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I clutched Oisin close to me and tried not to jostle him too much as I ran. He was still unconscious, and I knew that even if he had been awake there was no fucking way he could walk, let alone run, the distance back to the jet.
The others flowed around me, dodging ancient rocks and trees. The entire place hummed with magic and the weird fae portholes into another reality were more frequent here. I shifted my limp burden up higher and leapt over a fallen log that had been an open space filled with blue grass just a moment before.
Hisashi swore under his breath and herded us around the worst of the obstacles. All the while, the hounds were howling, an ungodly sound that started as a low rumble and wound up to spine-tingling highs like a cross between an air-raid siren and a banshee. I had no idea how many of them there were. But they sounded a hell of a lot bigger than what I had envisioned, their heavy feet thundering like horses.
We rushed out of the monoliths and into the edge of the woods opposite of where we'd come in, in a desperate attempt to veer around the oncoming danger. We made it, but just as the black hounds came spilling out like dark, roiling smoke. They caught our scent immediately and pivoted, burning red eyes locking onto prey. One carried an arm in his mouth, probably from one of the fae they had originally been hunting. The beast was almost as tall as a horse, and it spit the appendage out with enough force that it bounced off a nearby rock before the beast turned its burning eyes on me.
The creature snarled, baring teeth that were longer than my hands, stuffed shark-like into its maw. I backed away, Hisashi tugging me and the others closer as he and Halstad spun magic in the air. A shimmering sheet of power rose between us and the hounds. The fae riders hadn't reached us yet, but it wouldn't be long. I could hear the thundering of massive hooves coming closer as the hounds paced, slow and threatening, just outside the barrier.
"We have to move. We have to get back to the jet before dear old pops shows up," I muttered under my breath, trying not to spur the massive fucking dogs into action.
Halstad edged in front of me and my passenger. "Some of them will get through," he said softly. "But we can take out most of them with a good blast. Get ready for teeth."
I backed away further, not wanting to put Oisin down, but also not able to defend him or myself with him in my arms. Hisashi slipped between me and Halstad, shoving me farther back. Kai dragged me away with her, toward the woods. Con kept his gun trained on the dogs as he backed away with us. It felt wrong, running away from the danger, rather than toward it like I usually did.
"Go boy," Halstad said sharply.
Hisashi, pulled the energy from the shield back into himself, then sent it out in a shockwave that rocked the hounds, probably deafening them with the force. It was followed closely by a wave of blue fire that shot out of Halstad's outstretched hands.
I don't know how many hounds there had been—they seemed to be everywhere and nowhere all at once, literally oozing in and out of the shadows and moonlight. But there were a lot less of them after that little stunt.
Who knew hellhounds could burn? And I thought the howling was bad when they were just hunting....
I turned and ran into the woods, the others hot on my heels. I knew a few dogs had survived the guys' magic, but it was the best chance we had. The trees beside me crashed and shuddered as a heavy body hit them, big paws snapping branches and the glint of flame-red eyes flashing in and out of my peripheral vision. I sucked in air and ran harder, my quads aching, my lungs burning, Oisin clutched to my chest for dear life. Gunshots cracked through the air as Con fired wildly at the thing. I think he hit it, but it didn't even slow down.
We were halfway there. I could see the dark sheen of the river through the thin trees. "Can these fucking things swim?" I panted.
Kai shoved me, keeping me moving—and managing to keep my arm attached when the dog lunged and snapped at me through the trees. "They might," she called. "But so can I!"
Oh, my Gods. Water. I had to get Kai into the fucking water. I was so dumb sometimes. I pushed my legs to keep pumping as I felt waves of magic behind me, Hisashi and Halstad blasting at things I couldn't see.
I almost made it to the water. So close.
One minute, I was gaining on the fucking dog, nearly crying with relief as my feet hit the reeds at the edge of the water. The next I was falling, pain searing through my leg as something that felt like a fucking beartrap clamped down on my lower leg and I was jerked off my feet.
