Page 8 of Shardless (Tempris #1)

-An excerpt from the Bestiarium Compendium: A Practical Guide to Staying Alive When Vacationing on Tempris Island

Though small, Tempris is home to a wide and varied array of wildlife. Wyverns, basilisks, grendels—as a result of the many dimensional gates found on the island, populations of creatures that were once separated by both time and space have migrated and now live side-by-side.

Those traveling from Lycia to Tempris for the first time may be particularly surprised to see that this island is home to one of the few remaining undomesticated populations of harpy. It is highly recommended that tourists refrain from approaching these animals. While the Glynadwyr and Lycian harpies are inordinately docile creatures, making them popular household pets among the nobility, Tempris harpies exhibit high levels of aggression and are extremely venomous. A single scratch could prove fatal if not treated properly.

Taly felt weak.

There wasn’t a single part of her that didn’t ache. The back of her body was completely soaked with blood, both from the puncture wound that had reopened during their mad dash back to the forest and from a new gash that ran across her back.

The pain was excruciating as it pulsed and throbbed, keeping time with her erratic heart.

The harpy’s claws were still wrapped around her, and she winced when she felt one of the rigid talons pierce the flesh of her shoulder, burrowing deeper and deeper with each flap of its wings. The forest canopy loomed below her, looking more like a woven tapestry than a real forest. Leaves of all different colors—varying shades of brown, green, yellow, even red—all woven together in a chaotically beautiful display of imminent springtime renewal.

Shards . This couldn’t be real, could it?

But the bile rising in her throat, as well as the continuous swells of pain assaulting her senses, told her that this was indeed very real.

Questions bounced around Taly’s mind. Why had the harpy chosen her? Why hadn’t the creature gone for Aiden or Aimee? Or even Skye when he cut open his hand and waved it around like a big, red target?

Idiot.

She didn’t even try to convince herself that they would find her at this point. While they might have been able to pursue her on horseback around the Aion Gate, skirting around the uneven terrain, they had almost certainly lost the trail after the harpy veered off over the forest. The tree cover was too thick, and there were no roads on this part of the island. It would be impossible to track the creature’s path from the ground.

Well, if she was going to die, at least she had the satisfaction of knowing she was right. Bringing Aimee was a terrible idea. And that outfit was ridiculous. They might have made it to the safety of the forest if her skirt hadn’t caught on a stray piece of scrap, forcing them both to stumble and fall to the ground. The harpy had been pursuing Skye and Aiden until it heard Taly’s cry of pain and turned.

Taly groaned as the harpy readjusted its grip and jabbed a talon in her side. “Watch it!” she grumbled weakly.

The harpy’s head swiveled, and it eyed her in irritation before giving her a rough shake.

Taly cried out as she felt her wounds deepen. “I’m going to turn you into a feather duster, you heinous bitch!” she screamed. The screaming helped—helped her fight against the wave of blackness that threatened to drag her under. It would be so easy to give in—to let herself drift off and leave the pain behind.

But sleep meant death.

Another long stream of cursing tore from her lips followed by an enraged shout when the harpy gave her another jolt. Apparently, it didn’t like its meals to talk back.

The harpy was headed east, towards the seaside cliffs on the northeastern edge of the island. Taly had only been there once, shortly after she had taken up salvaging, and she’d vowed never to go back. The harpies nested on the far side of the cliffs, and there would be hundreds of them out right now as they waited for dusk to fall. If she ended up there, Taly knew that she would die slowly and painfully as her flesh was ripped from her bones. Her last moments would be spent screaming in agony as she prayed for the painless peace of oblivion.

Personally, she would rather take her chances with the ground.

Taly wriggled in the harpy’s grip, trying to jerk her arm forward. The beast’s claws dug into her back, and each movement only intensified the excruciating bite of those razor-sharp talons. Her skin ripped, her muscles tore, but she kept at it. She didn’t have any other choice at this point. She needed to make the creature drop her.

Finally, she just managed to grasp one of the hyaline pistols holstered around her waist. She didn’t even know if it would shoot, but she had lost her old handgun back at the Aion Gate. This one would have to do.

Taly tried to turn her head, but she still couldn’t see well enough to aim. So she pointed the pistol up and over her shoulder, trying to guess where the center of the harpy’s body might be. Murmuring a short, earnest prayer to the Shards, she pulled the trigger.

