Talakai
Anna lay so limp in Sebastian’s arms that she looked deceased.
I wanted to shred Darius. I had no idea exactly what had transpired, but I was sure he was responsible.
Once Darius had eliminated Mari from the team, Matt had pointed out that he couldn’t defend Anna. I’d promised to stay close in case they needed me. Not that it had done much good.
Matt looked terrible, and his life energy was so weak it troubled me. I offered my foreleg to help him crawl up onto my beast shoulders. He then leaned over as Sebastian handed him an unconscious Anna.
I had no explanation for what surged between the four of us. It was like being hit by lightning. It blasted clear through me, so powerfully I swore every scale stood on end.
Certainly, a few other things did.
I wasn’t alone in the experience, either. Matt sucked an audible lungful of air, and Sebastian’s eyes sparked silver.
I tried to downplay it, to pretend it wasn’t happening. But it only grew stronger when Sebastian pulled himself up onto my neck.
“Hangs ons,” I told everyone, and launched into the sky. I’d never carried passengers before. Despite my efforts to move gently, Matt swayed, and the Bellati ended up wrapping long arms around both him and Anna.
Anna remained unconscious for the short flight, and my heart raced. I landed near the gate as carefully as I could.
When Sebastian slid off me and stepped back as though scorched, the wild, pulsing sensation diminished, but did not disappear.
“Fly them to the academy,” the Bellati told me. “Anna needs to be taken to Bess. She’ll be working teams through the other gate—I can’t send you there directly.”
I had to reduce my size and crawl through the gate in order not to dislodge either Anna or Matt. We emerged into the meadow. When I took off again for the short hop to the forest gate, I worried that Matt would lose his grip, but he held onto my spikes with one hand and Anna with the other.
I landed in the back field, along the farthest fence, as carefully as I could, but even then, Matt almost fell off.
Almost.
Bess ran to us from her post at the other gate. Matt slid off me and laid Anna out on the ground. The Watcher ran her hands over the still form.
I remained patient for precisely three minutes. “Wills she bes okay?” I asked.
“Her energy is depleted, but I think that is all that is wrong with her. I can replenish that.” She looked up at me. “She should be fine.”
My heart hurt as though it had been pierced. “Should” wasn’t a guarantee.
Bess seemed to sense my angst. “She’ll be fine, Talakai. You got her here in time.”
Matt swayed as he stood over them. Bess looked up from where she crouched next to Anna, examined him, and then looked at me.
“Can you carry her into the building?”
“I can do it,” Matt insisted.
“Yous cans barely stands,” I pointed out as I embraced my human. My wings didn’t want to retract, and with a stab of embarrassment, I settled for reducing them to a manageable size.
When I bent to slide my arms beneath her, I heard a low rumble from Matt. But I was too distracted to react. Because the moment my arms made contact with her, my beast went stark raving crazy.
My brain filled with white static, and when I could see again, I was standing with her cradled against me, and my wings folded around both of us.
I blinked and pulled them back. Matt stood no more than two feet in front of me. He was breathing hard, his eyes flickering with his beast. But his energy was too drained for him to do more than glare, and then he growled again.
A hand clobbered his shoulder, and its owner’s bright-blue eyes snapped fire at me. “Will you two cut it out?” Bess snapped. “We need to get her back to her room so I can work on her. Have your dick-measuring contest at another time.”
I shoved hard on my beast, pulling my wings back, and Matt looked away as I carried Anna toward the building.