I tried to shelter Oisin, who was still unconscious. I tucked myself into a ball around him, shielding him as we fell, and taking the brunt of the impact on my shoulder and back. The hound shook its head, nearly ripping my fucking leg off in the process, and began to drag me back into the woods.
Halstead and Hisashi were running toward us, but they were going to be way too slow. Halstad was limping badly and Hisashi was flickering in and out of reality. I should let go of Oisin. Maybe if the hound dragged me off, it would be busy chewing on my ass, and they could get Oisin to safety.
My heart pounded. I tried to find purchase with my good leg and halt our motion. But I couldn't do it. Not with my arms full of fae. I squeezed Oisin close to me long enough to breathe in his scent of grass and growing things, pressing a hard kiss to his head. "You fucking make it home," I ordered.
Then I let him go.
Oisin's frail frame toppled into the reeds, limp and vulnerable. The dog yanked on my leg again, sending a new wave of pain stabbing upward when my crushed bones grated together. The tall reeds closed in over my head, blocking the others from me as I was dragged backward.
I drew in a deep breath, going limp for a moment as I tried to call up all the strength I had left.
My clothes ripped as I shifted. The stupid dog found itself pulling on the leg of an eight-foot long lion with a giant eagle's head and front talons. The progress toward the deeper woods and the monoliths stopped. Asshole wouldn't be bringing this mouse home to drop at daddy's feet anytime soon. I pushed myself up onto three legs, dragging the shattered rear leg behind me as I spread my wings and shook myself out.
A shriek filled the night when I let loose with an eagle war-cry.
The dog shook himself and crouched low, ready to spring at his new prey. Fuckers were tenacious, I'd give 'em that.
The moment hung suspended in the air, everything still, but for a soft splash of some creature moving in the river behind us.
Then the hound lunged. The world spun in a blur of blue-black night and flashes of white moonlight. I snapped and clawed, fighting for all I was worth.
I would love to say it was because I knew I'd win. But really, I just wanted to buy the others some time to get free. Me and the massive hell beast were pretty evenly matched. And I was exhausted and wounded. I wasn't going to walk away from this one victorious.
But the gryphon in me would never lay down and die without a fight.
I was so lost in the haze of fear and pain, the taste of blood in my mouth and the tearing of my own flesh in the maw of the beast, that I didn't notice when things changed.
Suddenly, I looked down and realized we were suspended in the air. I knew I was about to go down the tunnel with the white light...but this floating in the air thing seemed a little bit weird, even so.
It took my poor addled brain a while to realize there was a slick, muscular tentacle wrapped around my middle, and another around the hound, prying us apart.
I went limp as the kraken pulled me away from the hound, then watched in a detached sort of way as the tentacle wound up and then whipped forward, throwing the poor dog like it was a football. Its howl faded as I lost sight of the black blur flying through the sky. I chuffed in my eagle version of a laugh. If that thing fell on a fae, they were going to be so damned confused.
I glanced down at the river below, which was now overflowing with an oversized sea monster. Kai's mutated-octopus kraken form was way too big for a river. Most of her body spilled out onto the banks, and her head towered above the trees. Big, vertical-slit pupils studied me, a filmy membrane flicking over them as she blinked. Roiling coils of purple tentacles with pink suckers boiled onto the shore, undulating with fury.
The thick tentacle slowly reeled me in, setting me down on the opposite bank beside the rest of my pride. I plopped down on my ass and shifted back to human as I watched Kai shrink back down to normal size and shift to human herself before crawling out of the water. She strode over to me, every bit as naked and muddy as I was, and held out a hand to pull me up. "Come on," she said urgently. "I had a clear view from up there. The riders are still coming."
I heaved a tired sigh and pushed to my feet. Hisashi carried Oisin tucked in close to his chest. The fae was still out cold and I took a moment to run a muddy hand over his face before turning to head to the hanger and our ticket home.
"Son of a bitch!"
I turned to watch Halstad fall to his knees, bent in half, moaning. He clutched his head, pushing the palms of his hands into his eye sockets, which were dripping blood that looked black in the moonlight.