It was loud. That was the only thing she could think as she felt the harpy falter and loosen its grip. A sharp, almost painful ringing pierced her deafened ears, momentarily drowning out the beast’s enraged yowl. She shot again, smiling when she felt a wave of heat wash across her skin. Moments later, a guttural scream tore from the harpy’s mouth as it burst into flames. She barely had time to register the sound of ripping fabric before she felt the unmistakable sensation of falling.

The incendiary rounds work! Taly thought excitedly as the wind whipped at her clothing and hair. She had grabbed them from her old workbench on a whim that morning—an experimental ammunition she had developed last year but never gotten a chance to test.

For one breathless moment, she was mesmerized by the sight of the harpy exploding midair, flaring bright as a newborn star. But when leaves and sprigs started tearing at her skin and clothing as she shot through the forest canopy, she quickly turned her attention back to staying alive.

She reached out an arm and desperately grabbed at the scattered branches, trying to slow her descent.

She landed flat on her back—the air rushing from her lungs. Wheezing and gasping, slightly dazed, she stared up at the broken branches above her, blinking furiously as she tried to refocus her blurred vision.

She was bruised and bleeding—but still alive.

As she regained her breath, Taly managed to push herself to a sitting position. She patted down her body, taking stock of her injuries. By some small miracle, she didn’t seem to have any broken bones, just a web of scratches and lacerations that coated every visible patch of bloodied skin. Some of the cuts looked superficial, but others, like the slashes ripping open her palms, had cut deep. Of all her injuries, her left leg was by far the worst, but her right arm—her dominant hand—wasn’t in much better shape. A long, angry gash bisected her forearm, starting at the back of her hand and ending just above her elbow. She must have caught it on a branch when she fell.

With a crazed shriek, the harpy landed about 15 yards away, rolling around on the ground frantically to put out the flames. While the effect of the experimental rounds had been painful, the fiery blaze was already starting to fade.

Shit! Hurry…

She had two options at this point. She had landed near the edge of the forest where the tree cover was still thin. She could try to retreat further into the woods, but she had no doubt that the harpy would easily catch her before she managed to make it to the safety of the thicker underbrush.

The cliffs were option number two. She wasn’t very far away—maybe 20 feet. The cliff face towered over her, blotting out the sun and casting a long shadow. She would have to cross a narrow, treeless space where she would be vulnerable, but she could just make out a small gap in the wall of stone. If it was deep enough, she might be able to wedge herself inside and wait out the harpy. After all, she had no aether, so it would likely lose interest in her eventually.

Taly blinked, trying to summon the premonitions—something that might give her a hint about which choice to make. All she saw was an erratic haze of indecision, her golden, spirit-like body flickering as it considered her options. Meanwhile, the harpy was wild, driven mad in its thirst for aether and screeching as it whipped its head to and fro. Gold dust encircled its body in a roiling cloud. It wasn’t making conscious choices at this point. It was just acting .

She had better do the same if she wanted to live. The beast was already starting to regain its footing. It was decision time.

Pushing herself to her feet, Taly bit back a cry as she began hobbling toward the cliffs, praying she would make it before the harpy completely recovered. Every step she took was agony, but she kept going. She felt her flesh tear as the wound in her leg deepened, and a trickle of fresh blood streamed down her thigh, staining the ground behind her.

The harpy let out a shriek as it shook its body. It had caught sight of her as soon as she moved, its head swiveling in a way that should’ve been impossible as its mad eyes homed in on her.

Although Taly had dropped her original handgun during her descent, she still had her backup. The twin hyaline pistol only had standard slugs, but at least it would slow the beast down. She winced as the grip of the pistol dug into the cuts on her palm, biting her lip as she tried to curl her finger around the trigger. Turning her head, she clumsily aimed over her shoulder and shot blindly, ignoring the sharp jolt of pain that raced up her arm as the gun shuddered in her hands. She heard a howl as the first bullet made contact.

She shot again.

Missed.

Again, and she heard another injured cry.

Taly was at the cliff face now, and she groped for the narrow opening. She tried to re-holster the pistol, but her hands were slick with blood, and it clattered to the ground. Deciding to leave the gun, she pulled her body between the narrowing walls. It was uncomfortably tight, but she kept going, trying to put as much space between her and the entrance as possible.

