both of you. There won’t even be bones left for them to find.”
Maisie blinked. That was… dramatic. Not that she wasn’t concerned, of course – scared shitless, even – but there were just all kinds of things she was hearing that she never expected to hear. Suddenly, her more challenging patients were sounding downright welcoming by comparison.
She thought that perhaps her mind was going numb with fear, filling her head with inane thoughts, because what was about to happen was just too horrific to contemplate.
What could she possibly do? But there was nothing left. Nothing.
“A shame,” James continued. “I really did want to work with you. You had so much potential. But in the end, you were just too weak.”
With that, he shifted once more. His body shimmered, and then, standing before them wasn’t the smug man, but the enormous, terrifying wild boar, its tusks shining in the sunlight, cruel and curved and utterly deadly.
Letting out a low, furious grunt, the boar scraped its front hooves on the concrete of the roof and then began to charge again, starting at a slow trot, clearly wanting to take its time and draw things out.
Rhys, his wing dragging, was moving too – clearly to put himself between James and Maisie, regardless of the fact thatthe boar would gore him the way she had only just managed to prevent before.
Maisie was aware that she was screaming something –No, she supposed she was saying, but she couldn’t really tell – but she was frozen in fear, unable to move.
It couldn’t end like this. Itcouldn’t.
She watched, horrified, as the griffin beat its wings, the injured one flapping awkwardly as blood poured out of the wound. It shrieked in pain – but then it rose off the ground, just a little.
You can do it,she thought desperately – it was all that she could do.I believe in you.
The griffin shrieked again – but beat its wings more strongly, more determinedly. Maisie could see that it had to be in massive pain, but it launched itself forward with a howl, meeting the charging pig head-on and picking it up in its mighty talons.
The pig bellowed as the claws bit into its flesh, transforming into its human form in a futile attempt to escape – and then thrashed in wild terror as Rhys slowly lifted him off the ground, carrying him to the edge of the building.
And then he let go of him.
The bottom dropped out of Maisie’s stomach. Rhys wouldn’t actually kill someone in cold blood like that – hewouldn’t–
With a screech, the griffin dived out of Maisie’s range of vision for a couple of truly terrifying seconds, before it reappeared, James’s terrified-but-intact form in its clutches. It perched on the edge of the building and let James dangle over the edge, pinning down his hand with one talon.
