The bird tilted on its side with a sigh, exposing its soft downy feathers for me to lie against. Very slowly, I moved closer, nervously bending down on the grass next to it.
“She won’t hurt you,” Tejus coaxed.
“It’s a she?” I asked. I’d never thought about the vulture in any other way than a terrifying method of transport. Earlier today I’d risked stroking it, but the bird had hedged away, probably sensing my unease.
“It’s a she. I… I call her Aria.”
“How long have you had her?” I asked, tentatively leaning my back against the feathers. They were soft and warm.
“Since I was little. It’s a rite of passage in Hellswan. We, my brothers and I, were all given one—it was our first-mind control test. Obviously you don’t ride them at that age. They’re only just hatched. You teach them to fetch things, use them as messenger birds.” Tejus continued to stroke the bird, and it cooed at him.
I relaxed into the feathers of the bird, hoping that Tejus would join me. Instead he rose and walked toward the fire.
“Can you light it?” I asked.
“Of course,” he replied, sounding faintly amused.
I watched eagerly for a sentry trick, but all he did was produce a box of matches and strike one of them on the bottom of his boot.
Oh.
When the fire was roaring, he rose and came to sit down beside me. Immediately I felt the heat emanating from his body, and I shifted closer to him, our arms touching.
We sat in silence for a while, watching the flames flicker around us and swirls of icy snow batter against the barrier. Tejus had created a small hole at the top of the bubble and the smoke from the fire drifted out in one thin funnel, as if it was being guided by an invisible chimney. With the crackling of the wood and the heat from both the bird and Tejus, I felt cozy—and though we were on Ghouls’ Ridge, surrounded by ice flames, in a dimension far from home, in that moment there was nowhere I’d rather have been.
“It’s one of the apocalyptic signs, isn’t it?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“Yes. I think it is.”
“So that’s two down, one more to go.” I sighed, wondering what would be coming after the signs.
“The pestilence of silence,” Tejus replied. “And then…who knows.”
“We’re running out of time, aren’t we?” I asked.
Tejus didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.
“I apologize for putting you in danger yet again,” Tejus murmured. “I would do anything for it not to be this way.”
Smiling into the flames of the fire, I leaned my head against his bicep.
“It’s not entirely your fault.”
“I beg to differ,” he muttered.
“My family work to protect humans from the supernatural. They’re often in danger. When I was little, I didn’t know if my mom and dad would always come home from an assignment, or if my grandparents, or uncle, or any one of them would die fighting for a fairer world. I don’t mind being in danger—I mind being alone and in danger… Whenever you’re with me, I feel okay. Like it doesn’t matter what we face, because I know you’ll do your best to protect me. And that’s all I can ask of anyone.”
“You should ask for a lot more than that, Hazel… You deserve more than that.”
“But you can’t give me more than that, can you?” I asked softly.
Tejus looked down at me, his expression unreadable.
“No.”
I nodded, fighting down the lump in my throat. Every time I thought that things were changing between Tejus and me, that we were growing closer, he would knock me back again and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could handle it without cracking up completely.
As if sensing my frustration, he reached down to find my hand. Part of me wanted to jerk my hand back, but it would have been childish and stupid—and dishonest. I needed him, his solid presence and whatever convoluted feelings he had for me. Our fingers entwined, and I held on tightly.
Ruby
“Put me down!” I roared, struggling in the grip of Commander Varga as the bull-horse cantered across uneven grassland.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he replied tersely, his eyes fixed on the horizon.
“I need to get to Hazel! Where are you taking me?”
“Far away from Hellswan—it’s not safe.”
He didn’t halt the horse or stop the ferocious pace we were riding at. I could still see the blue-white flames running across the forests behind us, but we were staying ahead, outpacing the danger.
“Please stop!” I tried again. “I need to get to the castle—I need to start looking for Benedict and Julian…”