Page 39

Jack

“S av! Run!”

I shoved Axallar with all my strength, but he was immovable and I screamed in terror as Sav shook herself out of her stupor and finally ran. The massive white bird that had dragged her off Hazel’s back, intent on carrying her away, had circled around, dropping her pack, and was closing fast.

She wasn’t going to make it.

I bellowed and shoved the giant bear with everything I had. He growled in my face, spittle flying across my cheek, but when our eyes met, he blinked. I met his stare, cold fury in my gaze. He took a step back, over the line that separated the two courts, then another.

I raced forward, wrapping an arm under Sav’s, and dragged her with me across the border.

The enormous bird’s blood-flecked claws swiped low, catching my coat and yanking me backward.

Sav dropped to her knees on her side of the border and even as I was dragged away, I exhaled a sigh. Safe. She was safe.

The gigantic bird lifted into the sky, talons wrapped around my coat, and air rushed from my lungs as I was yanked off the ground.

“Jack!” Sav yelled.

I reached for the buckles fastening the garment across my body, and began undoing them as I rose higher.

Too slow, I was moving too slow. My heart beat painfully in my chest as I tried to get my breathing under control and steady my fingers enough to finish undoing the clasps.

Years of training under my dad’s intensive tutelage were finally paying off.

Maybe…

At some height, the fall would kill me.

Pain lanced through my leg—then I was yanked back to earth. Axallar had my calf in his jaws. He hit the ground hard, dragging me with him. The bird shrieked, but before I could blink, claws and fur collided.

“Jack get back. They’ll kill you!”

I glanced at Sav, then to the bear and bird, equally matched in size and in deadly talons and teeth. She was right. I should run, but I couldn’t leave him to die after he’d saved my life.

“Jack!”

Ignoring her, I searched for a stick or rock. Spying a massive branch protruding from the snow, I yanked it free and charged the bird, waving it overhead.

Axallar dove in front of me, and the bird’s beak speared his side. He let out a bellow of pain and swiped his huge paw across the bird’s face. It shrieked, taking flight.

Sav halted beside me and set her hand on the branch. Flames flared to life along its frozen bark and I waved it in the air, stabbing at the bird. It squawked again, glancing between the three of us.

Deciding it was outmatched, the creature flapped enormous white wings, climbing until it was a distant speck in the sky.

I turned to Sav, throwing my arms around her. “Why did you come back out here!”

Her cheeks were flushed from the cold and she pushed out of my hold, eyes narrowing as she looked me over, finding only the tiny wound on my arm and bloodstained pant leg from where Axallar’s molars had cut into skin.

I grimaced. “It’s nothing. I can walk.”

She searched my face, looking for a lie in my words. “Don’t do that again!”

“Do what?”

“Risk yourself to save me.”

“You did the same–”

The crack of her slap stung my cheek and I gaped at her as she marched out of the snow and back to Hazel’s side. She fell down beside the creature who had shifted from a snow leopard back to fairy and was lying naked in a field of pink flowers.

“Hazel,” I whispered, rushing toward her.

Axallar stepped into my path and I moved to dart around him, but the coppery scent of blood stung my nose, and I inhaled sharply. Dark crimson soaked his coat where the bird had speared him. I pressed a hand to the wound, and he moaned in pain.

“I’m sorry, buddy. Shhh. Come on, let me see it.”

He stretched his mouth wide, roaring, and I backed up a step. His black eyes searched mine a moment before he dipped his head and shoved me toward the border.

“I’ll help you,” I told him.

He gave me another shove, checking to be sure I was across the invisible line before turning and running back into the snowy forest. I stared after him, something in my chest cracking as I watched him go. He had saved me and now I feared he would die with no one to care for his injuries.

“Jack, get over here. I need your help.”

On my knees, my stomach hollowed at the sight.

It was so much worse than I’d thought. The bird had hooked his claws in her and in her naked human state I saw how deep the wounds were.

A slow trickle of dark blood pooled at her side and the slow rise and fall of her chest rumbled in such a way that I knew a lung had been punctured.

If she didn’t see a doctor soon, she wouldn’t make it.

Sav rested a hand over the wounds. “Damnit.”

“What is it?” I pressed two fingers to Hazel’s throat, counting out the rhythm of her heartbeat.

It was incredibly slow. So slow I wasn’t sure how she was alive.

But what did I know about fairies? Were their hearts slower?

Was this a flesh wound for them? I had taken several pre-med classes in preparation to become a doctor one day, but none had prepared me to save the life of a fairy.

“My magic doesn’t work. I can’t help her.” Sav looked up, brushing a strand of auburn hair back from her face, streaking crimson across her cheek.

I lifted a finger, wiping the blood away, and watched her eyes for any sign of concussion. Both pupils were slightly dilated but nothing too concerning after such a fall.

She flinched at my touch but didn’t stop me.

I let my finger trail her temple, tucking the hair behind her ear when it came loose again. “We need to clear her lungs. If we do that, we can stabilize her. How far are we from the nearest town?”

Her soft hazel eyes blinked at me as if she struggled to comprehend my words, but I knew that couldn’t be the case.

Sav was nothing if not cunning. Something else had rendered her speechless.

A flicker of something like hope trickled in, threatening to give wings to the emotion, but I dared not allow that feeling to grow.