I generally think of myself as hard to scare. Horror movies are usually too dumb or gross to frighten me, and I’m secure in the knowledge that I could beat up most creatures I might encounter: human or supernatural.
But whatever is above us right now is terrifying. My heart slams against my chest erratically. Each beat is unbearably loud. Will it give us away?Shut up,I beg.
My fear makes Ciprian stronger, but that’s a hard silver lining for my brain to sell when my body is shaking. The more he consumes, the longer he’ll be able to hide us from whatever is out there, assuming it has a brain for him to trick.
Oh gods, what if it doesn’t have a brain?
The beast circles our hiding spot for what seems like forever before bellowing with rage. The footsteps retreat, each one shaking the ground a little less than the one before it. I imagine them long after they’re gone.
A few more minutes pass in tense silence before Ciprian sags against my back.
“I can’t reach its mind any longer,” he says.
I slump against him, relieved to have my thoughts confirmed. “Are you okay?” I ask.
He buries his chin in the curve of my neck and breathes me in deeply. “Tired,” he admits. “There were a lot of them.”
Alistair stiffens against me. “How many?”
“Thirteen.”
“Could you tell what they were?” I ask, both needing and dreading his answer. I could only hear the big one, but my father must have gone to a lot of trouble to make this happen. It stands to reason that our welcoming party would be more than one person—even if that person was big enough to shake the ground.
“No,” Ciprian sighs. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“You did good,” Luca tells him. “Now bundle up. The eclipse will hit any minute now.”
Silently, we shuffle around, rifling blindly through our bags for warm clothes that we all know aren’t there. Once I’m as bundled up as I can be, I search for Luca. “You were amazing,” I whisper. “We’d be frozen without you.”
“That may still happen,” he grunts.
“Not if we huddle up,” I say. “Malach and I will sit on the edges and wrap our wings around everyone.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Baby . . .”
“I’d rather be the big spoon, hot wings.”
I sigh as they talk over each other.
“You’re all being foolish,” Malach snaps. “Our wings will insulate us too.”
I roll my eyes at their grumbling, glad that Malach is as pragmatic as I am.
Luca and Alistair make their decisions based on emotion—although both would deny that. I’m still figuring Ciprian out, but from what I’ve seen, he relies on his ability to read situations, then adapts to match the pre-existing dynamics. It’s an incredible talent, but it relies on charisma, not logic.
They settle in an awkward, uneasy clump. Luca is wedged between Alistair and Ciprian, a basilisk-shaped buffer for their ongoing feud. The two of them need to sort their shit out, but now isn’t the time. That fight will be loud, and that’s the last thing we need.
I can’t see a thing, but I plop down on my backpack and wrap my legs around them as best I can. Once I’m mostly comfortable, I release my wings, then freeze. They’re bladed.Of course, they are.I’mstressed. But this is the worst possible time to have knives shooting out of my back. They’ll slice right through Malach’s feathers.
“Give me a minute,” I mutter. It’s only worry. If I concentrate hard enough, I can make it go away. Except every time I try, I feel the ground shaking again.
Alistair shivers, and I grit my teeth. He’s cold, and the longer we wait to lock our wings, the more body heat we lose.
I’m failing them because I can’t be brave. It kills me.Pull it together.The thought echoes in my mind, bouncing off the sides but doing absolutely nothing to calm me down.
“The first time I saw you, I thought you looked like trouble,” Luca says quietly. “Your hair was shorter then—do you remember, baby?”
