Once I’m close enough, the singing abruptly stops and the trance breaks. I blink and realize just how far I’ve walked from the others.
The harpy grins. “Good girl.” With a screech, she leaps toward me. I’m nowhere near as fast as Nero. I have no hopes of avoiding her before her talons are closing around my shoulders and lifting me into the air.
“Kill the abomination!” Nolia commands, and it takes me a moment to understand she means me. “Kill her before she can imbalance the realm!”
“You don’t understand!” Grim roars, his eyes on me as I’m slowly lifted.
Nero shoves his harpy away and rushes after me, his coils moving far faster than I’ve ever seen them as he scrambles up a tree to get to me, panic clearly written on his features.
“Cora, your magic! Use it!” he shouts.
But the magic doesn’t come. It’s as if it’s decided not to listen to me, as if it’s a petulant child that doesn’t want to come out. I push harder, trying to make it listen, but it stubbornly stays put while I’m lifted into the air.
Nero leaps from tree to tree, and just when I think he’s going to be too slow to capture me, he leaps into the air, and he manages to grab onto the legs of the harpy, putting him chest to chest with me. The harpy shrieks as the naga’s weight drags her down, drags us both down. I scream as we plummet, my hands going to Nero’s sides as we land roughly on the ground and his coils immediately twist around us. The harpy flaps and screeches, trying to get away, but Nero doesn’t release her. He pulls back his fist and punches the harpy right in the face.
“Let. Her. Go!” he snarls, each word punctuated with a slam of his fist.
The screech goes right to my head and makes it ache as Nero hits her again and again, spraying blood, until I feel her talons begin to loosen. I reach up and pull at the claws, desperate to get away with only small puncture wounds. If she clamps down…
The coils around us tighten as Nero continues to mutilate the harpy until she stops moving and her screeches die. The talons come away, and I’m free, but Nero doesn’t stop. His eyes are wild with rage as he continues to swing.
“Nero,” I croak out, but he doesn’t hear me, so I reach for his shoulders. “Nero!”
He turns his wild eyes on me, and when he realizes I’m standing in front of him, his shoulders sag and he drags me to him. I don’t even flinch at the blood on his skin. I hold him back, uncaring of anything else.
“I thought we were going to lose you,” he whispers against my neck as he holds me tightly.
“I’m okay,” I promise, stroking my hand down his back.
Nolia shrieks, and we both turn as her eyes pierce mine. “You will bring about the destruction of everything!” she declares. “I hope you’re prepared for the graves you’ll stand upon.”
The few remaining harpies lift into the air, leaving those trapped or dead behind, and they disappear into the dark sky.
* * *
“They didn’t wantto take me. They wanted to kill me,” I point out after we’ve regrouped and gotten away from harpy territory. “I don’t understand.”
Grim is sitting on the far side of the fire, carefully cleaning a wound on his shoulder. “You’re a threat to them. The last human in the king’s castle caused a war.”
“It was not her fault,” I argue.
“No,” Grim agrees. “But she still caused it nevertheless. Even if by her death.”
“The real problem,” Krug begins as he wipes down his blade, “is why you didn’t use your magic on the harpy.” He looks up, and those bright eyes focus on me, pinning me to the spot.
I shrivel under that look, under the expectation there.
“It isn’t always something I can control,” I mumble, looking away. I feel ashamed, as if I should somehow know anything about this new power in my veins. “I tried…”
Zetros shoots a glare at Krug. “She’s just barely learning to wield it, orc. Don’t dare shame her for it.”
“I don’t mean to shame,” Krug responds, putting his sword away. “What I mean is that if this is going to work, shouldn’t she know how to use the power in every way?” His eyes meet mine. “Cora, if you’re going to stand in that castle and declare anything, you must be at full strength to do so.”
“Don’t chastise her like that.” Nero scowls.
I place my hand on Nero’s coil and study Krug. “He’s right,” I agree. Nero jerks and glances at me. “It’s not a matter of shame. It’s a matter of us knowing our strengths and weaknesses. And right now, not being able to fully wield my magic as needed is a weakness.”
No one says anything. I know they don’t want to admit that I’m the weak spot in our group, but they don’t have to. I already know it. I saw it. And now that I’m being hunted to be killed rather than to be taken, that weakness is glaringly obvious. I don’t know what I’ll be able to do once we get to the castle, but how can I expect to do anything at all when the magic is so unstable?
