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“Looks like crows,” Axe answered.
“I don’t smell anything dead,” Hunter replied. “Why are they circling like that?”
The dwarf got his answer when half the flock swooped, their cries rising in pitch, as if they were delivering a warning.
As the birds circled back for another sweep, Grimm yelled, “Get ready!”
Cloaks rustled as people hunted for their weapons. Blades scraped against scabbards. Axe tapped his weapon against his palm. Hunter slammed his against the ground. Following suit, I pulled out my dagger, my chest rattling to the beat of the bird’s cries. Shadow squeezed my hand, ready to fight with me.
Down the crows came, the sheer number of them too great to fend off. Weapons swung, and a few dead birds thumped to the ground. The rest pecked with beaks and scratched with their claws, tearing clothing and skin. Wounded cries jumped through the group, and my alarm soared.
One bird landed on my shoulder, pecking at my ear, and I screamed. Over and over, I hit at it, trying to push it off, but it dug in its talons, holding on. Recognizing that in my terror, I might stab myself accidentally, I didn’t use my dagger. Shadow batted the bird away, and it fell to the ground. He ran toward it to kick it, but the bastard of a bird took off. Flapping its wings, it hovered in the air and attacked him, scratching his ear.
“Find cover, now,” Grimm roared, making big sweeps of his arm, motioning for us to hurry. “In tree hollows, under logs or rocks. Anywhere!”
Shadow snared my hand and dragged me forward. More birds attacked from all angles, and I slashed my knife through the air. Although I cut one bird down, four more were there to take its place. Even more targeted me, and I lost Shadow in the chaos. I hunched over, shielding my face.
Moments before hunters in the mountains had attacked the panthers and me, we’d spied crows circling above us. Those same crows had hovered over the dragons’ keep, and that night, an assassin had snuck inside and a prince had been murdered. Once could have been a coincidence. Twice an oddity. But three times was outside the realm of chance. The birds were here for me. Spies, I assumed, sent by my stepmother to kill me and thwart the resistance’s rescue mission.
My suspicions were confirmed when the crows converged around me in greater numbers, whirling and blocking me from the group.
“Snow!” Shadow shouted.
“Shadow!” I yelled, unable to see him through the cluster of birds trapping me.
My pulse lurched into a frenzied beat met only by the furious flap of wings. Inch by inch, the birds crept closer, strangling me in their spiral. Either they were going to suffocate me or peck me to death.
Out of the flurry arose a cruel laugh. My stepmother’s.
Ice snapped in my veins.
“Snow!” Shadow’s voice reflected the danger surrounding me.
“Snow!” Another voice rose above the shrieking.
Phantom!My heart sparked a little.
“In here!” I yelled back.
Swords clashed with birds, and feathered corpses dropped at my feet. But it wasn’t enough to beat them back. There were just too many. Only half the flock had dropped from the skies. What if the rest descended? Or had they already? Panic clutched at my throat. Soon, I’d be nothing more than scraps of flesh on bone.
“We can’t get her out!” Phantom shouted.
Again, my stepmother’s wicked laugh boomed inside her birdy trap.
“Use your hoodoo, sweetheart!” Flare hollered.
Flare.Once, I’d thought he’d only cared about self-preservation. But three times he’d come to my defense.
Magic.Sea God!I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten.
Fear, cold, and sticky ran down my back as I mustered my power. Something dark streaked inside me. No. Not my dark power. Black vapor poured off me, forming glinting rings of glass around me. Each disc spun in alternating directions, slashing at the crows. Fragments shot out from the rings, striking the birds, and they crashed to the ground.
No! What if they shot my panthers? I tried to pull my magic back, but it heightened inside me like a building bank of rain clouds.
The circle of birds widened, pulling away from my magic. Screams deafened me, and I placed my hands over my ears. The noise was so powerful, it reverberated through me, weakening my knees, and I fell to the ground. I lost control of my magic, and the glass shards stopped projecting. Despite this, the birds’ circle exploded outward, and they scattered in all different directions.
Over the thrash of their wings, I heard a defeated wail. My stepmother. I’d beaten her. This time. But I knew she’d be back.
