Ryker leaped onto its shoulders and jumped into the air before the confused troll could even turn around, bewildered.
He raised his arms and gripped onto the leather straps in one quick movement. With his weight, the wings tipped forward.
Ryker grimaced as he kicked against a column of the Memory Hall, changing our direction.
With the new direction, the wings softened our descent.
We no longer plummeted.
We floated.
“Gods.” Dax exhaled loudly. “Thank you.”
“What did I say about this blasted contraption?” Ryker asked, even as I felt relief course through him.
“Hey, I said I’d meet you here, didn’t I?” I retorted. “Thanks for saving us from getting squashed.”
He shook his head, but a corner of his lips ticked up. “You’re welcome. But let’s not do it again.”
“Definitely not doing this again,” I said out loud, unfurling my legs as we approached the ground.
All I wanted to do was walk. For the rest of my life.
Ryker’s feet hit the stones first. He tensed his body, crouching and not letting us go for anything, even as the wind fought to pull the wings further.
“This would be a good time to close them,” he said between gritted teeth.
“I amtrying,” Dax said, equally annoyed, tugging quickly on all the pulleys.
All of a sudden, the canvas folded with a snap and we fell.
Ryker caught us both in his arms with a heavy grunt.
The moment my boots once again touched solid earth, I wanted to bow down and kiss it. Ryker didn’t let go as Dax and I swayed on the spot, unbalanced after our flight. We unbuckled and disentangled quickly, already rushing apart.
“Fire.” Dax flung the wings off his back and gestured like he was spraying them with poison. “You’re going straight into the fire.”
I placed a chaste kiss on Ryker’s cheeks, and whirled toward the crypt opening.
The warriors, both standing and wounded, were already gathering among the frightened civilians fretting in the Memory Hall, but the trolls waited in front of the doors. The crypt guardian waved his golden stick around.
Anger instantly burned through me. This wasnotthe time to cling to old beliefs.
I marched right up to them, drawing my bow and an arrow.
“Thank Solkar.” The old man’s sigh of relief sounded raspy. “How do you tell them to goinside? I keep waving at them and nothing.”
I exhaled softly, reassured by his distressed tone, and turned to the trolls, grunting and huffing.
How to tell them, indeed.
Behind us, the mist drew closer.
Despite the blaze in my veins, I called upon the blue tendrils once more, letting them seep inside the crypt. The civilians jumped out of their way.
The troll leader roared, protesting being trapped inside with so many humans.
“Please,” I said, arms shaking from the adrenaline of the flight and the poison’s approach. “It’s just like a cave, but with more people.”
