Magnus, Fly!

TYKE

Ihave no idea how my axe found itself in the flat, but my heart leaped at it. It keeps hitting my back as we race up the stairs. As for my hammer, I'll have to mourn it another day.

Feet pound on the steps, our rapid breathing echoing in the staircase.My chest aches. Everything is.

I should've left with Fay the moment she jumped on me. The emergency lights are flashing red, on and off, adding some unwanted fucking anxiety.

I can't imagine how Fay must feel. I cradle her head closer to my chest. She hasn't moved, barely spoke, hardly looked at me.

As soon as I saw the corpse of Chief Jinksovan swing at the end of a rope, I realized it was her mother next to him. Fidr hung them, placing them side by side in the middle of Central Arc. Whenever she gets a trophy, she can't help but display them. The bitch will die. It's a given.

I see the end of the fire escape stairs leading to the roof. Throughout the building, people evacuate, and the walls keep resonating with sobs and muffled voices.

Adrenaline gorges my veins to glass shattering. A window broke perhaps two floors under us. There's a deafening electric fizz now.

An ear-piercing scream rings out, and we all halt.

"Tyke," grates Deon.

I look behind my shoulder; he's soaked in sweat, his exhales crashing on me, an arm braced across Donna's chest as she stands beside him.

He's afraid, teeth bare, chest wet, a spear in one hand."Deon, it's like a mission. Nothing new."

He tucks his chin down a moment before looking at me again. "All good, bro. I'm good."

The skylight bursts wide in one kick—I immediately cough at the sudden air change—the city's in smoke, a milky veil hanging low between the skyscrapers. I run on the pebbles, spinning on mad heels. "Where's Magnus?"

"I trapped him under a crate; there, in the left corner." Vine rushes ahead of me, fast to kneel next to a wooden box.

As I tread across the brume, I bring Fay to my lips. No amount of whispering will change the outcome.

Still.

"Fay, I will carry you through the chaos, tear apart the raging storms that threaten you. Right now, the one in your heart will make no exception." I taste the salt on her lips. I wish these were sweeter because I can't handle it. "If I fail, your hand holds the right to kill me." She has. I'm hers.

Resignation has already enveloped her eyes, her silence ashing my bones. If I could rewind the hands of time and shield her from witnessing that?—

A sudden gush blows away the mist, and my feet break immediately.

Like whirling strings made of light, tens of thousands of magic ropes fall from the murky sky like relentless snakes.

Cerberus is barking incessantly, adding dread to this apocalyptic scene.

"Fidr's gone fucking insane!" Deon shouts, taking to higher grounds, speeding off into the ether like it's a performance.

He's flying too high!

"Stay on the ground. You're going to get hit."

He hovers above us, twirling on himself. "People are throwing themselves out of windows!"

I look up, feeling the blood vessels in my eyes swelling. There's no way to describe my horror. Waterspout-like streams of energy storm between the buildings, shattering windows as they worm into them. It is filled with cries, shouts, screams; some creatures falling, plummeting down towers.

The city has become its monster, howling in despair, its screeching shredding our ears.

"This is Fidr taking magic by force!" screams Donna at my back.

From the building opposite us, I recognize a cyclops crashing out of his window, a whirling thread of dark energy spilling into his eye. "Cyclops are Seers, right?" Vine cries out with the expression of a lab student.

"They can see the object of your desire in your head and make it appear briefly." Any monster with magic is a target...

"Let's hurry." My heart pounds as I run to Vine."Bell, are you chipped?" I ask, crouching next to her.

She's moaning under her breath. Her thigh is bleeding again.

I grate my teeth. Everyone's either bleeding or crying.

"Thanks for asking at last. No!" she fusses, fiddling with the crate. "Here, little guy, time to fly."

"Donna, come over here, pup," I shout, holding my ribs as pain shoots.

"Quickly, weregirl." Vine flicks her hand to Donna, who tosses a soaking pack of oxidized meat at her. She flips the mushy pack upside down and opens it. "Argh, it's spoiled!"

"Well, that was the only meat we had. Electricity was off for a while. What were you expecting?" Donna grunts.

