RED

53

Just as Garreth hit the ground with a thud , Evelyn heard a familiar, anguished howl from the general direction of where the Academy lay in heaps.

Leah.

She cursed at the pain in that sound. And cursed further at her stupid body's inability to get its shit together. She needed to get down, needed to get to her friend. It wasn't that far to the ground, maybe only a hundred feet, but… Without her panther form, she wouldn't survive the fall. And without claws, there was no way for her to scale the steep descent. She eyed the ground below, leaning carefully over the ledge.

Falling, falling, falling—

Her mind raced with flashbacks from her near-death experience in the mountain pass, her hair flowing around her face as she reached for Aria, plummeting to certain doom.

Evelyn stumbled back, gripping for something to hold on to. Something to ground her. She backed herself into the walled cliff face, hyperventilating, clutching at her chest that burned with sharp pain. No, no, no, not again, she hissed, her nails cutting into the stone behind her . She couldn't afford this wasted time.

Breathe in , she commanded herself .

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out. She thought of those cubs back home.

In. Leah needed her.

Out . Finn, Kam, Luka needed her.

In. Aria needed her.

Out. Wren needed her.

She sucked in one last deep, ragged breath, knowing what she had to do. And ran for the ledge.

She was falling, falling, falling —

Shift, Evelyn! Aria's echoed shouts consumed her.

She opened her eyes. And shifted.

With that last push of encouragement, her body finally listened and melted into her second skin. The ground approached her quickly, but she landed on all fours on the hard soil, the impact of the landing vibrating through her injured arm.

She snarled and shook it off. No time . She loped toward the Academy, panting, catching her breath, and then broke out into a jog. Navigating around the earthen shrapnel that littered the ground, she zigzagged through the fires that raged around her, the earth pockmarked with lava. She narrowly avoided a flying arrow that zoomed past her head, lodging itself in the earth behind her. Faster, she commanded herself. She was sprinting, now, racing toward her friend.

As she neared the edge of the ruins, a head of long blonde hair caught her attention. Finn knelt under an overhang of stone next to Leah, who was draped over a gray wolf that lay sprawled on the ground.

No. No, it couldn't be —

Evelyn focused her hearing to pick up on Finn's voice, not slowing her pace. "Leah, we have to get him to the healer tent, he needs to shift, we can't carry him like this— "

Evelyn shifted back into her mortal form as she neared them. "What happened?" she cried.

"He took a sword to the back," Finn's brow furrowed as he kept firm pressure on the wound with both hands, "didn't see them coming from behind him."

"I lost track of him," Leah sobbed, "I should have seen them. This is my fault." Finn shushed her, soothing her as Kam rattled a labored breath under her grasp. His eyes remained closed, the rest of him unmoving. It was shocking that his body had kept him in his animal form when hers had kicked her out of it. It never ceased to amaze her how their powers manifested in each of them so differently. Perhaps his subconscious had deemed this the better option for survival.

But he wouldn't survive if they left him like this, if the growing pool of blood under him was any indication.

"Finn's right, Leah," Evelyn knelt beside them, placing a soft hand on Kam's side. "He might make it, but we need to get him to the tent. Can you get him to shift?"

"I don't know…" Leah muttered softly between gasping breaths.

"You have to try," Finn urged her in quiet command.

Leah raised up, looking at them through red, puffy eyes. "Okay," she said, nodding in agreement, steeling herself. "Okay."

Evelyn watched in silent fear as Leah positioned herself in front of the sleeping wolf's face. She shifted back into her wolf, her auburn fur replacing her battered armor. Evelyn's mouth went slack at the tiny patches of gray fur that poked through Leah's coat. Gray that hadn't been there before. Gray, the same shade as Kam .

If Evelyn could see more of Kam, she was sure she would find little patches of auburn in his coat, too. Her heart sank at what that meant. At what it would mean if Leah lost him.

Using her snout, Leah gently nudged Kam's heavy chin upward, making room for herself underneath him. She turned, keeping his head up while she worked her way under him until his head rested on her ribs. Where her heart beat furiously for him.

Leah rumbled a low growl, almost a purr that vibrated against his chin, his chest. Kam's eyelids began to flutter.

"It's working," Evelyn whispered. "Keep going, Leah."

Leah did it again and again, establishing a rhythm that matched the heartbeat Evelyn felt against her palm through Kam's thick fur. Slowly, with Leah's powers close to drained, her body began to resume its mortal state.

And to their amazement, so did Kam's.

"Yes, that's it," Finn muttered, looking at Evelyn, "we have to carry him." The two panthers immediately grabbed Kam's limp body, hauling him into their arms as Leah followed solemnly. They trudged awkwardly toward the healer's tent that seemed miles away from where they were. But with the fighting drawing to a close around them, the remaining Unifiers swept up in other combat, they were unimpeded.

Leah trotted alongside Finn now, a vice grip on Kam's hand. "Stay with me," she prayed in a whisper. "Please, please, please."

They neared the entrance, one of the healers already waiting to greet them, escorting them through the hundreds of severely injured people. Evelyn and Finn navigated between the beds and laid him down gently on a cot of his own at the healer's direction .

