Chapter Twenty Five

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Chapter Twenty Five

As the thunderbird circled above them, Fey grabbed Ember by the arm.

“Listen to me,” she said, pushing aside her feelings for the fox-walker. “We have to get to the top of the mountain!”

“Are you insane?” Ember snapped, yanking her arm free. “That’s where its nest is! We need to be running the other way!”

Fey shook her head impatiently. “We don’t have time to argue! Glenn is up there and he’s going to die if we don’t get him down!”

Ember froze, her eyes going wide. “Glenn is in its nest? What the hell did you do?”

“Me?” Fey demanded, her temper getting the best of her. “You’re the one who was getting all buddy buddy with a—damn it, no! I just said we don’t have time for this!”

Leaving the rest of the group behind, she began to sprint up the mountain. If Ember decided that being petty was more important than saving her alpha, then Fey would rescue Glenn by herself!

“Look out!”

A shadow fell over her, and she raised her head to see the thunderbird bearing down at her. A hand grabbed her wrist and yanked her to the side, hurling her out of the bird’s path just before it struck. Sparks flew as its claws dragged across the stone, digging grooves into the mountainside.

Fey hit the ground and rolled back to her feet, spinning around to find Ember standing beside her.

“Ember? You saved me?” she asked in shock.

Ember bared her teeth. “If you make this awkward, I’ll feed you to that damn bird. Now let’s go!”

The rest of the group caught up a moment later, stopping and looking at them expectantly. They were waiting for orders, Fey realized with a jolt. With Glenn gone, Ember would be in charge of his pack, and Fey…

Her stomach turned over. She had felt so ready earlier. So confident in her ability to lead. But now that it really mattered, and lives were at stake, all she wanted was to crawl under a rock and play dead.

You promised you would stop running from this, she reminded herself. If you won’t do it because you’re supposed to, do it for your pack.

Do it for Clueless.

Do it for Zave.

She turned to look at her human packmate. Zave was clutching his spear, and the fact that he’d made it this far up the mountain told her he hadn’t been seriously injured from his earlier fall.

“Zave, if we’re going to do this, we’ll need your visions,” she said, a vague plan forming in her head. “You have to make sure we know everything the thunderbird is going to do before it happens. If you can do that, then we may just—”

“I can’t!”

Fey paused. “What do you mean you can’t?”

He held out his arm, where the scratch he’d gotten from Gil’s glowing arrow was scabbing over. A pit formed in Fey’s stomach. It looked like an innocent enough wound, but if that arrow had been magic…

“I’m sorry,” he said, wilting in shame. “Ever since that freak’s arrow hit me, my visions have stopped working. I wanted to tell you earlier, but…I’m sorry!”

“Shit, shit, shit,” Fey muttered, the full weight of their situation finally dawning on her. Without Zave to predict the thunderbird’s attacks, they were all—

A tingle ran over her body, and her fur began to stand on end. Her eyes widened when she realized she wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the group suddenly looked like they had stuck a fork in an electric socket.

“MOVE!” she yelled, dashing forward. To her relief, the others followed without question. Half a second later—

BOOOOM!

Fey was blinded. The lightning bolt itself missed her, but she was sent flying anyway by the sheer force of its impact. She hit the wet stone ground, adrenaline coursing through her veins, and managed to spring back to her hooves. Shadows danced in front of her eyes as her vision slowly returned. She saw her packmates strewn across the ground all around her, but it didn’t look like any of them had been directly hit either.

“Fey, you need to get away from me!” Zave yelled, hooking his arm around Clueless’ waist and pulling her to her feet.

She shook her head. “Not a chance in—”

“Gil was right, it’s after me!” he cut her off. “If you leave me here, you can get to the peak without it seeing you!”

“That’s stupid!” Fey shot back. “Why would it single you out like that?”

Before Zave could answer, a shriek like two skyscraper-sized swords grinding together cut through the air, and the thunderbird came shooting out of the clouds. The group scattered, Ember and Norrin retreating further down the mountain, while Clueless tackled Zave to the ground. Once again, they were sent rolling down the slope, but Clueless’ quick thinking still managed to get Zave out of the way of the thunderbird’s attack. With a frustrated squawk, it flapped its wings until it was hidden in the clouds again.

Fey stared in disbelief. It was after Zave. There had been five people standing there, but it had made a beeline straight for him.

“Just leave me here!” Zave insisted, picking himself up. “Save Glenn! You know you won’t get another chance!”

Fey’s heart was racing. He was right. If the thunderbird was really after him, she would never reach the summit with him nearby. Then the last egg would hatch, and Glenn would die. Alone, she could make it to the top in less than five minutes. But those were five minutes Zave would never survive on his own.

She looked desperately up at the peak, shrouded as it was in pitch black clouds.

I’m sorry, she thought.

Then she raced over to Zave, taking a defensive stance beside him.

“What are you doing?” Zave demanded.

“What an alpha’s supposed to do,” she said, putting a hand on his arm. “Protecting my pack!”

“But Glenn—”

“Glenn isn’t my alpha,” she said, her teeth burning as the betrayal slid between them. “Not anymore.”

“But he is mine!”

Fey turned to see Ember and Norrin standing a few feet away. A new fire was burning in the fox-walker’s emerald-green eyes.

“Your pack can take that buzzard down once and for all,” she said.

Fey nodded. “And yours can rescue Glenn.”

That was all that needed to be said. Ember and Norrin sprinted up the mountain, leaving Fey, Zave, and Clueless behind.

“Fey…why?”

Zave was looking at her in shock. To Fey’s horror, she realized that he had already given up. He had fully expected her to leave him here to die while she rescued Glenn. He wouldn’t have blamed her for it. No ill feelings. It was simply how things were supposed to work.

A tear ran down his cheek, and she reached out and brushed it away.

“Because you are what’s important to me now,” she said gently, as a shadow fell over them.

NEXT CHAPTER: 4/30/2025