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“Let’s go!” Neo snapped. “We can’t stop. The Guardians won’t give us a second.”
“Can you givemea second? I feel like I just grew a new pair of lungs,” Reese gasped, clutching her chest.
“Sorry, no can do,” he said, after which a cacophony of laughter sounded behind us. We whirled around; there was a building almost carved into the cliffside, and we stood at the top of the stairs leading to it. “We gotta go.”
Sariel nodded, but his gaze was unfocused, his jaw was clamped shut, and the muscles in his cheeks were twitching. “They’ll force Lucia to keep the gate open so they can chase us.”
Neo scooped Reese up bridal style, and we followed him down the stairs. When we hit the bottom step, a shout went up behind us, followed by the sound of people yelling in confusion.
We scrambled to follow the path down as fast as we could. There was no doubt that the Guardians had arrived.
Sariel turned to Johnny when the path led us into the valley, where there was no tree coverage to hide us. “Where are we?” he asked his friend.
“Switzerland, in the Alps,” Johnny said, tilting his head to the mountains we’d seen. “That back there was—” he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, and we all turned to look at the building we’d landed on, “—the Aescher Guesthouse.”
It was beautiful. There was something utterly charming about the three-story log cabin, even though the wood had begun to fade in some places and the letters on the second floor’s sign were falling off. I could still make out people from down here; they milled around the railings, admiring the view of the valley we were in. I could imagine the bird’s eye view must be incredible.
I opened my mouth to say as much when a Guardian materialized behind Johnny, his spear raised.
I acted without thinking, shoving Johnny out of the way and grabbing the spear. I yanked hard, and he jerked right into my fist as I slammed it in the gap in his helmet around his mouth.
He growled, his other hand shooting out to grab my hair. Something moved swiftly out of the corner of my eye; a loud thunk echoed, and the Guardian stumbled, releasing his grip on me. The thud sounded again, after which he went tipping backward, his eyes rolling back as he fell.
Reese stood behind him, a massive rock in her hands.
The others had all frozen at the Guardian’s appearance.
“What—” Johnny started, his eyes widening as he ducked in time to dodge a spear flying to where his head had been only seconds before.
A Guardian appeared before the spear could stick into the ground, catching it with one hand and spinning it in one direction.
In seconds, we were surrounded. The ground beneath us trembled, and I tried to jump before one of my legs was encased in rock.
“Shit,” someone cursed.
Then, the sound of something being torn filled the space between us, and things slowed to a crawl.
My eyes landed on Sariel’s wings, which were now stretched out behind him, and his glowing eyes. Everyone around us froze mid-motion, even the Guardians. Sariel did not—he moved so swiftly, I couldn’t track his movements, aside from flashes of black or white whenever he stopped near a Guardian.
It wasn’t until everything resumed the Guardians collapsed—some choking, others with their heads twisted at odd angles—and Reese yelped that I realized that no one else had been able to see what Sariel had done.
He stood in front of me now, his expression frantic as he scanned me for injuries. I swallowed my shock when he cupped my face, careful of his claws.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I began to nod out of reflex, but I shook my head upon remembering my feet encased in the stone. He glanced down, then back up to me.
He was beautiful. Even with his wings tucked into his back, his eyes were still gold-rimmed, and his features had smoothed out so flawlessly I felt like I was looking at a stone sculpture.
He bent, cupped his hand around the dirt encasing my ankles, and squeezed until it cracked and fell away.
The others were gaping at Sariel. This was the first time they’d seen him in action, after all.
Marilyn and Johnny had freed themselves while the others stood in a half circle around us. Neo swayed slightly on his feet, so Johnny stepped into his side, catching him with an arm around his waist.
“We need to get out of here,” I said. “Neo and Marilyn look ready to drop.”
“They held us in cells like the Isolation Centers. They took the magic out of us,” Marilyn explained weakly. “We’re running on empty right now.”