"Sword wound between the ribs," Finn told her calmly, that healer's training from his father taking over. "He's lost a lot of blood."

Leah knelt beside him, clasping his hands in hers. She formed her hand into the sign for I love you , dragging his fingertips along the shape, muttering those words over and over, desperate to connect with him.

Tears rolled down Evelyn's cheeks when light as bright as the sun gilded the tent in a flash and then disappeared.

"What the fuck?" Finn looked at her.

"Go," the healer nudged them. "We'll take care of him."

***

"Gods, help us," Joyen pleaded to the skies as the sand from their earth graft pelted their skin.

"Your god is weak," Vera's voice boomed around them, low and deep. It was not her voice that passed her lips. It was something ancient, and it sent primal fear racing over Aria's skin. "He will not save you today or any day. He does not deserve your prayers. You do not deserve to be saved."

Aria didn't have time to ruminate on Vera's strange words before Clem sent a round of tiny shards of stone toward Vera, but with a mere twist of her wrist, they flipped and aimed back at Clem.

And drove straight through his wings like razorblade rain.

The guttural scream that tore from his lips was too much to bear.

"Clem!" Aria shouted as he plummeted, his wings no longer able to hold him aloft. He flapped, trying to slow himself, but it didn't help. Hyla dove for him, slowing his fall with as much air as she could muster. Her efforts worked, but just barely .

Clem landed in the water, close to the shore, with a splash. Aria watched Hyla crash into the waves behind him and drag him to the sand, a trail of Clem's blood streaking the shore in their wake. She sobbed with relief when he coughed up a bit of water and sat up into Hyla's arms.

That was all she could afford to watch as the battle around her commanded her attention.

Many of the dragons now diverted their efforts to the Unifiers that dotted the skies, having given up on Vera, defeated by the fact they were unable to bring her down by fire or force.

From what she could tell, their soldiers were winning, the Unifier numbers diminishing drastically. But none of that mattered if they couldn't get through Vera's defenses. If they couldn't find a way to destroy her.

Aria almost called to her mother then, begging for them to retreat. For them to flee and save as many as they could. But as she looked toward Joyen, lightning flickered in the distance. The wind roared deafeningly around them. Lightning . Aria gasped, thunder drowning out her sounds. But the bolts were too far north to be of use to them.

"Hyla!" Aria yelled, inspiration coming to her. She dropped out of the sky toward the guard who was ordering others to carry Clem to the healer tent. "Get all the wind fae you can find! We need to push the eye of the storm closer to Vera!"

Hyla nodded succinctly and sprang into action, calling on any nearby Zephyrian fae to follow Aria north. After just a few moments, she dared a glance behind her to find nearly a dozen of her fellow soldiers hot on her trail. Unfortunately, so were a few Unifiers.

"Behind you!" she shouted at the group in warning as she expertly dodged shards of earth flying at her from the ground. Not missing a beat, Hyla whirled around and created a shield of air around one of the Unifiers, limiting the movement of their wings and forcing them to the ground. A brown blur crossed the corner of her eye as a dragon swooped in and hit two others with a flash of fire.

By the time the charred fae dropped out of the air, they'd passed the northernmost edge of the battlefield, the rest of the Unifiers still otherwise engaged. Aria motioned for the dragon to head back and led the rest of the fae closer to where she'd seen the lightning.

She didn't let herself think about all the people in the sky at risk of being struck, herself included. It was a risk they had to take.

As the hair on her arms began to stand on end, she headed for the top of the nearest hill with a few trees to use as cover and landed, vanishing her wings to save as much energy as she could. Hyla and the other fae landed beside her, waiting for direction. "We need to guide the storm closer to Vera," she shouted, "I need you to use whatever you have left and do just like we did this morning!"

They all nodded at her as she assumed the stance and began pulling the air in sweeping motions, the others following her cadence. Her body began trembling as sweat mixed with rain that fell in rivulets down her face.

"Keep going!" she cried as the storm clouds began moving faster toward them. As if on cue, another stream of lightning clattered into the hill beside them. One of the fae let out a scream of surprise but quickly resumed their motions despite the fear that rushed through them all.

The wind picked up speed and force with their efforts. "Keep this up," Aria wheezed at Hyla, summoning her wings once more to head back toward the chaos. "You'll know when to stop. "

She launched into the air with difficulty. Without enough magic to shield herself, the wind shoved her back and forth, pelting her shaky wings. Still no sight of her father or any members of Luka's squad, she kept her eyes peeled on the ground as much as she could between gusts of wind. Her heart raced as the battlefield came back into view, the familiar black and silver dragons still circling the bright globe where Vera floated to no avail. She let herself be grateful, just for a moment, that they were both still alive.

Below her, the sounds of battle raged on. But above her, just yards from their target, the clouds began to light up.

And so did her face.

"Luka!" she cried out in desperation, pointing to the flashes. She had no idea if he could hear her, but it was worth a try. "Get to the ground!" she yelled at everyone else still in the sky, flagging down her mother with flailing limbs.

Her plan might actually work.

It had to work.

It was their last hope.