Before she knew it, she was out of time. The harpy slammed its body against the cliff, setting off a concussive wave of sound that seemed to vibrate the very stone. It jabbed its face through the gap and sniffed, saliva dripping from its decaying grin. It could sense her vulnerability. It stretched, its claw raking against the stone walls and stopping just a hair’s breadth short of her bloodied shoulder.

The harpy, newly enraged, threw itself at the crevice. A rain of stone and sand shook loose, coating Taly’s body and mixing with the blood on her skin. A flurry of bronzed scales ripped from the beast’s body and fluttered to the ground as it desperately tried to wedge its gangly form inside the gap. Even in its emaciated state, it couldn’t fit.

Undeterred, it reached for her, writhing and moaning in a hideous dance. Every so often, it would manage to graze her arm or her cheek, and it would pull back to frantically suck at its claw.

It wasn’t losing interest. No… if anything, each drop of blood it managed to collect just made it renew its efforts to reach her.

I must smell like magic after staying at the manor. That was the only explanation. With two shadow mages in residence as well as its own aether core, Harbor Manor had more aether than anywhere else on the island.

The rock face tore at her skin as Taly pushed herself farther back, and she twisted and squirmed, groping for the daggers still strapped to her thighs. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t reach. Her arms and legs were pinned in place, and the harpy was still tearing at the walls.

She was going to die here. The realization made her feel cold. Up until that moment, she hadn’t truly believed it. She thought maybe—just maybe—she might find a way out. She always had before.

Not this time it seemed.

“Please stop!” Taly screamed hopelessly, pounding her fists against the stone. “Stop! Just stop!”

As she shrank away from another sharp rake of the harpy’s claws, her skin began to tingle. It was faint at first, easy to ignore, but the prickling sensation soon began to intensify, morphing into a dull burn that started at her fingertips and radiated all the way up to her shoulder. The searing pain continued to surge, overpowering the collective agony of all her other wounds and adding to her desperation.

“ Please! ” she wailed. “I don’t want to die here! Just stop! Please stop! Stop! Stop! ”

The scar on her palm started to glow an angry violet, illuminating the small space as strange markings flickered to life across the skin of her arm. The pain pulsed, setting her blood on fire as she tipped her head back and let out an agonized scream.

And then, as if in reply to her desperate pleas, everything went quiet. Her ears rang in the unexpected silence, and she wondered briefly if she was dead. But the pain still wracking her body with every tortured breath quickly told her that she was still very much alive.

For now, at least.

When Taly finally opened her eyes, she saw that the beast stood frozen before her. Its gnarled arm was still extended, its claw fixed in place as it raked across her shoulder. But all movement had ceased. Delicate golden threads spanned the narrow divide, tangling together as they encircled the harpy’s body in a gilded, flickering web.

“What the hell?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but the sound was deafening in the strange silence.

She had no idea how or why this was happening, but she wasn’t going to waste this chance. She looked for a way around the beast. Maybe with enough time, she could climb over and out? If she could get her legs to work, that is. She tried to push herself up, but the stone raked against her wounds, momentarily paralyzing her as a fresh wave of agony shuddered through her.

She didn’t have time to try again. A feeble whimper fell from her lips as the harpy started to move, exaggerated and slow at first but quickly gaining speed as it shook off whatever magic spell had stopped it in the first place.

Taly’s body started to shake as she finally gave in to the hiccupping sobs. The tears rolled freely down her cheeks, streaking the patina of blood smeared across her face. If she were lucky, maybe the harpy would puncture some vital organ, killing her before it managed to drag her back to its nest. Or perhaps she would bleed out, stuck inside this stone prison.

Closing her eyes, Taly pressed her face against the rock face, trying to force her mind to think of something happy. She didn’t want her last thoughts to be filled with pain and fear. There had to be something that would take her away from this hell. Like… like the first time she bested Skye in the sparring ring. That was a good day. She was pretty sure he had let her win, but even now, she still didn’t care .

She did her best to recall every detail about that moment. The color of the sky. The smell of the grass. The look on his face when she’d tackled him during her victory dance.

Slowly, the harpy and the pain melted away as she lost herself in the memory.

Her consciousness began to fade, and a soft darkness crept in at the edges of her vision. It beckoned her, its honeyed voice promising a blessed release from the pain and fear.

