Mina laughs while standing on her tiptoes to pull the shredded leaves from the ends of my hair. “First rule of flying—watch where you’re going.”
I squat down to stretch my lower back and twist from side to side before standing. “Alright, let’s go again.”
I managed to glide three more times. Not very long, and each time ended in a similar disastrous fashion. But that’s three more attempts I wouldn’t have had if we had left for Toraigh two days ago.
Five more days.
We have five more days left before I’m sprinting off to another realm for the survival of this one.
One by one, my friends find their way onto the training ground and we begin training. First with a warm-up and stretching, and then sparring. Before breaking down into target practice. I practice with a bow, drawing back the string before firing and nicking the target. Mina stands beside me, floating arrows in my direction.
“If your back wasn’t sore from flying, this would be easier,” she offers, when I barely hit the target again.
“I’ve beaten Lachlan at shooting before. This shouldn’t bethis hard.” I look over in time to see Lachlan sink another arrow into the target. “I hit the boats for the sailings,” I grumble.
Mina glances at my target before looking back at my wings. “But you hadn’t flown before those times. Vanish your wings away and then try again.”
I have to concentrate on putting them away. The exhaustion is weighing on me physically and mentally. A small pop and the immediate lightness of my body signals my success. Dropping my bow, I rear back with my axe and launch it at the target. Straight into the bullseye.
Warm hands rest on my hips and I inhale the familiar scent of rain-kissed cedar.
“Ye cheated,” he grumbles into my ear. “Ye won’t always ha’ time to vanish your wings away before shooting. Ye’ll need to practice with them out. Always.”
Mina giggles and I glare at her. Her cherubic face reflects faux innocence. Like she wasn’t the one who just told me to put them away.
“I need a break,” I huff. My stomach grumbles. “And some food.”
Stalking from the training grounds, I head to the dining hall. The others following behind me. If I can’t fire a bow without my wings out, I’ll be useless. If I can’t even fly, I’ll be a liability.
The pressure of succeeding begins clawing at me. I’m not used to failing at things. My parents spent a lot of time and energy making sure I could master most things I set my mind to. Not picking up flying already has me questioning my abilities.
I pick at my lunch. Thoughts of all the things that could go wrong swirl in my mind. I’m not even paying attention to the surrounding conversation until the anger in Tane’s voice cuts through.
“I said I’m fine!” He chucks his plate of food across the table. It goes flying, mashed potatoes and all, before it crashes to thefloor. The reverberation of the copper against the stone echoes around the hall.
Tane stands, his body trembling and his face twisting into a rapidly expanding scowl. “Stop trying to fix everything for me. It can’t be fixed. I can’t be fixed!” he shouts at Mathilda. “I am not worth your energy—or your time. Find someone else.”
Her eyes line with silver, her bottom lip quivering as Tane turns and stomps from the dining hall.
“I was just trying to help,” she whispers, the fork and knife in her hands still outstretched from where she had been cutting his food. Her eyes never leave Tane as he disappears through the door and into the hallway.
“I got it,” Lachlan and Evander say at the time, before they both follow Tane.
Mina, Luna, and I slide closer to Mathilda.
“What happened?” Luna asks, motioning for one of the servant girls to address the thrown plate.
Mathilda sniffles, dropping her hands to the table. “He’s been having a rough day. I think me cutting his food for him sent him over the edge.”
“Rough day, how?” Mina asks, chewing on her bottom lip. “He looked like he was making substantial progress in training with Piominko.”
A breath stutters out of Mathilda. “Piominko told him he might never regain all of his skills. It’s getting to him. He feels like he’s holding us back. He had bad days before—nightmares really from the rebellion he was a part of and the lives that were lost under his command. Some days he just doesn’t understand how he was able to live here and move on, when they never could.”
I shake my head from side to side. “No way he’s holding us back. Even one-handed he’s better than most of us.”
Luna snorts, flicking a piece of food off the table. “Speak for yourself.”
“Luna,” I hiss. “We’re trying to help here.”
