Instead, she landed hard and turned to face the direction in which we were running.
Shit!
She booked it on bony, gnarled bird feet, and came after us through the trees at blinding speed. Elle stopped and spun, throwing herself in front of me and chucking two knives that landed squarely in the center of each of the harpy’s wings.
“Nice!” Cam called out.
The harpy looked unfazed for a moment, but then she pulled her head back and opened her mouth, emitting the highest-pitched scream I’d ever heard in my life. An unseen force knocked into me, blowing us all backward as I clutched my ears in pain.
I landed hard on the ground, my left elbow taking the brunt of the fall. While the harpy screamed, I rolled over and saw Liam wincing in pain. Cam, too. For some reason, it seemed to be affecting them more…maybe because they were half human.
Elle seemed to recover and rolled on her side, grabbing another dagger. My gaze tracked the harpy, who now ran at us, high-pitched squeal on full blast. I popped up to my feet, stepping in front of Cam and Liam, since they seemed to be the most affected, and prepared to confront her.
The problem was, I couldn’t call my sunlight magic, or whatever it was. Normally, if I felt unsafe or angry, my palms heated up, but this was different. It was like her freaky scream was impairing me. I looked at my belt, and my stomach dropped. I’d lost my sword somewhere on the run, too. Probably back by my boot.
Elle chucked her final knife, but the harpy ducked, and it sailed past her. Crouching on her bird legs, she leapt from the ground and aimed right for me.
Everything Trissa had taught me about close combat came rushing back. The second the harpy was close enough for me to hit her, I snapped out with my flat palm and shoved upward, right into her nose. A crunching noise cut off her awful scream, and she reached out to grasp both of my arms and steady herself as she landed before me.
The moment her skin touched mine, she hissed, backing up, and looked at me with wide eyes. I could smell burning flesh, and my gaze snapped to the blackened skin of her human palms.
Holy crap. Had I done that to her?
A breeze of cold air rushed past me, and then a wall of ice slammed into her, knocking her backward.
“Let’s go!” Liam shouted as he helped Cam stand.
I didn’t need to be told twice. I could hear the trickling of the river from here. We were close.
Together, we ran to the bank, glancing over our shoulders every other second…but something told me she wouldn’t be back. Touching me had burned her, just as touching the dark crystal had burned me.
The moment we reached the water, we plunged in without slowing. I paddled hard under the low-hanging tree branches and finally reached the dome protection.
“Let me try,” Liam called out just over my shoulder. “You said any Seeker can open it, right?”
I nodded. “The Elders told me that.”
I felt stupid the second it left my lips. Why should I believe anything the Elders had told me anymore? Liam reached out and palmed the dome, grasping it as if trying to tear it like a cloth. It flexed a little, but nothing else happened.
What did that mean?
“Guess they lied,” Liam said point-blank. He was systematically breaking down the things I’d been told one by one, and my brain couldn’t process it.
“Psycho fish, three o’clock!” Elle called out.
I looked over my shoulder and spotted its snapping teeth. Planting my feet on the rocks—one of them still without a boot—I placed my hands on the dome and parted it like a hot knife through butter.
Liam and Cam slipped inside, and Elle was next. In a move I had now perfected, I kept the dome open above my head, spinning in the water before closing it behind me. My eyes tracked the water, making sure no dark creatures had slipped through, before I started to swim to the riverbank.
When I got there, Liam was resting his arms on his knees, watching me with an unreadable expression.
“Let’s go heal your mom.” I climbed up, trying to push everything that was bothering me out of my head.
He nodded and grabbed the soaked backpack of water jars.
After a quick change at my house, we packed the jars in a dry duffel bag and headed to the new blue door inside my house. The fact that we didn’t need to traipse through town or deal with the Elders was the best news yet.
I stuffed extra clothes, makeup, my mother’s journal, and the book on illusions into my messenger bag. I had no idea how long we would be gone, but I was prepared for anything.
An hour later, we pulled up to Liam’s. We’d had to stop by the grocery store and get his brothers food. “They eat more than a football team,” he told me as we unloaded our bags from the back of the car.
I noticed some of the guards patrolling the property, but they looked different than the guys from before. “How many guards do you have?”
He looked over his shoulder. One of them nodded to him, and he nodded back. “Five at a time. They rotate in exchange for the crystal energy. I was working on getting us some land where we could all live together, but now we can do that in Faerie. I just need your help to convince them.”
I gulped. Right. Convince them that I was going to help restore Faerie. No big deal. At least we’d brokered a deal with the Elders that they could live there. “I’ll try my best.”
Liam looked at my messenger bag. “Is your mom’s journal in there?”
I chewed my lip.