This is it , Taly thought as she embraced the icy tendrils twining around her thoughts. These were her last moments in this world. She’d had a good life with no real regrets save one—Skye. She wished she could have told him the truth—given him the answers he so desperately wanted. At the very least, she had gotten to see him again. She had gotten to spend one more perfect night sprawled out next to him in the space between their rooms, playing chess and nursing a bottle of champagne long after everyone else had gone to bed. That thought brought her a small amount of comfort as her eyelids fluttered closed.

A loud crunch punctuated the chaotic din, startling Taly awake. The harpy stopped reaching for her as it went quiet, its mouth gaping and its body twitching. The tip of a sword peeked out of the creature’s chest, and flames lapped at the edges of the wound. As Taly looked into the beast’s mournful, glassy eyes, she felt a small pang of sadness as the light slowly dimmed and then faded away completely. The harpy was dead, its thirst finally sated.

She heard a grunt from beyond the opening as the harpy’s limp carcass was forcefully removed and thrown to the side .

“Taly?!” came a panicked voice.

Taly wanted to cry in relief. It was Skye. She had never been so happy to see that arrogant bastard in all her life. “I’m here,” she croaked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Thank the Shards!” His face came into view, sweat and blood streaking his skin. “Take my hand!”

Taly shifted, trying to extend her arm, but her body didn’t want to obey her commands. She tried again, but the tight space and sudden lethargy pinned her in place. “I can’t,” she said, her words starting to slur together.

Skye crammed his body farther into the gap and reached for her. His fingers grazed the tattered remains of her sleeve, and he attempted to pull her forward. “Please, Taly! You have to help me!”

“That hurts, Skye,” Taly murmured tiredly as he continued to tug at her. “Stop… that hurts.” Despite her protests, when his searching hand found hers, she grasped it instinctively.

The rock pulled at her clothing and skin as he edged her forward.

“How did you find me?” she asked as he gently laid her against the cliff face. The cool air felt wonderful as it wafted across her bloodstained skin. “There are no roads on this part of the island.”

Skye barked out a mirthless laugh. “Aiden was able to cast a locator spell once you hit the ground. I followed you on foot. Aiden and Aimee are behind me with the horses.”

Now that the danger had passed, everything seemed much less urgent. Even the pain had started to fade into the background. For some reason, Taly was having a hard time remembering why Skye looked so concerned. Her eyelids fluttered as her exhaustion started to overtake her.

“Don’t fall asleep on me,” Skye said, tapping her cheek.

“Stop it,” Taly mumbled as her head tipped forward. Couldn’t he see that she was tired? “Just… leave me alone.”

“No ,” he whispered, tucking a finger beneath her chin and pulling her eyes back to his. “ I’m not going to leave you alone, I won’t ever leave you behind, so you forget that nonsense right now. You’re tired—I know that. But you need to stay awake. Please, just stay awake. Don’t go to sleep.”

He was pleading with her now, pressing his lips to her hair, her brow. His hands trembled as he wiped blood from her eyes. “Please, Tink. Aiden’s almost here. Just stay awake—that’s all you need to do. I’ll take care of the rest. I promise.”

“Skye?” Taly tried to look at him, but her eyes didn’t want to stay open.

The world was starting to go dark now.

Her vision narrowed.

No! her mind screamed, thrashing against the pain, the lethargy, the inky blackness that had started to creep in around the edges. There was something she still needed to tell him. Something important.

Her lips tried to form the words. “Skye… Em, I…”

And then it was gone. The thought just slipped away from her, like water through outstretched fingers.

“Aiden! Over here!” Skye looked back towards the tree line and waved an arm before turning back to her. “Taly, wake up!” He started to shake her. “You’re not allowed to leave me yet! Understand?! Damn it! Come on, Tink. You just have to hold on a little longer.”

Taly felt a new set of hands poking and jabbing at her. She feebly tried to wave them away.

“This is bad. She’s going into shock.” The newcomer forcibly opened her eyes. “Taly!” he shouted.

“Aiden?” Taly couldn’t really see him. Her eyes just wouldn’t focus. Still, the voice sounded familiar.

Aiden pulled an earth crystal from his pocket. The symbol for cocin was inscribed onto the surface—an enchantment that would allow him to use the crystal as a focusing talisman. Though the fey didn’t need crystals to perform magic, a focusing talisman could exponentially increase a mage’s power—take a simple spell and turn it into something lifesaving.

“What are you doing?” Skye grabbed Aiden’s coat when the healer’s hands began to glow. “What about the venom?”

