She held her breath, braced herself, and… her fall stopped entirely.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, finding that she hovered right before the sea’s surface, legs tucked close, ankle throbbing, arms bundled to her chest. The darkness of the ocean was so close she could touch it with an outstretched hand.
She sobbed, wings still beating behind her, keeping her held aloft.
She had no time to be proud.
As if on instinct, her wings arced sharply up, held by the wind. She was carried upward, away from the sea.
It wasn’t effortless. It was a desperate flight from death’s embrace.
She looked behind her, wind obscuring her vision, as she stared at the cliff in the distance. The Umbra was a wavering shadow on the edge.
Her wings carried her to the only destination she knew, drawn by the tethers wrapped around her soul. She followed them in desperation.
She lagged, her ankle throbbing with every beat of her wings.
Smoke choked her. Coughing, she clutched her gown closed with one hand and covered her mouth with the other. Her eyes watered the deeper she flew into the haze.
A dragon’s roar pierced the night air, reverberating around her.
The threads were tangled inside her, muted by her fear.
Lightning streaked through the sky, purple and dazzling. She saw the flash of the islands in the distance. A dragon circled overhead. Fires burning. She willed her body to veer to the right. The wind carried her on.
The light from the fires offered enough illumination that she could see now. It cast everything in gold and amber.
A sharp whistle cut through the air on her right—an arrow, arcing right where she just was.
She looked around, finding approaching blots of darkness coming straight for her.
Fallen.
She reached out for them as she called, "H-help! Don’t shoot."
Another arrow.
"Please—don’t shoot!" she called.
Three more arrows.
Did they not hear her?
She hovered in midair, waiting, and as the Fallen flew closer, she saw it—the dark anger on their faces, the blood-tipped arrows and spears in their hands.
Umbra.
Her wings fluttered, and she made to fly to Vale’s dragon, but as she turned back, she saw three more Umbra flying straight for her. They fired a volley of arrows. She was cornered.
Luella dove for the side, wings taking her away from the dragon and fires, straight to another island filled with large trees. She could hide there!
Leaves and branches scratched her skin. She stifled the sound of her ragged breathing, trying to hide in the darkness. It was so dark she could barely see in front of her, causing her to slam into trees and towering rocks.
She kept going.
The sound of their beating wings was gaining on her. An arrow whistled, thunking into a tree near her head.
Branches snagged her gown and wings, ripping free white feathers that drifted to the ground far below.
