Chapter 26
“SENA!”
Shit. Shit. Shit. I try to release my wings, but a vicious wind throws me left and right, spinning me around and making it hard to keep myself steady.
I finally manage to steady myself enough to unleash my wings, but just as I’m about to, I slam into a jutting rock and pain shoots across my side.
My eyes burn and blur as I gasp in pain. I blink away my tears, and my eyes immediately find the forest beneath me as a large mass of dark shadows spills out across it.
“Sena, try to fly. Please fucking try,” Knox says, but the ground grows closer and closer, and the pit of terror in my stomach grows.
“You can do, baby. Just focus,” Knox says and something inside me settles. My pain quickly disappears and along with it, every fear or worry.
My wings finally spring out around me as my eyes widen on the forest trees that are now less than thirty feet beneath me.
I concentrate and try to flap my wings, pushing past the pain in my side and demand I save myself.
“We’re nearly beneath you,” Knox says as I try to flap harder and harder.
I quickly learn that flying and trying to navigate while flying are two completely separate skills. Especially when I accidentally veer off and a gust of wind aids my direction straight into a tree.
I slam into it and hit nearly every branch on the way down. I try to twist my body and open my wings wide before I hit the ground, but the minute I attempt to expand them, a sharp burn slices down my left wing.
Fuck. I think it’s broken.
“We’ve got you,” Knox says just as darkness envelops me and catches me before I hit the ground.
Hands slide around me, checking me over while the darkness slowly recedes. One brush along my left wing has pain, sharp and hot, slicing up through me. I gasp.
Everyone around me immediately stills.
Their shadows finally clear and I find four pairs of frantic eyes scanning my face and body, wincing when they look over my left shoulder.
“Shit, her wing is broken,” Theon says.
“So are her ribs and hip. She’s also got a concussion,” Cyrus grits out, but when he touches me, every pain and ache disappears.
I sigh in relief. “That was quick.”
“We’re still healing you, baby,” Knox says. “Cyrus just took away your pain while we finish.”
My gaze finds Cyrus and I watch as he attempts to hide a wince. “Cyrus?”
“I’m fine.” He reaches out and takes my hand as Malakai lifts me up and holds me gently against him.
“How the fuck did you fall? Please tell us weren’t trying to practice flying on your own.” Malakai says, and I narrow my eyes on him.
“I’m not that stupid.”
“Then who did this to you?” he asks, and I feel the slight tremble that moves through his body as he stares down at me. “Tell me now because they’re already fucking dead.”
“It was another Alita,” I reveal with a sigh.
The last of their healing kicks in and fixes my broken wing and I quickly pull them back inside.
“But you can’t touch them. They’re the closest thing to royalty there,” I warn.
Malakai leans down to me, his face angry as hell. “I don’t give a fuck if they’re actual royalty. I’m going to tear them apart.”
“Get in fucking line,” Knox grits out.
“No,” I tell them, and they still as I glance between them. “I’m going to tear them apart… just not yet.”
Frustration and annoyance bleeds into the air around us.
“You blocked us out,” Malakai says, narrowing his eyes, his anger focused on me now that he can’t direct it toward the Alita.
His words finally hit, and I whip my head around to him. “No… you all blocked me out. Before I decided to make the stupid decision to climb over that cliff, I reached out to tell you and realized you all blocked me.”
The anger drains from Malakai’s expression. But it quickly morphs into confusion. An expression that Knox, Theon and Cyrus now wear.
“We didn’t block you out, Sena,” Theon says, sharing a look with the others. “We felt your bond disappear a few minutes before you reached the cliff.”
My gaze flickers between them. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Theon says with a faraway look.
“We’ll figure it out later,” Cyrus says, taking me from Malakai’s arms. “Let’s get you somewhere warm.”
I shake my head and wiggle to get free.
He puts me down with a sigh.
“I have to finish this.” I take out the little red flag and give it a little wave. “I nearly fucking died for this thing. I have to find the girls and give it to them.”
Four angry glares stare right at me.
“What?” I ask.
“Never put you and die in the same fucking sentence again.” Knox drags a hand down his face. “I think I just shaved twenty years off my life.”
The others grunt in agreement before coming with me to find the girls.
Once I spot them, I make sure the guys hide—because there’s no way they’ll leave me after what happened—and I head over to them.
“There you are. I thought we lost you… or worse,” Maia says with a frown until I wave the little flag at her and she starts jumping around. Ember and Remi finally see what I have in my hand, and screams of joy echo out around me.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Ember says, and we all pause. “We still don’t know whether we have the most flags.”
“We do,” I tell them, and they all give me a questioning look.
“I met Mel’s and Lola’s group before finding the flag. She told me Reed’s group had seven flags and the others had five.” I wave the little flag again with a smile on my face. “Which means we have eight and won.”
Ember’s smile grows, and a look of complete and utter joy overtakes her expression before she screams like a mad woman. “Oh, my God! I can’t believe it. We actually won.” Tears run down her face, and Maia grabs me and Remi and huddles us into a group hug that quickly becomes a jumping group hug.
“Your ass looks amazing when you jump up and down like that,” Knox says.
I completely forgot about them following me, but as soon as he speaks into my mind, our little celebration comes to an abrupt stop.
I clear my throat and narrow my eyes on the forest, hearing a little chuckle in my mind a second later.
We head toward the starting point at the base of the forest and find all the other groups waiting. I give Ember the flag and she takes out the others, double counting them before gripping onto them like a lifeline.
Shouts and hollows ring out as Ember raises the flags. “Eight,” she shouts, and Reed’s shoulders drop before sharing a disappointed look with his team.
“Congratulations,” the instructor says when we make it over to him. “Your team has passed and also won the trial with the royal guard in two days.”
My moment of shared happiness quickly fizzles out with his words and Knox’s chuckles sound out in my mind.
Shit. How the hell am I going to get out of this one?