I got a shield around myself, heard as the horse slammed into it, but my eyes had clenched themselves shut on their own. Everything rocked, the impact on my magic jostling me inside of it, but when I opened my eyes, I was still alive.
"Hawke!" I screamed, hoping he was still here.
"You cannot have my friend!" the man bellowed as he charged the hunter who'd hit me. I wrapped another shield around the rider behind her, then pushed it smaller, and smaller and smaller until I crushed everything inside it, but felt my arms trembling in response to the strain I'd just used.
Panting, I turned to check on Hawke to find that rider was down and clearly not moving. Her horse was rushing off into the fog. I dared to smile but Hawke saw me, thrust out an arm, and then pain was all I knew.
I flipped. The greyness of the fog around me spun. I caught a face full of hair, and realized I'd been grabbed. The spinning and movement was the animal I was being carried on.
Fear hit. Panic took over. Fin popped into my mind, and I wouldnotend up like him. I was supposed to be the fucking hero! I was supposed to survive, and to do that I had to fight. I couldn't give up, notnow!
So I shoved. I kicked. I reached back to punch at anything I could reach, but there was nothing. Trees began to move faster. The horse was slamming its shoulder into my gut with each stride, and I could not get the hunter's hand off of me!
"Your Queen has no power over me!" I yelled, pushing with all my force to get myself off the horse!
My fingers caught the edge of the saddle. My feet kicked something solid - which felt like the hunter. Knowing this was the moment that would determine my fate, I pulled with everything I had, and then some. The hunter refused to let go, but my already jumbled world tilted just enough.
The ground was hard. The tree I slammed into was harder, but I didn't have time to whine about it. Forcing myself over, I got to my knees and was clawing my way up when a foot slammed into my gut. I lashed out with power, not caring how it hit, and the hunter stumbled back. A shield stopped her from reaching me when she tried again.
So she pulled her blade. "Guilty," she breathed, the sound of her voice like the wind in dried leaves.
"Fuck you!" I screamed, surging to my feet to thrust a punch at her face.
She dodged, already swinging, and I knew this was going to hurt. I pushed my arms between me and the sword, felt the edge hit, saw chips of blackness fly from my armor and the force lifted my feet from the ground. Time vanished until I slammed into the ground again and rolled once. But as I clawed my way back up, something shot over my head and barreled into the hunter.
Wings.
Man.
That was all I had time to register before I was rushing forward to help. I didn't make it, though. My legs gave out. My knee hit the ground and my eyes glazed for a moment, but I saw the pair struggling. Blinking hard, I forced my eyes to focus in time to see Hawke's face.
He was snarling, holding the woman against the ground, and both of his thumbs were burrowing into her belly as darkness reminiscent of Rain's magic flowed into him. I could see it pulsing up his arms, but that didn't shock me as much as what was behind him.
Massive wings. Brown ones, with a pattern in white across them, and spread out just like a hawk protecting its kill.
"You cannot have him!" Hawke growled as he pulled and pulled at the darkness.
The woman's body dried more, the fullness I'd seen before being sucked away, drained out with the Wild magic Hawke was pulling from her, until her skin began to crack. Dust drifted down, causing a cascade until her entire body simply turned to powder, leaving the shape of her under Hawke's thumbs. Ones with long, thick nails that looked more like talons than I remembered him having.
"Hawke?" I asked, trying to stagger towards him.
His head snapped up and those predatory eyes of his locked on me. "Keir? Shit, Keir!" And he folded his wings tight.
I just slammed into him, hugging the guy with all I had. "You fucking saved me!"
His breath rushed out with relief. "Are you ok, man?"
"No," I admitted, letting go of him just to land on my knees by the dusty remains of the hunter. "Fuck, you're a jevadu too?"
"You're not supposed to know that," he said. "Keir, I... I'm trying to be normal."
"You're a fucking wildling!" I shot back. "Fuck!" And I turned, looking for any signs of the battle. "That's why you zapped Rain!" And I pulled in a breath, trying my hardest to get control of myself.
Jevadu were monsters. They were creatures who fed on magic and could then use it to seduce more victims. They were things from nightmares - but monster was a slur. I knew all of those things, but they didn't fit together at all. Everything I'd been taught about this made no sense, but one single thing made sure it didn't matter.
He was my friend, and he'd just risked everything to save my life.
"Keir," he said, grabbing my arm to steady me. "Please don't be mad."
