Page 19

"Just runfaster!" Kalistratos yells from the back.

I don't need to look to know we're on the verge of being swallowed by the swarm. Their noise is all around us, as deafening as standing on a jet tarmac without ear protection. Then, my feet fail to meet the ground as the world tilts violently forward, throwing me into Airos's back. We're sliding fast along a floor that's quickly become almost vertical. He locks his arm around me, pulling me close as we careen towards the end of a long passageway, fighting in vain to trim our speed. Then we blow through the doorway, and the floor gives out beneath us. Airos manages to snag onto a railing, and we dangle there in open space with me hanging from his waist. I watch Kalistratos and Tyler sail past us into the room, and they both catch onto a rope stretched taut between a crossbeam and the bow of a small vessel hanging like a pendulum over an open gateway.

The buzzer.

Wolf guards clamber up out of the buzzer to the bow with knives clamped in their jaws. Below them, their commander Sylla is perched on the edge of the helm with her bow clutched at the ready in one hand. Below her, I catch a glimpse of Dustin being pulled into the hold by two guards.

The torrent of bugs explodes out of the doorway like water from a sluice gate. They swirl around before dispersing in every direction, some on fire, and they shoot past us and ricochet around, spreading the flames through the hangar bay.

"Tyler, six o'clock low!" I shout.

Tyler looks down and sees the cat aiming her bow at them. They're completely exposed on the rope and there's nowhere for them to go except to slide down to the buzzer. Sylla has a clear shot, but she's not taking it.She can't risk hitting Tyler.

Tyler has the same realization and starts to make his way down the rope. "Cover us!" he shouts.

"I'm somewhat preoccupied!" Airos shouts back.

"Hold on," I grunt.

Hand over hand, I scale up his body, using the ridges of his muscles like handholds on a rock face. The man is strong as fuck, unexpectedly so. I have my legs wrapped around his chest, and I shimmy myself up to reach for a place to grab hold of. It feels like I'm climbing with a full rucksack strapped to my front—the size of my stomach is making getting leverage even harder. A visceral roar explodes from my throat as I make the final stretch, and it's echoed by one from Airos right into my dick. I'm straddling his goddamn face, with my legs hooked over his shoulders.

Finally, I reach the railing with both hands and haul myself up. Freed from my weight, Airos quickly pulls himself up and hurls an energy bolt at Sylla. She dodges and immediately shoots her drawn arrow at us, but it clips the wing of a passing insect and careens harmlessly to the side. Tyler and Kalistratos are halfway down to the buzzer now, but the guards have their knives dug into the rope and the fibers are coming apart fast.

The fire is spreading fast through the bay, and more of the burning insects shoot out from the doorway like tracer rounds from a smoking barrel. One of them impacts the side of the buzzer, scattering flames across its hull. The buzzer's back end then slowly begins to rise as a new pulsing fills the air. Its engine is coming on, and the insects immediately respond. So does Sylla. With terrifying speed and a cold disregard for the guards, she ignites the tip of an arrow off the nearby flames and shoots at the split in the rope, slashing through the side of one of the guard's hands and setting the rope on fire. With a pained howl, he loses his balance on the bow. I watch as he falls from the buzzer, his body spinning as it collides with a passing bug, and drops away. We're a thousand feet above what looks like an ocean of yellow sand and orange rock—and we're losing altitude fast.

The rope snaps, freeing the buzzer. It plunges out of the bay before righting itself with a mechanical whir. From her perch, Sylla sneers up at Tyler and Kalistratos before jumping down and retreating into the hold. The craft launches forward with unexpected speed and disappears from view.

Tyler and Kalistratos leap from the severed rope, dropping into free fall. I shout in startled alarm, watching them plummet. Then Kalistratos bursts into his phoenix form, his transformation a streak of bronze and gold against the smoke-filled air. He swoops to catch Tyler on his back, and they streak away, pursued by a surge of the frenzied insects.

A massive section of the ceiling caves in, and we're nearly obliterated by the debris. Flames lick across the exposedframework as the airship continues its death spiral toward the ground below.

Airos's eyes meet mine, sharp and assessing. "Think you can hold on?"

"Yeah, I think I can handle a little bird ride," I say.

"Excellent," he says, the corner of his mouth quirking up. "Because I've never actually carried anyone in phoenix form before. But it's a good day for a first time."

Before I can reply, he transforms, wings spreading wide, and suddenly I'm scrambling to grab hold of feathers burning with an otherworldly energy that hums against my palms. It's like I'm touching a live current that buzzes through my nerves without burning me. It's one of the weirdest sensations I've ever felt. It couldalmostbe painful, but at the same time it also feels strangelygood.I pull myself closer, fighting the overwhelming reflex to let go, willing myself to adjust and let it in.

And then my stomach drops as we plunge into the open air. I let out a scream that tears from my throat—starting as terror but transforming into something I haven't felt since my first firefight, a raw, primal howl of fear and balls-to-the-wall exhilaration.Purefucking adrenaline. Spread around us is a vast desert, with rolling sand dunes interspersed with islands of rock, some flat mesas and others rising high into the air like skyscrapers. Airos dives and swoops, and I get my first good look at the airship as he puts it behind us.

The vessel is flat bottomed and shaped kind of like a fish, with an upswept tail-like stern and a pointed prow painted with two wolf eyes and a mouth of grinning fangs. The entire starboard side is on fire, and insects fall from it like bits of smoking charcoal. It's nearly vertical in the air, and it feels like watching a sinking ship underwater plummeting to the sea bed. Then, like an invisible wire snapping, the ship's steady descent turns into a free-fall plummet. No more juice. It smashes into the desert in a giant plume of flame, smoke and dust. I salute the wreck with my middle finger.

Ahead, the insect cloud whirls around Tyler and Kalistratos like angry bees. Tyler manages to pick off one or two with his sling, but there are dozens of them, and Kalistratos has to do some Top Gun shit to shake them off. The buzzer is getting away.

"We must draw them off together," Airos says, his voice rising through his body and vibrating against my chest. "My power alone won't be enough to tempt those monsters."

"What do I have to do?" I ask.

"Follow my lead."

Airos's feathers flash like a gold leaf mirror hit by a glancing beam of hot sunlight, and that buzzing energy surges across my body with the same push-pull strike of a heartbeat. Below, the sand swirls into a rising dust devil that follows after Airos's wake.

It's just dirt. I've done this before.

Of course, throwing stones and tipping pots is a whole different ballgame from something this big, but there's no time for me to second guess myself.

I call back to when I'd first arrived in this world, to the hours I'd spent practicing building mannequins out of mud and making them move, and engage that muscle memory.