“You are like no creature I have seen,” the tallest one remarked. She pulled a short hunting bow from her back, then nocked an arrow from the quiver strapped behind her hips. Her feathers were the color of sea glass, blue stars adorned the foreheads of the skulls adorning her shoulders, and she carried three fangs on the cord around her neck. “Wings like a bat, scales like a lizard, and claws like a harpy.”
Adara flung an ice stake at one of the harpies’ backs, but a gust of wind intercepted it and it flew wide. Irritated, the harpy whirled and fired an arrow at Adara, who ducked again. A spark of rage burst to life inside me, and I blasted the harpy with a fireball, intent on incinerating her.
But before the fireball could even reach her, the wind whisked it away.
“What is going on here?” I roared, frustration getting the better of me. The very winds seemed to be determined to thwart us. “Harpies don’t have the power to control the winds!”
“Maybe the winds favor us.” Another of the harpies, this one shorter and more curvaceous than her fellow warriors, smirked at us. Her feathers were bright yellow, like a canary’s, giving her a cheerful appearance that was completely at odds with the vicious smile on her face. She pulled three throwing knives from the pouch at her hip and clutched them between her knuckles. “Either way, it looks like we’ll have meat to last us for weeks between the two of them, wouldn’t you say, Eleerie?”
The taller harpy shook her head. “No, Wynna. The queen will want him alive.”
“What about the other one?” The third harpy, a purple feathered female, demanded. “There’s nothing special abouther.”
“I’m right here, you know,” Adara called up, her voice heavy with sarcasm. Her expression was full of false bravado, but as our gazes met, I caught a flash of gratitude and relief in her eyes.
She’s glad to see me.
Something lightened inside me at that realization, but the moment was interrupted as the leader—Eleerie—turned back to Adara. “Yes, how rude of me to keep you waiting.” She bared her shark-like teeth at Adara as she knocked her bow. “Sisters, let’s finish them off, shall we?”
But before she could fire the arrow, something in the air shifted. A dark cloud rolled across the early morning sun, casting a shadow across the mountain, and an icy wind whipped through the air, making even the harpies shiver. The sound of dozens of beating wings filled the sky, and I turned toward the noise just in time to see a flock of large, black birds cresting a mountain just three peaks away.
“Skies above,” Wynna hissed. “A shadow swarm!”
Dread gripped my throat as the flock winged their way toward us, and a sudden flashback hit me. Of Aolis storming into Hearthfyre with that terrible spear of his, pulsing with the same insidious magic that flowed through these birds’ veins. The shadows had caressed him like a jealous lover, weaving into his hair, his armor, his very skin, bleeding from him to snake across the ground like venomous vipers. Even our dragon hide had not been strong enough to protect us from that spear, and one by one, he had corrupted us, turning dragon against dragon until we were tearing each other apart to stay alive.
I’d been forced to slay my own mother that day, and my last remaining sister. It had been kill or be killed, and while I would have laid down my own life for theirs, I couldn’t allow them to live the rest of their lives out as mindless monsters, corrupted by the new fae king’s will.
“Einar!”
Adara’s voice snapped me out of the memory, and I shook my head violently, trying to clear it. This was no time to be caught up in the past. We needed to act now.
“We’re going to have to work together to defeat them,” I said, summoning more fire to my palms. My arms shook from the effort, and I clenched my jaw against the strain. “If two of you can flank them and drive them toward me, I can incinerate them with one blast.”
“That won’t be necessary,” a cheerful voice called. “I’ve got this.”
The four of us turned toward the sound in time to see a fae child zip down from the clouds. I stared at the sight of him—he was maybe five feet tall, with a thick head of white hair that stood straight up from his head, and storm grey eyes that glinted with mischief. He wore a black vest, loose white pants, and lace-up boots. A pair of brass goggles rested on his forehead, perched just at the beginning of his hairline.
He was also standing on a cloud, which seemed to be fully supporting his weight.
“An air fae,” I spat, realization crashing over me. “You’re the one who’s been intercepting my and Adara’s magical attacks!”
“Of course.” He looked at me as though I’d grown a second head. “I couldn’t let you hurt my friends.”
“You’re friends with the harpies?” Adara shouted from the ground, an incredulous look on her face. “But they eat fae!”
“Yeah, we’ve been working on that,” the air fae said with a wince. He scratched the back of his head as he looked at the harpies. “I was pushing you guys back, too,” he admitted. “I didn’t want you to kill them.”
“What?” Wynna shrieked, looking outraged.
“We don’t have time for this,” Eleerie snapped at them both. “The shadow birds are nearly upon us, Leap!”
“Oh! Right.” Leap gave Eleerie a sheepish look. “Let me try to thin them out a bit.”
He zipped off toward the birds, legs spread wide, lifting his arms to the sky, palms up. The clouds rumbled ominously, drawing together, and a bolt of lightning arced through the air, ripping through the flock. Seven of them dropped from the sky instantly, while the others scattered, their angry caws ricocheting off the mountains.
This boy wasn’t just an air fae. He was a lightning rider. One of the rare, famed air fae warriors who could harness the electricity in the sky and use it as a weapon.
The shadow birds reformed into a handful of smaller groups, splitting off in different directions to attack us individually. The same fear I’d felt before tried to grip me once more, but I pushed it aside and blasted them with a huge gout of flame. The birds shrieked in agony as I incinerated them, and I immediately winged my way toward Adara, intent on helping her next.
