Because if the fight went badly, the bronze birds could fly away. Out of all the shifters on their side? Only Maggie had wings.
One of the bird-people, a woman, clacked her beak at Lance. A jarring buzz filled Carol’s mind, like a radio tuned to the wrong frequency.
It was… kind of like listening to Maggie. Another chill went through her as she saw all three bird-people had their eyes fixed on the little dragonling.
Keep them occupied, Ames had said.
She licked her lips. She’d never met another shifter like her.
Maybe they hadn’t, either.
“Hey!” she shouted. “Hey! Over here!” She gritted her teeth and concentrated on the strange, off-tune grating of their minds. *Who are you? Why are you attacking us?*
She was too agitated to strip the emotion from her telepathic speech. Her thoughts left her mind wreathed with confusion and terror and—hope?
What could I possibly have to hope for?Her chest hurt, so suddenly and unexpectedly that she gasped.
The three bird-people all whipped around to face her. She tried to gather herself enough to reach out to Lance and tell him she would keep them distracted while he did—she didn’t even know, butsomething—but the expressions on their faces stopped her.
The woman who’d tried to communicate before stepped forward. Carol got the impression she was the group’s leader. Her face was mostly human, her eyes a piercing brown-gold.
One of the others—a man with an eagle’s vicious beak and hands that ended in claws—said something. Carol heard it as another burst of static in her mind, but this time, there was something more. A hint of an image. A sense of uncertainty. A question?
Their leader made an impatient tutting noise and jerked her head sideways. But when she turned her gaze to Carol again, her expression was strangely gentle.
The bird-woman reached out one hand. Her thumb and first finger were human, the nails ragged; the rest of her hand was twisted, the fingers curving unevenly into claws as though the bones underneath didn’t fit properly.
Her mind pressed against Carol’s—gentle and kind as the expression in her eyes. The static was still there, but lessened. Carol was getting the hang of their speech now. The same way most shifters’ telepathic voices were woven through withemotion, if they didn’t pay attention and strip it out, these shifters’ voices were a tapestry of thought and image and history and something else, some context she was still missing that translated to static in her head.
But it wasn’tallstatic. And what she could interpret was…Question. Surprise. Welcome.
Welcome?
The woman gestured. *Us,*she sent into Carol’s mind. *Like us. Come with us. Help.*
“Help what?” Carol burst out. “Help you attack my friends? Who are you?”
Their languages were so different, she didn’t expect the woman to understand her. But the woman’s eyes flickered, and another burst of speech echoed between her and the other bird-people.
*Zhang.*Lance’s voice slid into her mind, quiet as a whisper. *Whatever you’re doing, it’s working. Keep them occupied. We—*
*They want me to come with them!*
She’d only meant to speak to Lance, but her thoughts must have leaked. Maggie shrieked with dismay and launched herself into the air. Keeley grabbed her in a bear hug. Maggie darted her head out from Keeley’s arms, her neck stretched long and taut as she fought to get free—
Then her head spikes all stood on end, she went completely still, and she vanished.
Carol opened her mouth to shout, and something wentpopagainst her chest. She raised her arms automatically and Maggie tumbled into them, chirping urgently.
Teleportation. Maggie could teleport. Sheknewthat, but knowing it was different than watching the baby shifter disappear into thin air.
And reappear. In her arms. With three strange, monstrous shifters between them and the others.
And three more outside.
Metal shrieked. Razor-sharp claws ripped through the fuselage all around her. The floor tipped. Icy storm-winds lashed into the cabin. The air was full of bronze feathers and claws and the sound of tearing metal.
The wall of the plane sheared off and she was falling, with Maggie still in her arms.
