“No, it’s my responsibility.”
“One of us has to get it, and you need to stay here and keep Blackbird calm. He trusts you more than me.”
I arch my eyebrows.Blackbird?
I guess it’s as good a name as any.
But also, “He?”
“He,” Erik says firmly.
It isn’t exactly the most important thing right now, but still, I ask, “How do you know?”
Erik shrugs. “It’s a wolf thing.”
With that, he propels himself forward across the snow, belly-crawling using only his arms so he stays low to the ground.
Within seconds, he’s swallowed up in the storm, leaving me crouched, my heart in my throat with worry for his safety.
Blackbird takes the opportunity to inch forward, pushing his face up to mine, his size dwarfing me and his weight nearly knocking me flat.
He whines in my ear, a worried sound.
You and me both, bird.
Five tense minutes later, Erik reappears through the snow, dragging my satchel at his side.
I reach for him, pulling him close, all my worry rushing away and relief replacing it.
His arms slip around me, even though it’s an incredibly awkward gesture now that we’re both crouching again—and the bird insists on gluing its head to my free side.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Erik says, speaking once more at my ear when my arms lock reflexively around him.
Losing him will never be okay.
I take a deep breath as I nestle into his embrace, preparing myself for our next steps.
“Stay low,” he says, handing me the satchel. “You go first. I don’t want Blackbird to throw me off.”
Slipping out of Erik’s arms and down into the snow, I maneuver my satchel so that I can slip it over my head and carryit across my body. Then I drop into a belly-crawl like Erik did, moving alongside Blackbird’s neck to his wings.
Fae warriors use saddles to ride their thunderbirds. We don’t have that luxury. I’ll need to pull myself up onto Blackbird’s back so that I’m either sitting in front of his wings or behind them. I honestly don’t know which would be safest or best, but his neck looks slender, so I opt for a position behind his wings.
Reaching up as best I can, I hoist myself onto his back, trying to keep low. The wind plucks at my back, and for a moment, I’m fearful that it could rip my hammer right out of the scabbard.
In the next second, Erik slips up behind me, pressing in close behind me. He’s sheltering me, but that also means he’s now taking the worst of the storm.
Blackbird’s body shivers, but he doesn’t try to throw us off.
“Up!” I scream into the wind. “Up, Blackbird!”
He pauses.
Then he leaps upward, and all I can do is pray we aren’t headed to our deaths.
Chapter 22
The snowstorm hits us.
