Without another word, she jumped onto the wave, sliding down.
“I’m going to regret this.” Driscoll jumped after her.
Poppy stared, horrified.
“You can do this,” I said to her. “Think of it this way. If we die, you’ll never get to see my face again. That would be a real tragedy.” I winked, and she let out a laugh of disbelief right as Driscoll screamed.
“This is the worst thing I’ve ever done,” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
The door to the guard’s tower clicked open, and all I saw was a sliver of feathers before I grabbed Poppy and yanked her right off the walkway. We tumbled down onto the wave, water splashing our faces, soaking our clothes. The cold wind seeped into me, and I clutched Poppy tighter as we slid down, down, down. Driscoll and Leoni had already reached the bottom near the castle grounds. Shouts rang out from above us, and I looked up to see sky elementals staring at us from windows, bridges, towers—from every part of the spirits-damned castle. Saestra had disappeared, but she’d allowed us to get this far, and we wouldn’t waste that gift. I didn’t even have time to think about why she was helping us.
Poppy swiped her hand left and right, keeping the wind at bay and keeping us from falling to our deaths. The wave dissipated under us, Leoni’s power weakening, and we fell the short distance to the grassy land in front of the towering castle.
“There!” a guard yelled from the doors as they banged open. All they’d have to do was cross the glass drawbridge that stretched over a moat, and they’d be upon us.
I wrung the water from my shirt, heart pounding. I wished I had my magic. Wished I could help in some way.
Winded seemed so far below.
“What are we going to do?” Leoni yelled as more guards rushed from the castle doors and straight toward us.
“We’re going to jump,” I said firmly. “And Poppy is going to get us to the city.”
“That’s not a plan!” Driscoll screeched.
Poppy swallowed, terror flashing in her eyes.
“It’s the only one we’ve got,” I said and looked at her.
She nodded, so I did the only thing I could: I jumped.
It was a free fall.
We tumbled through the sky, the wind whipping around us with a frenzy, the chilly air soaking straight into my bones, turning them leaden with ice.
Driscoll and Leoni screamed next to me, arms and legs flailing. This might have been the stupidest thing I’d ever done. And I’d done so many stupid things.
But no. I believed in Poppy. I knew she could do this.
The ground was approaching with an alarming speed, and I wrenched my head to look at Poppy as she flung out her hands. All of a sudden, I was floating, the wind like a cushion under me, under all of us.
“Fucking fuck!” Driscoll yelled. “What in the fucking bloody-ass earth was that?” He glared at me and Poppy. “That just aged me a good ten years! Ten!”
“At least you’re alive,” Leoni pointed out. “So maybe you look ten years older, but you know, some guys dig the older man look.”
Driscoll gave her a look that could wither a person on the spot. “If I were feeling up for it right now, I’d ask if that’s your fantasy: older men, but I don’t even want to know. That’s how bad this experience has been.”
“Um,” Poppy said, hands out, sweat trickling down the sides of her face despite the cool air. “I don’t know how to make us move.”
I realized then that we were suspended. Not flattened on the ground like bugs, but also not moving toward said ground.
“Just think about what you want the magic to do,” I said. “Command the wind to do your bidding.”
She swallowed.
“We’re totally fucked,” Driscoll said, and I shot him a look that told him he better shut up or he would be.
For once, his mouth snapped closed.
