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Confused, I started to ask what he meant, but before I could, he pressed his hands to the beam and closed his eyes.
Around his palms, the wood rippled and began flowing like water. There was something beautiful to the way it separated and then reformed into two new beams on either side of the woman, even the soot and charred patches twisting with the unburned woodgrain until the two new pieces of wood were like a striated and intricate tapestry.
I looked over at Roan, speechless. I’d seen his carvings at the cabin, and the others had mentioned his gifts with wood. But I hadn’t actually watched his powers in action before.
It was breathtaking. But even though a smile still hovered on his lips, a hint of wariness showed around his eyes in a strange way. He kept glancing up and to the right like something was distracting him, only to pull his attention back to the wood again.
“What is it?” I asked. “Is something wrong?”
“No. It’s just…” His eyes darted up again and then returned to the wood. “It’s nothing.”
I couldn’t quite believe that. Not with the tension on his face.
A creak came from overhead. A chittering sound followed, and I looked up quickly.
Talons gripping the edge of the roof, a harpy glared down at us. Her eyes glowed a vicious shade of red, and blood splattered her claws and chin. She grinned at my alarmed gasp, revealing teeth stained with blood too.
“Shit,” Roan swore under his breath. “We’re going to need to move fast. Can you carry one of the kids?”
“I can take both,” I said.
He paused, but no derisive remark ever came. “Stay close.”
Gods, this was strange.
Ordering myself to stay focused, I looked back at the boys. “I’m going to do something a bit… odd, but I promise you’re safe with me, okay?”
With eyes as round as the moon, Teos and Dorn nodded.
“Okay.” Roan kept his eyes on the harpy. ”One… two… go!”
I shifted form and grabbed the boys while Roan hefted the woman up and threw himself backward against the wall, breaking through it.
The harpy screeched, diving after us.
It was a mistake.
In a pile of stone, tile, and wood, the house collapsed on top of the creature.
Retreating fast, I set the boys down and shifted back to human form, coughing a bit at the soot and dust. “Are you okay?” I asked the children.
They gaped at me and didn’t say a word.
Hopefully that meant they were fine.
Frowning, I looked around quickly. The sun had started to rise while we were inside, painting the indigo sky with shades of pink and gold, and casting dark purple shadows from the buildings around us. Like many houses in Aneira, the one we’d just fled had backed up onto a patch of communal land shared by all the homes that surrounded it. Gardens lay fallow throughout the space, waiting to provide vegetables in the next season. The land was nearly entirely enclosed by the houses, except for two narrow paths for cart access on either end. Right now, residents who hadn’t escaped through the fronts of their homes were hastening toward those paths in desperate attempts to flee the harpies still spiraling and screeching overhead.
In Roan’s arms, the woman groaned. Her eyelids fluttered briefly. “Teos? Dorn?” Confusion crossed her face as her eyes focused on Roan. “Wh-who are you?”
“Momma!” Little Dorn flung himself at Roan and his mother alike.
Shifting her around gently, Roan bent so that the boy could reach her. “We’re, um—” He looked over at me, that hint of a smile on his lips again. “Friends. Here to help.”
There was an odd note to his voice, like his words amazed him. Like he’d never thought he’d say them, somehow.
And it thrilled him that he could.
Not sure what to make of that, I just returned the smile and then put a hand to the woman’s shoulder when she tried to move. “Stay still,” I told her gently. “You were knocked out and you could have internal injuries. Let us get you and your boys to safety.”