“She’s lost too much blood,” Aiden replied hastily. “If I try to bleed the venom out, she will die. Our best bet is to stop the bleeding now and deal with the venom later. She’s mortal. It won’t have the same effect on her as it would on us.”

Skye still looked skeptical, but he let go of Aiden’s coat.

Aiden’s hands began to glow once more, sparkling green as he summoned the spell. He took deep, even breaths, waving his hands through the air, forming and shaping the growing fog of earth magic .

Taly knew the moment the restoration spell took effect. Her skin itched as her wounds began to knit themselves back together, and her vision slowly refocused. The strange sensation of being sewn back together was excruciating, and her back arched as undulating waves of heat seared her from the inside out. Leaning against the rock face, her breath came in heavy, ragged gasps. Even after her wounds had closed, something inside her still burned.

“Taly?” Skye asked tentatively. He rested one hand on the back of her neck and turned her head to face him.

Taly took a breath to reply but winced when she felt something sharp lance her chest.

“Why isn’t she getting better?” Skye demanded, turning to Aiden.

Her limbs felt heavy, but as Aiden continued to heal her, the pain slowly began to fade. She somehow managed to reach up and grasp the hand that rested on her neck. “It’s been a hell of a day, Em. You’ll have to give me a minute.”

The sound that came out of Skye’s mouth was somewhere between a choked laugh and a sob. His eyes were red and glassy, but he was smiling as he wiped a trickle of blood off her cheek.

“She’s lost a lot of blood,” Aiden said, mostly to himself. He waved a hand over her, watching the bright pulse of earth magic as it searched for injuries. “No major breaks, but she’s cracked a few bones. Amazingly, no concussion.” Turning to Skye, he asked, “Do you have any more shadow crystals? These restoration spells are taxing, and the aether in the air is so thin—my magic isn’t regenerating as quickly as it would normally. If you can feed me a little more aether, I might be able to cast a second spell.”

“Of course! Why didn’t you ask sooner?” Skye frantically dug into his bag, pulling out a palm-sized shadow crystal. His fingers grazed the faceted surface as he began to prod at the magic stored within, and a violet haze gradually materialized in the surrounding air.

It didn’t take long for the aether to saturate the area. In all her life, Taly had never smelled anything so sweet. The air felt richer, more vibrant somehow, and she took in several deep, shuddering breaths, allowing the heavenly draft to soothe the burning pain that riddled her body.

As she leaned her head back, Aiden continued to work on the spells. If she were to open her eyes, she knew she would see threads of earth magic, almost like ley lines, crisscrossing her skin.

When she could finally take a breath without flinching, she mumbled, “Hey guys?”

The two men went silent, staring at her expectantly.

“We need to move,” she grunted as she made a half-successful attempt to push herself up into a sitting position.

Aiden was the first to regain himself. “No. You shouldn’t exert yourself. The restoration spells need time to work before we try to move you.”

“That may be so,” Taly replied with a groan, “but there are only a few hours of daylight left. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but there’s a harpy nest just on the other side of this cliff face, and harpies hunt at night. We need to go. Now.”

“Where’s Aimee?” Skye asked.

“I’m here!” the fey noblewoman called as she emerged from the forest. Her skirts were hiked up around her hips, her dirtied bloomers peeking out from underneath the tattered hem, and she rode astride Taly’s horse. She held the reins of the sidesaddled mare as it struggled to keep up with the nimble gelding.

“Well look at that,” Taly muttered tiredly. “She can ride.”

Skye laughed as he put his arm around her and helped her stand. “At least your sense of humor is still intact. That has to be a good sign.”

Taly leaned heavily against him. Though the wounds on her leg had closed, the limb felt like dead weight and refused to respond to her commands. She tried to take a step but lost her footing and stumbled.

Without hesitation, Skye reached down and hooked an arm under her knees, effortlessly hoisting her up. “She can ride with me. Aiden, is there anything else you can do for her right now?”

“No.” Aiden paused, thinking. “Just monitor the spells—they’ll last longer with a steady supply of aether. Once we’re back in the forest, I can check to see how she’s doing.”

“Wait,” Taly said, tugging on Skye’s collar. “The harpy… I want its feathers.”

“What? Why?” Skye asked, pausing to look at the harpy’s rapidly cooling carcass. Its head had been cleaved from its body, and its arms and wings still twitched sporadically.

