AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Elio chuckles. “You’re funny.”
He closes the distance between us in a short step, moving slightly to my left, and sweeps me into his arms in a bridal carry. I squeal, throwing my arms around his neck as the ground is ripped away, and take several panicked breaths as he laughs.
“Well, you’renotfunny,” I snap, still clinging to him. “How about warning a girl next time?”
He chuckles again, spreading his wings wide. “Brace yourself.”
The initial ascent is the worst part. Even though I’m not standing, I feel like a rug has just been jerked out from beneath me and now I’m falling. Only I’m falling up instead of down.
Elio’s wings beat aggressively against the air, lifting us past the roof of the house and over the tops of the trees, but he doesn’t break a sweat.
I’ve never been overly afraid of heights, but one glance down at the distant ground makes my blood run cold. The fact that the only thing keeping me from plummeting to my death is Elio’s grip doesn’t help either.
I instantly feel light-headed and worry I might faint in his arms, so I close my eyes and bury my face in the side of his neck. Just as he warned, the air rushes at us in a gust as we move forward and pick up speed over the woods. I barely hear him when he speaks.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
Rather than trying to yell over the wind, I keep my eyes closed and nod against his skin, thankful it’s smooth and not leathery like his wings. He squeezes me once, and I take it as a gesture of reassurance. He’s got me, and he’s not going to let me fall.
I peek at of our surroundings occasionally, cracking my eyes open a smidge before snapping them closed again when my stomach turns. The wind burns my eyes, making them tear up, and I wonder how Elio remains unaffected. It has to be a monster thing, or tolerance he’s built up over time.
I take another chance, turning my head away from Elio just enough so I can do a sweep of what’s below us. We’ve left the woods surrounding Rafe’s mansion far behind, and now there’s a wide stretch of black land below us.
To our right, mountains blossom out of the horizon. They aren’t black, but a clash of browns and reds that stick out harshly from the landscape.
“Are those the mountains where the Malevs come from?” I yell, hoping he can hear me.
“No. They’re much farther.”
To our left, trees dot the flat land sporadically, and a cluster of buildings sit together in the distance. I stare at them, wondering what kind of monsters inhabit that area, and I snap my eyes closed when I start getting light-headed again.
It’s been less than ten minutes, and I’m already certain of one thing.
I’m not a fan of flying.
“There’s Azarius,” Elio calls over the wind, grabbing my attention.
As much as I don’t want to look down again, I peel my eyes open and look ahead. A white blur streaks across the black ground in the distance. We’re so high I can’t make out his details, but there’s no denying it’s him.
Then my eyes are closed again.
Elio beats his wings slower, and we drop several feet in the air. I know because my stomach temporarily floats the way it does when I hit a steep hill in my car. My guess is he’s trying to keep pace with Azarius, which has to be difficult from this height, but I refuse to look again.
I’ll open my eyes when we land.
Time hardly feels real when you’re soaring through the air and traveling huge distances in a matter of minutes, but the suns have shifted noticeably by the time we touch down. Elio’s landing is much more graceful than his takeoff, his wings beating in short spurts as we lower, and my eyes pop open as soon as he stops moving.
“I’m alive,” I gasp, mostly joking, but also a tiny bit surprised I didn’t pass out along the way.
Elio sets me down on the ground, keeping a tentative hand on me until I get my bearings again. My legs are wobbly, and I still feel like I’m racing forward, even though I’m not.
“See, it wasn’t so bad.” Elio says, staring down at me.
“For you. I’m already not looking forward to the flight home.”
I pull my hood up over my head and turn on the spot to observe our surroundings.
We’re about a football field away from a large cluster of buildings. There must be hundreds of them. Unlike the first ones I ever saw in the realm, these are not dilapidated or abandoned.
