Page 284 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

“Freya!”

“Cyrus!” she snapped, her voice laced with more venom than I ever wanted aimed at me. “There are innocents. I am not abandoning my team.”

“Fuck,” I growled, pacing as I retracted the wings, startlingly light and responsive, folding in like an accordion. Her eyes flared.

“Since when the fuck can you fly!?”

“You’re oddly hung up on that.”

“Well…yeah!” she squeaked. “Can you answer the question so we can move on and not die!?”

“Since—apparently—my mate was being chased by a goddamn basilisk!” I barked. “Now focus. What the fuck is that thing?”

“She was a soul—or I thought she was—but her eyes were black like a demon’s. Her touch turns things to ash.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah,” she breathed, eyes glazing as she looked past me. “One of Reyna’s flyers…she just…she’s gone. Like fucking sand in the wind.”

“Don’t touch the demon snake,” I muttered as something heavy shifted the earth.

“Please avoid that.”

“Noted. What else?”

“That’s all I’ve got. She swatted away our counterattacks like we were playing with sticks.”

“You can’t siphon her?”

“Wow!” she gasped, lobbing a blade over my shoulder. “Cyrus! I hadn’t thought of that!”

“So that’s a no.”

Her eyes went wide, and then she was diving. “Move!”

Not needing a second warning, I wrapped my arms around her and launched skyward just as the colossal beast lunged.

“That’s certainly handy,” she panted as I banked left. “But you have to put me down!”

“Like hell.”

“Cyrus, you can’t fight if I’m in your arms. I have a plan.”

“Fucking bond,” I snarled, then dove, wings snapping out to stop our descent. “Now what?!”

She bolted a few steps, catching her balance. “You attack from the air.”

“I don’t have shadows.”

“Wind and ice, then,” she barked, yanking her phone out.

Seriously? “That better be for reinforcements.”

“No, I just felt like ordering a goddamn pizza. Jesus Christ, Cyrus.” Her eyes tracked something past me, and I turned to find the massive beast swarmed by a conspiracy of ravens mid-shift—ice and stone spears launching before they dissolved and regrouped.

“You will not get close to her.”

“I’ll do whatever the fuck I have to. I’ll siphon from the base—relay to Reyna’s flyers that I need eyes in the sky.”