Kir'elp*, she's frightening. I've never come up close to an Elatina werewolf in fury form. Stuff of nightmares...

I dash to Deon before his feet touch the ground, fear confusing my thoughts. "Here, take her, please." I pass Fay over to Deon, calmer now.

Holding her with one arm, Fay wraps her arms around him and buries her head in his neck. A stab of pain hits my heart. "Take care of her."

"No need to ask." As he says this, Deon's gaze is fixed on Bell.

With one hand, I clasp his cheeks, shaking the stupidity out of him. "Listen! She's been by my side since the beginning of a mission that fucked up."

He lifts his dreary eyes to me. "What do you mean?"

"Not only was the mission a set-up to kill a vampire princess, but as we failed to do so, there was another angle to the supset. This vampire wanted to meet us... me. And what she said is why we must get off this roof now."

"Well, Tyke, I've got a few stories to share, too," he grumbles.

"And I will listen. In the meantime, I need you to hold on to Fay while I feed Magnus." I can't even hear my voice; everything is a screech.

I notice a stick in his grip collated with his spear. "What is this?"

"Ah, thanks for asking! Fay dropped it when her parents were seen... It's a bloody wand, Fay's, and it's dangerous!"

"Give it to me."

"No."

"Deon..."

"Here!" He hits my chest with a clench. "Bro, I don't know what's going on, but I'm doing my best here. I kept the girls safe like you asked, though I'm pretty sure they would've been fine without me... I need some slack after that." He's watching Donna like she's his walking lungs.

"I'm taking us to a place where the girls can be safe, where you can build your kitchen as you see fit."

As I slip the wand under my Kevlar vest, he snorts. "Right."

"Stay here and keep Donna in check. She seems to be warring with herself."

Deon glimpses Donna, whose clawed hand she's struggling to hold is a slash away from Bell's cheek."She's fine."

"If you say so..."

I quickly rush back to the group of feeds and kneel between Bell and Donna, distancing them because I do not want to get involved in a catfight. "Is he eating?"

"No. And I completely understand Magnus's reluctance to consume such rotten food," she says flatly, tossing the meat over the edge.

I look up at the sky. And then dip my head, gripping it... fucking lost.

"Tyke..."

I leap to my feet when I hear Fay's tiny voice. "What is it, bug?"

"You have a knife?"

"I do." With a smile, I walk to her, relieved she said something at all.

"Can I have it?"

I stare at my fairy as she attempts to stand. Wobbling on her feet, Deon helps her stabilize herself. I couldn't be more grateful to have him by my side at this precise moment. I need to make it up to him, whatever it takes. Whatever he wants, I'll give it to him.

"Why would you want it?"

"It's to use it."

To use it? By Gruumsh!

"Trust me, please." A torrent of questions might be crashing into Fay's head, yet she still finds the strength to smile. She senses something, knows to make herself useful, helpful... Maybe she wants to keep everything buried inside her for as long as possible, and I will be there when everything erupts. I cup her face, kissing her—a spasm tremors between our lips. "Fay, I will make amends for her wrongdoings; I promise you."

"I don't understand," she whimpers.

I look up at Deon, a hunger for a specific fae's brains and guts watering my mouth. Deon's gaze is as static and fueled with as much rage as mine. I will remove Fidr's teeth, wings, and eyes, and give them to Fay. I will be there to watch and acknowledge whether she wants to set her remains on fire or let them rot on the ground.

The blade rings as I unsleeve it, still pondering if I should give her such a sharp weapon. "Here." I bed the flat of the knife in her palm.

She grabs the handle, lifts the knife enough for it to stand on its edge, and... "Fay!" makes a thin cut in her palm!

"Stop!" Deon barks, grabbing the knife from her.

"He needs flesh. Hence the meat, right?" Her voice... Fuck, it's softer than a snowflake.

My sorry smile goes out to her. "I'll do it. You don't need to harm yourself."

Deon hands me my knife, a glint of despair in his chuckle, like he wants out of this mess.

