The Phoenix Dawning #6
Kallie was right. These birds were tough. I unsheathed my grandfather’s sword, switching to close combat. I skewered one harpy through the chest before slicing through the neck of another, killing again, and again… and again.
Just how big was this flock? I’d slain so many harpies, yet it didn’t seem to put a dent in our escape. My knees began to buckle, because everywhere I turned, my sword met more bodies, more feathers. I couldn’t keep up.
These birds were overwhelming me, and all of us, including Oberi. A horde of harpies landed on him. Although his razor-sharp teeth met bone and crunched down, he let out a massive roar as they pinned his wings to the ground.
“Let me go!” Kallie’s furious cries could be heard from above me. She didn’t have her wings anymore, so that meant she wasn’t flying on her own. One of the harpies had grabbed her, and was lifting her into the clouds.
“Kallie!” Marcus cried out for her, but was unsure of where to aim or what spell to use, because he couldn’t cast anything without risking hurting Kallie.
Her screams got higher above us, and I realized with horror that she was being carried away.
Alette beat her wings as fast as possible to follow her fae companion.
“Leave me alone, you bitch!” That was Ava. Her arrows had ceased to fly— I no longer sensed them spinning in the air. Ava let out a string of curses as she was lifted upward, and panic erupted inside my chest. They were taking her, too!
The harpies didn’t waste any time. Once they grabbed Ava and Kallie, they took off, abandoning the bodies of their companions as the flock flew away.
Air swirled around my feet, and I soared into the air. I flew after the harpies as quickly as I could, desperate to reach Ava and urging the winds behind me to push me faster. I had to catch up; otherwise, who knew what would happen to the girls?
There was a screech from behind, and another harpy tackled me out of the skies.
I killed her by breaking her neck once she latched her claws on to me, but I didn’t have enough time to correct my flight at the same time.
I hurtled face-first toward the ground, and was barely able to soften my blow by erupting a patch of thick plants to catch me before I hit.
It didn’t do enough to cushion my crash landing. I was still knocked out once I landed, the bulky body of the dead harpy pinning me down.
When I came around, I struggled to push it off. I finally managed to wiggle out from the three-hundred pound corpse, but by the time I did, it was too late.
I staggered to my feet. At the top of my lungs, I cried, “Ava!”
“Find… Casey!” Ava’s command echoed across the realms as she was carried off. She was already so far away.
My chest heaved. Bitter grief welled through me as Ava’s song of fury screamed through the night, accompanied by nothing more than the sound of the victorious harpies and the resonance of my loss.
It took only seconds for Ava’s shrieks to silence, the void of her absence the only thing that remained.
Oberi opened his wings to follow, now free of the harpies that had pinned him down. I scrambled to climb on his back, but I didn’t get that far before Emma yanked me off of him.
“Charlie, stop!” she ordered. “You, Marcus and your animal companions have to pass through to the afterlife, because the hole is about to close. I’ll go after Kallie and Ava.”
“Like hell,” I growled. Oberi shifted into a husky, barking his protests.
“You just want us to abandon them?” Marcus raged, while Rishi hissed beside him. “Kallie’s my fiancé—”
“And she’s my daughter!” Emma bellowed. I heard the rush of magic as her wings appeared, readying herself to give chase after the harpies.
“I can’t stay here holding that hole open long enough for you to reach them and make it back.
If you go after them, that opening in the boundary will close, and you’ll lose your last shot at finding Casey! ”
That was the only thing that gave me pause. Ava had told me to find our son. She’d never forgive me if I chose to go after her and left our baby defenseless, and this opening was the only opportunity I had to do so. If I didn’t leave now, our chances of getting Casey back would be lost.
But that meant leaving Ava behind. I didn’t know what to do. I was frozen on the spot, unable to make a decision.
Emma made my mind up for me.
“Why are you still standing around?” Emma demanded. “We’re out of time. Now go!”
A powerful spell enveloped us, blasting us backward.
Emma’s magic was so powerful we didn’t have time to respond to it.
The ghostly tingle of afterlife magic washed across my skin, and I felt a cascade of powerful energy rush over me like a waterfall as I was shoved through from one world and into another.
There was a spiritual light so blinding I was forced to shut my eyes. I landed with a heavy crash flat on my back, and Marcus let out a pained groan beside me. Nearby, Rishi mewed, and Oberi gave a low, mournful whimper.
My head spun. I struggled to comprehend which way was up and which was down.
The earth-shattering whoosh of the hole in the boundary closing met my ears, and I realized what Emma had done.
She’d thrown us through the hole in the afterlife’s boundary, then closed it shut before we could argue further and slip back through.
Now we had no choice but to stay here until we found Casey, and located the mutabeecha.
I’d said before that Ava and I had never been further apart, but now we were divided by entire realms. She was in a place I could no longer reach… and so was my son.
I had no idea where either of them were, or what kind of danger they were in.
Now the three of us were all in very different places, separated and out of reach.
Broken or not, my family was the only thing that still meant everything to me.
Ava and Casey might as well be the sole people left that remained in my cursed existence.
Now there was a chance that I could lose them both.
Forever.
Continue the story by reading The Phoenix Dawning.