Page 63 of Spirit Storm

The heat behind my eyes is not from the lightning. My jaw locks. I have a very specific response forming in my throat, and none of it is helpful.

Asher's hand lands on my shoulder.

Mica steps past me, calm in the way that people are when they genuinely don't register danger the same way others do.

"Violet won’t be a danger to anyone if she’s given the chance to be helped by the healers of Arcana. Her affinity manifested too quickly. She panicked. Her sister will calm her, and we can get her the help she needs. This has nothing to do with her bloodline being marked by a demon.”

“She is an abomination.”

“You’re an abomination!” I shout.

Mica stares back at me. “Not helping.”

“Sorry.” I make a motion of pinching my lips shut and locking them tight.

Mica turns her attention back to the three guardians. “Then we’d like to speak with the matriarch.”

"The matriarch will not see you. She has done what she could to calm the girl, but there is nothing to be done. She will cease to be a threat shortly.”

Asher looks above us to where the storm churns in a broad spiral, lightning forking through the clouds in patterns that mirror no natural weather system I've ever seen. “You’re just going to let her burn out? To be so overwhelmed that she detonates?”

“Arcana’s safety is our only concern.”

“Then give her back, and we’ll leave Arcana. My sisters never wanted to come in the first place. Briar forced them to be here so she could help when Violet’s powers surfaced. If you’d just left her with the healers, the storm would be handled already.”

“Says the foul-mouthed, demon-tainted⁠—”

“Enough!” One of the giant birds shouts, and steps forward, beak clacking. “You bicker in circles but solve nothing.”

I straighten and meet its cold gaze. “Because there is only one acceptable outcome here. I will take my sister back to the academy, so her awakening doesn’t consume her.”

“And if we agree. Will you leave Arcana and never return?”

“Happily.”

“And will you take all who carry the taint of your family’s alignment with the demon with you?”

“It’s more of a curse than an alignment, but yes. Give me my sister, and when Dr. Thorne says she can leave, Violet, Lily, and I will leave this place and never come back.”

Asher’s arm comes around my shoulder. “Or you can keep her prisoner until she detonates, and then explain the unnecessary death of a student of Arcana to the parents and council who trust you with their children’s safety. So much for your guardian code of honor.”

The guardians share a look that suggests they hadn’t thought of that. Then they look at me. "The male will need to remove his shield for you to enter our compound.”

Asher stills beside me. "We’re standing on the edge of a cliff in a storm in front of a thing that just tried to take our heads off. If I take the shield down…"

"I know."

"I'm not saying no. I'm saying I want to make sure you know."

"I do. If we want it to let us through, we have to show it we're not a threat. If trusting it is the price we pay, I’ll pay it.”

Asher glares at the guardian. "Just so we're clear, if you try to crush her with your talons or your beak, or whip us off this cliff with your wings, it won’t be just me coming for you, it will be the Goddess Mother herself.”

The guardian looks back at him with no expression whatsoever. The grinding sound it makes with its beak might be a response. It’s hard to tell.

After another shared look between the massive birds, they turn away from the cliff’s edge. "Come. We will take you to your sister."

The guardian colony is bigger than I expected.