I’ve never tried to activate my runes while in our gryphon form, I don’t know if it will do anything at all, but it’s the only thing I can think to do other than accept our inevitable death. I focus on my core, on the well of magic that I feel there. I pull from what feels like an endless source and don’t bother with finesse or figuring out which runes I can activate while in this form, I call on everything that I have.
A familiar building sensation starts in my chest, and I wait until it gets overwhelming before shoving it out of me. Instead of the magic pulsing out like I expect it to and blasting all the attacking gryphons away from us, the magic ricochets through Pigeon and starts to settle.
I watch in awe as the runes I call in my form adapt to Pigeon’s form, and the next thing I know, the black swoosh blades fit the arc of our wings perfectly, turning the appendages into giant weapons. The whip swords morph into a chainmail covering Pigeon’s neck and chest. The shield runes on my forearms become greaves for her front and back legs, and tasses cover our hind quarters.
Renewed fight pumps through our veins, and this time when Pigeon opens her beak and bellows out a warning, it’s through a metal covering that protects the top of her beak, snakes between her eyes and fits over her ears.
In a blink, we Mighty Morphin Power Ranger-ed ourselves some gryphon armor, and these motherfuckers are about to pay the fuck with us toll.
21
If it were me in charge, I would have cracked my knuckles ominously and taken a moment to really build the tension and impending doom I wanted my attackers to feel. But Pigeon is a give no fucks kind of girl, so she just goes balls to the wall and starts cutting bitches up.
One of our wings is very badly injured, so it’s more tucked against our back protectively, but the wing blades are the shit, and just one of them slicing through a crowd of honorless gryphons does a satisfactory amount of damage.
Pigeon embraces her inner rhino and charges through the gathering attackers, using her protected bits to lead the way and all her sharp bits to exact as much damage as possible. Unfortunately, that means that more gryphons get tagged in from the outskirts, and just as we take one down, another hops in to take its place.
It’s a fucking flood of assholes, but we’re not dead yet, so there’s that.
I keep hoping that somehow Wekun will portal an army in at any moment, but the oncoming night is filling with snarls and cries, death gurgles and pain, and I have no idea how long Pigeon can keep this up.
A hurricane of air slams into us and sends me and all the gryphons around me flying. Pigeon and I try to fight against the sudden onslaught, but it seems Lazza is tired of waiting to watch us get ripped apart and wants in on the action.
I think back to when I first started training with Treno on how to use the runes he gave me that grant him an affinity for water. I learned that day that his brother, Lazza, has runes that allow him to manipulate air. I realized then, that was how he almost killed Ryn back in Kestrel and what he used to try and kill Treno—and subsequently me, Zeph and Ryn—through the Vow when we’d escaped.
Lazza’s affinity for air does its best to crush Pigeon and me. Pressure pushes against us from every angle, and it feels like we’re stuck in an invisible trash compactor. I try to shove magic into every inch of our gryphon form to combat it, but I’m discovering that I can activate my runes on behalf of Pigeon and protect her with them, but I can’t shove magic out of her body like I can mine.
“Shift, Pidge!” I encourage again now that there isn’t an attacking horde right on top of us—or at least not a visible one—and thankfully she finally agrees. But before she can fully relinquish our body back to me, Lazza’s unrelenting air pressure takes its toll.
Agony splinters through me and Pigeon as multiple parts of her body break under the weight of the air that’s being used against us. I feel our other wing fracture in several places, as well as our arms and legs. Pigeon’s body lights up with white hot pain, and then instantaneously it shuts off as she crumples into unconsciousness inside of me.
One second I’m a bystander to Pigeon’s gryphon, and in the next, she’s gone. Panic ripples through me, and I release the tsunami of violet magic that’s been gathering inside of me. The pressure around me cuts off, and I scream for Pigeon, terrified that I can barely feel her inside of me.
I can tell she’s hurt badly, and I’m reminded of Treno’s panic in Kestrel City when he found out I couldn’t shift and told me that it’s possible to hurt your gryphon so badly that they can’t come back from it.
I wrap what I feel left of Pigeon inside of me in soft warm layers. “Pidge, I’ll be right back. Don’t you fucking go anywhere, you hear me!” I demand as I clear my cheeks of tears and swallow back the sobs that are trying to climb out of my throat. “I love you, you rotisserie chicken, so you just stay right here. I’m going to get you some help!”
I drop steel bars of protection around her and focus on what I need to do.
It’s time to end shit once and for all.
I push to my feet and clothe myself in magic. My runes and weapons are ready to go, and I may still go down, but I know I’ll be taking that power-hungry asshole with me.
“Lazza, you limp dick motherfucker, where are you?” I scream, my rage pouring out of
