“This is what we’re going to do,” he said. “You will use my strength to fly. I will stay and fight.”
“I won’t leave you behind to die,” I told him. “Besides, I have a better idea. I’ll fly in the opposite direction to distract them. You climb.”
He swore. “Absolutely not. You can save yourself, Tessa. You can live.”
“I don’t want to live without you.”
He dropped his forehead to mine and breathed. I held back the choked sob that rose to the back of my throat as I relished in the feel of him. Even though this was better than the alternative, I hated that we had to do this. I did not want toleavehim.
But this was a chance at survival for us both. It was a long shot, but it was the only one we had.
“Kalen, I…”
“I know.” He kissed me fiercely, and then backed away. “All right, we’ll try your plan. Now go!”
I reached through the bond, found that thread of power again, and gripped it fiercely. A part of me was afraid to find out what would happen if I pulled on it again. But I had to try. Steeling myself, I gave it a little tug.
That all-consuming power flooded through me, drowning my pain. I flexed my wings and forced them to shift behind me. My back still ached with every inch they moved, but I could think around it now, breathe around it. The crashing of the shadowfiends grew louder.
Praying to the stars and the heavens far above, I bent my knees, and Ijumped.
My wings beat at the air to keep me aloft. Gritting my teeth, I spread them a little wider and forced them to battle against the wind. I rose, higher and higher, until I reached the canopy of the woods. Kalen gazed up at me, awestruck. With a slight smile, he turned and vanished into the shadows.
I spun in the air, wincing at the pain, and swooped low as I spun toward the war camp in the distance. My wings faltered, and the ground rose up fast. Gritting my teeth, I righted myself just before a tree slammed into my face.
“Come on,” I whispered to myself as I fought against my wings. If I didn’t get control, I’d crash, and Kalen would never get out of here alive. My fear for him flared within me, and suddenly, my wings rippled in the wind as my long-muted instincts took over.
Within moments, I passed the beasts, soaring only a few feet above the tops of their heads. Several storm fae were with them. They exclaimed and pointed up at my desperate rush through the woods. I had to twist and dive and dip to avoid slamming into the trees, often coming far too close to the ground for comfort.
But it had done the trick. The storm fae and the creatures had spotted me. They spun on their feet and gave chase. My back screamed as my wings pulsed behind me. With every moment I grew further from Kalen, the pain grew stronger. As I dodged trees left and right, I pictured his face in my mind. I called up Nellie’s face and Toryn’s face and every single face I’d ever seen in the shadow fae city. I could push through the pain, if only to give them a little more time—and to give Kalen time to scale the cliff.
Another tree line rose up before me, and I flew through it. Branches slapped my outstretched wings. More pain shot through me, this time from a thorny cut along my left-hand feathers. But I just kept moving. I soared across the field, dipping low to spin around the enemy’s war camp.
There were still hundreds of shadowfiends lurking here and perhaps fifty storm fae with their hollow eyes and sharp teeth. No sign of Sirius or any of the other gods. Just behind me, the shadowfiends chasing me through the woods exploded from the trees andleapt.
There were at least a dozen of them, and they were coming right for me.
With a sharp cry, I pumped my wings and went up, up, up into the mists. And so did they. I had never seen a shadowfiend jump so high. Theycouldn’t,or walls would have never done a damn thing to keep them out. But I knew what I was seeing. As soon as they were free of the woods, the beasts leapt into the air, pushing off with legs far more powerful than they should be.
And so I kept flying, letting my wings take me as high as they could. I didn’t know how far would be enough to escape their grasp.
Suddenly, the mists vanished. I emerged from the clouds and rose above a blanket of darkness. High in the night sky, a crescent moon glowed brightly. My breath caught as I gazed around me. The stars were so clear up here. Hundreds and hundreds of stars—so many, I knew I would never be able to count them all.
It was breathtaking.
I slowed my wings, and they pulsed softly behind me. For a moment, the world seemed to still, and all the horror down below drifted away on a rolling wind. All around me, a blanket of dense mist engulfed the world, but there…far in the distance, I swore I could see light. Even amid all the gloom, there was hope.
And then the sky itself seemed to speak.
“Daughter of Stars,” a feminine voice whispered on the wind, so soft I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d imagined it. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Daughter of Stars?” I asked, swallowing as I gazed around me. Where was that voice coming from? Was there someone else here?
“Dust of the earth, stars of the sky. Only you, who is forged from both dust and stars, can stop them.” And then a sharp intake of breath. “But you must return to the darkness at once. The one made of mist and shadow needs you.”
“Kalen,” I said, my heart jolting.
I dove, spinning back into the shadows. My back screamed as I tucked my wings in close and plummeted toward the ground. I needed to draw the enemy further away to give Kalen more time to scale the mountain. Otherwise, they might think to look for us there. The storm fae might guess our plan.