I don't want her to watch, so I retrace my steps to Bell and crouch. I steady my gaze on Cerberios, who's busy barking at the sky, and focus my senses on the cool of the blade against my skin. The slice that follows is a suffering I do not wish to repeat. Grunt-less, I stare down at the piece of flesh hanging from my arm.

"That is some fucked-up shit," Bell whispers, watching the small slice of muscle resting on the knife as I bring it to Magnus.

"You have another idea?" I dance the blade under Magnus's yellow mouth. He sticks out his black tongue and licks his little orc snack, adrenaline spiking in my bloodstream. Yes!

As awkward as it may seem, my chest heaves after he swallows four little chunks.

"Prepare yourself and take a step back," I shout, watching Magnus become drowned in smoke.

"What's happening?" Donna asks, covering her eyes as wind and dust swirls around us.

"He's shifting!" I shout, picking up Cerberios as his muscles weighs in bloody barks.

A deep howl pierces the air, and soon, two threatening horns twirl about the sky.

"Holy fuck!" Deon is frantically flapping his wings like a child at a toy. "This... this beast!"

There's nothing like a dragon to cheer up a gargoyle...

"Magnus, help us up." Last time he stretched a wing down, so here's hoping it's not sheer luck.

To this, this mighty monster unfolds his wing, and like a ladder, we start climbing up his leathered red limb. Shadows of Deon's wings hover above as I latch onto the dragon's bony skeleton, charting the stretch of his wing skin.

Deon is already on his back, cradling Fay. "Hurry, there's an earthquake!" he roars. I smack the flat of Magnus' back to find Deon on his knees, the tip of his spear nipping at a dragon's scale as it casually lies beside him. I catch Fay muttering, "You can let go of me. I'd rather fly."

"Ain't flying out there by yourself!" He's right.Everywhere I turn, it's the same view. Like veins of lightning, thick black fibers of magic keep branching out across the sky, slicing through the air with a loud crack as these descend from the heavens, or rather spew out from Faermont's bloody dome. They've traveled far and they seem hungry... Somehow, I'm not surprised. We all saw it coming, especially when I recall Fidr's wicked grin as she unveiled her surprise on national television. The dome in Faermont, heavily publicized in recent weeks––was being built with calculating intent right under our nose. Fidr was engineering a way to drain monsters of their magic, crafting her plot secretly, yet making it all too visible for everyone to even suspect anything. The woman could not have been more bred in deceit.

One rope sizzles around a building fronting Helbenixon, and my gaze follows this abomination. Seeming almost alive, it furiously climbs up the tower to leap onto Helbenixon's roof. A gasp thrust out of me as it flashes toward Deon. "Deon, behind you!" I yell, Cerberios writhing in my arms.

"Huh?" Deon turns, then realizes. "Oh, shit!" He leaps up, evading the streak from a thread as it continues its frenzied journey, uninterested, seeking perhaps specific chips monsters have been implanted with.

I try to focus, wincing at the sound of the unbearable clamping at my ears. Of course, panic keeps growing, and the chorus of cries that have taken over the town won't subside soon. Perhaps the constant chime of fragmenting windows will. But the cries. It might take a while.

Deon catches my gaze as I heave myself up, a foolish dog under my arm, clawing and whining at the worst possible time.

"Donna?" he asks.

My gaze turns to the pup behind me. "Donna, you good?"

"Ecstatic!" she growls. The girl... I've never seen anyone so deadly.

"Heard that!" I shout. I don't know what's with these two, but it's odd.

"The city's collapsing," Deon's voice crackles. "We have to bounce, my friend!"

"It's Magnus. The building can't hold his weight!" I crawl next to Deon and place Fay between my thighs, a weeping dog pressed against my side. "We're going to fly, Fay. Hold on to the scale before you." I murmur. She leans forth, tucking her fingers in. "That's it, bug."

I glance at my back, ensuring everyone is here and seated.

All here: Donna's latched around Deon's waist, Vine at the back, and her usual wink...

"Vine, are you ready?"

"Oh, I can't wait." This flat voice has become the norm for me.

"Magnus, fly!"