“My trophy,” Taly replied, smiling when she felt Skye’s bark of laughter. “I promised that bitch I was going to turn her into a feather duster. Don’t make me a liar, Skye.”

Skye sighed before glancing at Aiden. “Will you…”

“Yeah, I got it,” Aiden said, chuckling to himself .

With Aiden’s help, the two men managed to get Taly seated in the saddle, and Skye placed a protective arm around her waist, tucking her safely against his chest as he settled in behind her.

The journey back to Ryme was far shorter this time around. The harpy had carried her southeast of where they had originally emerged at the Aion Gate, so they were able to cut through the forest, heading south until they found an old, forgotten back road. The path was overgrown and cracked, but the horses managed to pick around the broken stones.

As they rode, Taly tried to take stock of the damage to her body. Most of the bleeding had stopped now. She could still feel blood trickling down her leg from the puncture wound, most likely from where the saddle rubbed against the delicate layer of newly grown skin, but it was minimal. The gashes and lacerations from her fall through the trees had closed, and though her skin was still red and swollen, Aiden was a skilled healer—she doubted she would even have any scars left over from this ordeal.

The sun began to slip behind the horizon, plunging the forested road into darkness, but Taly barely noticed. She made no complaint when Skye gently lifted her out of the saddle so that Aiden could check the spells, and she remained silent when they set out again. A single image was burned into her mind’s eye. The harpy—it had just stopped. Like it was frozen in time. That wasn’t a spell she recognized. It couldn’t have been Skye, and there had been no one else around to help her. That left only one conclusion.

I did that , she thought. I used magic . Real magic. Time magic. She pressed her eyes closed as her body began to tremble. Skye shifted in the saddle, and the arm around her tightened as he tucked her more firmly against him.

“Everything’s okay now. I’ve got you,” he whispered in her ear. For a moment, she almost believed him. As he rested his chin on the top of her head, his fingers absently caressing a patch of skin peeking through the shredded fabric at her waist, she wanted so desperately to believe him.

But he was wrong—everything was far from okay. If a Sanctifier had witnessed what happened today, she would’ve been immediately sentenced to die for the crimes of a Queen she’d never met. No trial. No mercy. Because that’s what the Sanctorum did to time mages or anyone they suspected of having time magic. They hunted them, killed them, and then erased every trace of them from this world. And anyone stupid enough to try to protect a time mage… they got to share in their fate.

“Here,” Skye said, jolting Taly out of her thoughts. He looked back at Aiden and jerked his head toward an overgrown path that veered off the main road. “It’s a shortcut. Should take us around the back of the manor property.”

No! Taly shook herself, trying to dispel some of the overwhelming fatigue that weighed her down. She couldn’t let them take her back. She was even more dangerous than before.

“Let me down,” she ordered weakly as Skye steered his horse toward the side road.

“What?” Skye asked, confused. Nevertheless, he complied, easily sliding out of the saddle and gently placing her on the ground.

She pushed his hands away, but her knees buckled as soon as he let go, and he quickly pulled her back against his body to keep her from falling. A growl of frustration ripped from his throat as she continued to struggle against him, but when she managed to wriggle out of his grip a second time, she finally found her feet.

“I’m going back to town,” she mumbled, trying to ignore the way her words slurred together. Her heart fluttered rapidly in her chest, and a strange shimmer had crept in around the edges of her vision, making the world around her dance and sway.

“Are you kidding?” Skye sputtered in disbelief. “No. You were practically dead not two hours ago. You can’t even walk!”

Skye reached for her, but she shrugged out of his grasp, still stumbling and listless. “This may come as a surprise to you, but you don’t dictate my actions, Skye. I did my job—I got you to the gate and back. We’re done now.”

“Taly,” Aiden said, swinging himself out of the saddle and coming to stand beside Skye, “I don’t think—"

“You don’t get to tell me what to do either, Aiden.” The earth mage simply stared at her, his mouth hanging open in surprise.

Skye wasn’t just agitated now. He was fuming. “Taly. You’re acting like a crazy person. A very bloody, very injured crazy person. Come home.”

“I am going home.” For emphasis, Taly added, “ My home.”

“Talya?” Aimee had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire journey back, and when she spoke, her voice was soft and uncertain. “If this is about me, I’ll stay out of your way. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I didn’t think.” Tears, delicate and ladylike, started to stream down her face, and she worried the reins of Taly’s horse between her fingers. “I never think. This is all my fault. I am so, so sorry.”

