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33
Leap
Leap’s heart sank as he saw smoke rising from the village at the base of the mountain. Taking Kiryan’s advice, he’d said goodbye to his earth fae friends and left Talamh just before dawn. He hoped to find safe passage back into the Gaoth Aire before nightfall hit and the snowstorms became impossible to navigate.
Kiryan was right,he thought, hovering on Cirra just beneath the dense layer of iron-colored clouds blanketing the skies. Snow fell around him in thick flakes, and only the continuous breeze he’d generated to circulate around his body kept the frozen water from soaking into his hair and clothes. Nox might not be able to send General Slaugh and his troops into the Gaoth Aire, but they could attack the border villages, just like they’d done to the water fae. There were only a few exposed villages like this one, but his Uncle Oren couldn’t stand by and allow Slaugh to wipe them all out. He would send Lightning Riders to retaliate.
Is that wrong, though?Leap wondered. It was all well and good for Kiryan to tell them they needed to stay out of conflict, but that didn’t mean they could sit by and do nothing while General Slaugh spilled fae blood with impunity.
Leap pushed his goggles down over his head, then adjusted them so he could get a better view of the burning village. He half-expected to find it deserted, like the last one he and Mavlyn had run across, but a jolt of surprise hit him as spotted a battle taking place only a few hundred yards from the village outskirts.
“Take us down,” he ordered Cirra, his heart beating harder. She did as he asked, speeding toward the conflict, and as they got closer, Leap was able to identify the two groups by their armor. The larger group of soldiers were earth fae, judging by their dark-colored armor stamped with House Ithir’s crest, while the others were air fae soldiers. Leap’s stomach lurched in his chest as he saw Ryker in the fray, spinning his javelin through the air around him as he beat back the earth fae soldiers, and for a heartbeat, he considered telling Cirra to turn around.
But he couldn’t leave his fellow air fae at the mercy of General Slaugh’s soldiers just because his evil cousin was amongst them. That would make him no better than Ryker himself.
Leap raised his hand toward the sky, calling on the storm energy already brewing in the air above them. Lightning sprang to his palm, and he allowed a massive charge to build up in his hand, then concentrated a smaller amount of it into the tip of his finger.
The soldiers all glanced up as he approached, and the air fae whooped at the sight of his cloud familiar. Leap pointed his forefinger at one of the fae and shot off a lightning charge, aiming for the soldier’s head. The strike hit him right between the eyes, and his body convulsed, but Leap didn’t wait to see him fall. He fired shot after shot, aiming for their faces each time. Some of his strikes hit their armored helms or shoulder plates instead, which, as he’d learned from his encounter with the griffin riders, were grounded against lightning strikes. But enough of them hit their mark that the earth fae panicked, running in all directions to avoid him.
Emboldened, the air fae gave chase, using their air magic to shove or trip up the earth fae so they could finish the enemy. Ryker was in the lead, and he threw his javelin with deadly precision, skewering two soldiers at once. But the throw left him wide open, and another soldier tackled him to the ground before he could retrieve his weapon.
“Squalls,” Leap growled. He swooped in low on Cirra’s back, then reached down and grabbed the offending earth fae, lifting him into the air. The soldier yelled as Cirra shot up into the sky, arms flailing, and Leap dropped him, allowing gravity to do the rest of the work. The din of battle covered the sound his body made as he hit the ground, and Leap moved on, helping the air fae pick off the rest of the enemy soldiers.
Only when the last of them were dead did Leap return to where his cousin had fallen. He found Ryker exactly where he’d left him, a dagger sticking out of his shoulder and his hair matted with blood. His eyes were closed, his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths, but he managed to crack one raptor-yellow eye open and glare at Leap.
“Finally returned to your people, have you, traitor?” he spat, blood dribbling from his lips.
Leap rolled his eyes, resisting the temptation to plant his boot on his cousin’s chest. “Ungrateful as usual,” he muttered, then shouted, “is there a medic here?”
“No, but I have enough training to bind his wound while it heals,” a soldier said, stepping forward. He was a lesser fae with close cropped white hair and scarred, pale blue skin—a little scuffed up from the battle, but no worse for wear otherwise. “Apologies in advance, my Lord,” he said as he knelt beside Ryker, pulling a roll of gauze from his pack.
Ryker cursed colorfully as the soldier removed the dagger from his chest, and nearly clocked the fae on the jaw. “Watch what you’re doing, idiot!”
“Knock it off,” Leap snarled. He pushed his boot against Ryker’s neck and knocked him back down, taking no small amount of satisfaction when his cousin choked. “I saved your life, and this soldier is trying to help you. Can you stop acting like a log of harpy dung for five minutes and be grateful?”
The other air fae soldiers watched the exchange with open mouths, but Ryker only snarled back. “Grateful?” he said through bloody teeth. “Why should I be grateful to you for abandoning us?”
“Abandoning you?” Leap cried. “You tried to—”
“I’m sorry,” the soldier treating Ryker said, sounding torn. “But could you please remove your foot from Lord Ryker’s neck, and could the two of you stop yelling at each other? I can’t clean or bind his wound in this condition.”
The two cousins glared murderously at each other, but Leap backed off, and Ryker settled down so the soldier could do his work. Leap knew his cousin would survive the wound just fine—as a Greater Fae, he could heal most injuries. But it would heal faster if it was properly bound and treated.
“What are you doing here?” Leap asked once the soldier had finished. “Did Uncle Oren tire of your spoiled ass and put you on border patrol?”
“No.” Ryker curled his lip as he got to his feet. At seventeen years old, he towered over Leap, his raptor-yellow eyes filled with cruelty as he curled his thin lips. Yet even though Ryker was older, his lean body packed with muscle Leap hadn’t yet developed, Leap no longer felt the gut-wrenching fear his cousin used to strike in him. “I came here because I heard a rumor Tempest was spotted near this village.”
“You’re out here searching for Tempest?” Leap asked, taken aback. That was thelastthing he expected to come out of Ryker’s mouth.
“Of course I am. She’s my sister. Unlike the rest of our family, I haven’t given up on her yet.” He looked around at the remaining air fae soldiers and the carnage strewn about the snowy field, and let out a deep sigh. “I wasn’t prepared to find a troop of earth fae soldiers burning down the village when I arrived.”
His shoulders drooped, and pity stirred inside Leap despite himself. “You should send the soldiers into the village to check for survivors,” he said. “I’ll search the surrounding area for Tempest.”
Ryker glared at Leap. “How do I know you won't use this as an excuse to run off again?”
Leap whistled, and Cirra zipped down from the sky, skidding to a halt right behind him. “If you’re that concerned, you can come with me. Just don’t cry to me if Cirra launches you off her back for being an asshole.”
Ryker snorted, but he agreed, giving his soldiers the order to search the village before joining Leap on Cirra’s back. “She was supposedly spotted over there,” he said in a terse voice, pointing toward a grove a mile east of the village.
