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“Thank you. Do you have a name? What can I call you? I’m Rowan.”
‘The closest translation to your language would be Aura. He has not earned his name yet.’She turned to the baby, who had been watching us silently for the past few minutes. After a few seconds of chattering between the two that sounded suspiciously like an argument, he approached me, coming to a stop before me. He stared at me expectantly, his red eyes looking as innocent as possible, and I chided myself for being afraid of the small animal.
I stooped down, closer to his height, and craned my neck toward him. I'm not sure what he wanted, but he’d also saved me from getting eaten, so a little trust was warranted. He lightly laid his beak on my arm, meeting my eyes, and I melted. He was thanking me. “You’re welcome, little dude,” I said as I cautiously reached out, giving his head a small pat.
‘Go back to the stronghold.”Aura glared at him until he hunched his shoulders for a moment before his wings shot out, and he launched himself into the air unsteadily. With a few surges, he was airborne, flying off into the distance, wavering slightly back and forth in the air as he went until he was just a small speck in the distance.
‘Let us go; I believe I know where your friend is. If I am right, we need to get there sooner than later. Normally, I would only let my Marked rider on my back, but I will make an exception this time.’
“Did you just sayrider?”
The rocky terrain underneath us shifted slightly as Aura bent down, her legs folding underneath themselves until she resembled a chicken sitting on her eggs. Except there were no eggs, only a very pointed look she was giving me that I really didn’t want to see.
‘Get on. Try anything funny, and I’ll slit your throat.’
ChapterThree
Riding a pagu wasnoteasy.
Not that it had seemed easy in the first place.
After three tries, I finally managed to hoist myself onto Aura’s back. Her feathers were surprisingly sturdy, providing ample purchase for me to use my feet as leverage to get on. The only handholds available were the two protruding horns that I discovered on the back of her neck, so I used those to steady myself as I cinched my knees to her sides. One wrong move and I’d slide off. My grip on her horns would be the only thing holding me to her. My sweaty, sweaty grip.
“I think I’m going to die?” It came out as a question, unable to hide the high-pitched nervousness in my voice.
‘The chances of you falling off are slim.’That did nothing to reassure me. My fingers gripped tighter around her horns, my knuckles turning white.
“But not zero?” I had a hard enough time getting on a roller coaster without getting nauseous. A flying Faerie creature? I was definitely dying.
‘Never zero.’ Theseriousness in her tone ate up any remnants of confidence I had left. Maybe we could just walk instead.‘But my magic will hold you in place once we fly. As long as I have the energy for it, you will stay seated.’Sweat beaded on my brow, but I tightened my grip around the horns I held, hardening the walls of my shaky heart. I could do this.
“So how does this—” The breath was stolen from my lungs, the air rushing past us as we launched into the sky, a jump so high it had to have been aided by magic. An immediate iron-clad sensation locked my legs to her side, unable to move them even if I wanted to, but I still gripped her horns as Aura’s wings flapped hard in the air as we rose above the rocky dunes below. It wasn’t long before she was high in the sky, and we settled into a steady rhythm, soaring steadily toward an outcropping of trees in the distance.
I stared in awe as we crested the forest, this world so unlike the one I had come from, different yet entirely similar. They looked like trees, but the colors were off. Where brown bark should have stood, instead, they were a deep ebony with leafy, pumpkin-dusted branches.Weird.
“How do we find him?” I half shouted to Aura, not sure if she would be able to hear me around the wind. “I don’t even know if he’s here. He could be dead.” Dread settled in my stomach at the thought. I didn’t want to know what would happen to me if Oliver was dead.
‘Pagu are connected to the magic that runs through the veins of this realm more than any other creature. We are born of this land. Its protectors, once upon a time.’Her tone was that of a teacher who had to explain something to a child for the tenth time, clear irritation laced throughout. She banked to the right as we approached, the land stretching endlessly beneath us. I hazarded a glance behind us. The salty air of the sea long faded for the earthiness of our new surroundings.‘Portals use a lot of energy, something I can sense throughout the realm. I felt one when you came through, and it led me to you as I searched for my kin. But I felt another, deep into the night.’
A flutter of hope bloomed in my chest at her words. I didn’t trust Oliver, not fully, but so far he hadn’t led me astray. He was the only one who could hopefully give me some answers and lead me back to my memories. According to him, the survival of the realms depended on it. Whatever that was supposed to mean.
But if Oliver had come last night, then why hadn’t he found me? Unease shivered through me as my mind raced with the many possible outcomes.
Aura dipped lower in the sky as we approached a large clearing in the woods, and I clenched my grip tight on her horns even though my legs stayed secured by her magic. She stilled, hovering inches above the trees as she peered down into the clearing. Her wings barely moved, just enough to keep us afloat but not so much as to attract any unwanted attention as she cocked her head, listening.
“What do you—” I started in a whisper when I couldn’t wait any longer, but I was quickly silenced when I heard the hissing. It was faint, almost imperceptible, but the whimper that followed wasn’t. It was heartbreakingly familiar.
Oliver.
Aura tensed underneath me, every muscle in her body coiling tightly.‘Be prepared.’
I craned my neck to the side, shifting so I could see down into the clearing, but I didn’t have time before she tucked her wings tight against her flank, nosediving toward the ground at rapid speed. I gasped as we hurtled downward, my stomach hitting rock bottom as she bottomed out, wings shooting out at the last second to halt her descent. I looked around the clearing, beads of sweat slithering down my back when I saw the creatures that surrounded Oliver. I couldn’t see his face, but he was unmoving, bent over, and bleeding on the ground.
Five enemies surrounded him, and I wasn’t sure if I should call them human or animal. They stood tall, all covered with the same green, leathery skin. Identical dark hair was braided down their backs, their bodies clad in a shimmering silver armor that fit like a glove. They looked almost normal if it wasn’t for their faces.
A narrow, flattened head housed large soulless eyes with slit pupils, a stark contrast to their mouths, which were gaping open in an aggressive hinge. It provided a full view of their sharp fangs and forked tongues. At our arrival, they turned their attention away from their prey, the sleek daggers they held coming up to point at us. A swirling black-green sludge coated the blades, wrapped threateningly around the steel.
‘Go to your friend,’ Aura told me seriously. The magic around my legs released, and I haphazardly slid back to the ground, my boots landing on the dirt with a muted thud.‘I can handle them. The day I let a naga best me in a fight is the day I deserve to die. Stay out of my way.’
