No.
It wasn’tlikea pair of wings. Itwasa pair of wings. A large bird of flaming feathers and tails swooped down, igniting the jungle with its fiery light and heading straight for Jezebel and me.
We dove to opposite sides of the path, the bird cleaving down the middle. I rolled along the dirt, jumping to my feet and pulling Starfire from my hip.
“What is that thing?” Jezebel asked, pulling her sword as well.
I didn’t answer—not because I didn’t know, but because I did not understandhowmy suspicion could be correct. And right at that moment, the bird of fire charged again, carving a figure eight through the sky and turning back toward me.
I swung Starfire, but the bird coasted on the wind, my blade only sliding through its feathers like they were no more than trails of embers. Its deadly talons swiped low, and as the creature turned around me, it dragged one of those three-inch nails across my shoulder.
“Holy Angels!” I swore at the sting, flooding the injury with Angellight to try to staunch the flow of blood.
“Are you okay?” Jezebel called. She backed toward a tree, the bird circling.
I pressed a hand to my wound. “Fine. But Starfire isn’t doing anything against it.”
“We might need something else!” Jezebel called as she plunged her own sword toward the beast, and it coasted back up on a wind.
“Like what?”
But the air shifted, the vines on the path ahead swaying. And then, Lancaster and Mora shot into view.
“Aoiflyn’s tits!” the male swore at the same time his sister burst, “What fun!”
“Where did you two come from?” I gasped over the pain in my shoulder as the fae sprang into motion.
“We heard you scream from the inn,” Mora explained.
I never thought I’d say it, but thank the Angels for that damn fae hearing.
Jezebel cried out, thrusting her sword again as the bird dove for her. Its sharpened beak snapped wide, clamping down on the blade. With a ragged shake of its head, the bird tossed my sister aside.
“Jez!” I screamed, running for her and keeping pressure on my shoulder. The wound tore further, and blood slipped between my fingers.
I ducked beneath those talons as the bird swooped low again. Lancaster reached out, and where I expected him to summon a weapon using that creation power, he instead grabbed?—
A long chain connected to stone shackles.
Because stone could not burn.
I scrambled to where Jez was hunched over her knees on the ground. “What do you intend to do with those, fae?” I called. “The beast has no wrists!”
“No!” Lancaster growled as he swung the chain. “But it has a neck.”
Mora snapped her fingers and a second bird sprang to life up in the branches. The original beast released another cry, this one filled with longing as it chased its twin up in the canopy. Fuck, we couldn’t fight two. We could barely fight one.
I turned my attention on Jezebel, helping her sit up and lean against a tree. “What hurts?”
“Didn’t catch myself right when I fell.” My sister winced. “Something snapped.”
I smoothed her sweaty hair down, kissing her head. “Get in the tree line.”
Then, I was standing, pulling Starfire again and racing back toward the fight.
“Why the fuck are there two now?” I seethed, skidding to a halt next to Mora.
The female answered, “That’s my doing.”