Taly looked up at her. In that moment, she knew that she had never really hated the girl. Not really.

“I don’t blame you, Aimee.” Taly took a deep breath, struggling against the wave of dizziness that crept up on her. Despite the chill wind that whistled through the trees, she had started sweating. “If anything, today just showed me that I was right the first time. This was all a mistake. It’s too dangerous.” A violent shiver shook her shoulders, and her tongue felt clumsy. “I’m… it’s all too dangerous now.”

“What is she talking about?” Aiden whispered to Skye.

Skye shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine,” he replied, his voice equally quiet.

“Shit,” Aiden cursed. “I think I know what’s happening.”

When the healer approached her, Taly took a step back, then another. She was wasting time. She just needed to go.

“It’s okay,” Aiden said gently. “If you want to go back to Ryme, that’s fine. I’ll help you get there. Just let me check the spells one more time. Maybe give you something for the pain?”

Taly hesitated, and Aiden used that as an opportunity to close the distance, slinging an arm around her waist when she tried to backpedal. His hand came up to her forehead.

“Shards, she’s burning up.” Aiden turned to Skye, who was watching them with wide eyes. “Which is closer? Ryme or Harbor Manor? ”

“Harbor Manor,” Skye replied readily.

Aiden started pulling her towards the horses. “Then we need to get to Harbor Manor.”

“No!” Taly thrashed, trying to shake him off, but she was too weak to do anything but tire herself out. She felt the skin on her thigh tear as one of her wounds reopened, releasing a fresh flood of warm blood. “Let me go!”

“Hey!” Skye snarled, confusion and anger evident in his expression as he pulled Taly away from the earth mage. “You’re hurting her!”

Skye’s hands were gentle as he grabbed her fists and pulled her against his body. Her wounded leg gave out beneath her, but still, she writhed, resisting whatever help he tried to offer.

“Let me go,” Taly pleaded weakly. She was just trying to protect them. Why couldn’t they see that?

Aiden’s hands began to glow. “We need to get her back to the manor right now. I think an infection is starting to set in.” Ignoring Taly’s feeble pleas, he began weaving and shaping the spell around her. His eyes found hers, and although she saw nothing but kindness and concern shining through, she shrank back. “Can you tell me your name? Do you know where you are?”

Taly opened her mouth, but her words got caught in her throat. His questions didn’t make any sense.

“Tell me your name,” Aiden repeated calmly. “Can you do that? Tell me your name, and Skye will let you go.”

Taly shook her head. “Let me go,” she whimpered, renewing her struggles. Her name didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except getting away.

“Aiden, what’s happening?” Skye snapped.

“I don’t think she’s in her right mind.” Aiden’s hands glowed brighter, and his fingers began prodding at her face, forcibly opening her eyes as he examined her. “Between the fever and the healing spells, I’d be surprised if she even knows who she is, much less who we are.”

Skye sighed in defeat, readjusting his grip when she tried to elbow him in the side. “Taly?” His fingers grasped her chin as he tried to pull her eyes to his, but she couldn’t see past her own panic. “Taly, you’re sick. We’re just trying to help you.”

“Please let me go.” She was getting desperate now, and tears started to stream down her face. “Let me go… please . I can’t go back. Please don’t make me go back. Just leave me here. Just leave me…”

“Oh, Shards,” Aimee cried softly. “Shards, this is my fault.”

Taly almost managed to wriggle out of Skye’s grip, but he tightened his hold on her, his arm looping around her waist as he lifted her off her feet. “Hurry, Aiden,” he grunted when Taly managed to kick him in the shin. “She’s reopening her wounds.”

“Got it.” Tendrils of earth magic lapped at the healer’s skin as he cupped Taly’s face. “Shhh… it’s alright, Taly. I’m just going to give you something for the pain. Everything’s going to be alright. I promise.”

“Please don’t do this,” Taly tried one last time, her eyes wide and frightened. She was having difficulty focusing on Aiden’s face now. Images of the harpy, motionless and still, clouded her vision, pushing away all other thoughts. She saw its gaping mouth, felt the sting of its stationary claw as it raked her skin. Time had stopped. She had done that. She had made time stop. “You don’t know what you’re doing. Leave me. It’s better if you leave me.”

The last thing she remembered before the world faded to black was the feeling of Skye’s lips pressed against her brow and his whispered words of comfort as he gently lowered her to the ground.