Finally, the beast is free, and I grip its leg and drag it down to me. Its monkey mouth chatters and shrieks. Blood stains its sharp teeth, and it snaps at me, but I have it by both rear legs now, and it can’t get at me with teeth or talons. I look into its eyes, and they blaze a hatred that takes my breath away.
When I was trapped by Tiera’s mother, I never stopped to ask why. Jannah had done her best to teach me about monsters, but part of me was still like every villager who kills a trespassing animal without asking why it’s trespassing. There had been a reason that gryphon attacked—she’d been pregnant with Tiera when I’d injured her. She’d come after me knowing I would eventually come after her.
The hate that radiates from this harpy is different. That hate in that monkey face looks human, and it chills me to the bone.
Wings beat at me as the harpy flails for a hold with those human-like furred hands. I kill the beast as humanely as I can. Then I run for Dain.
He’s still on his stomach, protecting the dropbear. Two harpies have the back of his tunic and are trying to lift him. Malric is already fighting two more, who block him from getting to Dain.
I’m only a few strides away when the two who are blocking Malric suddenly swoop at Dain instead. I let out a scream of rage and lunge for him just as all four harpies grab his tunic and hoist him into the air.
CHAPTER SEVEN
My fingers scrabble at Dain’s back but don’t find a hold. I wrap my arms around his leg instead. As the harpies falter, I let out a grim chuckle. Four can lift Dain, but they can’t lift both of us. We’re—
A screech and then we’re sailing up, and I manage to look up to see two others have joined in. Six harpies, their talons wrapped in Dain’s hair and gripping his tunic and clenched around one arm.
Malric leaps for my leg, but his teeth slide off.
The harpies struggle to lift us, squawking and screaming. One lets go, as if it’s giving up, and we jolt toward the ground.
Except that’s not what the harpy is doing at all. It flies straight at me. I brace for the blows of those wings and talons, pulling into myself, eyes squeezed shut. I still have my dagger, held flat against Dain’s leg. I can use it, but that risks losing my grip. Better to just withstand the pain.
Fingers touch my own, and I flinch so hard I nearly release Dain. I open my eyes to see the harpy hovering as it tries to pry my fingers from Dain’s leg. I shudder as my brain feels human fingers while my eyes show me that pale simian face, with fangs jutting over its gray lips, wide brow scrunched up in concentration. Then the harpy turns my way, and I recoil, because that look is human, filled with hatred and cunning.
The harpy sneers at me. I swear it does. Its lip curls up, and its eyes fix on mine, and it sneers. Meanwhile its fingers are working to peel mine from Dain, and its tail is working with them. For a split second, I marvel at that. The beast is flying…while working at my hand and getting its tail in there to help.
Of course, that fascination—and grudging admiration—lasts only a blink before I see the ground about ten feet below. Dain must have let go of the dropbear when he was wrenched upward. She’s down there, with Jacko standing guard over her, the jackalope on his hind legs, screeching his alarm cry as he watches me clinging to Dain. Malric runs back and forth, leaping with every few steps, trying to grab my leg, but the harpies keep us just out of reach.
Just out of reach.
That’s the key here. They’re very careful not to let us dip low enough for Malric to grab me, but that’s taking all their energy, and they can’t get higher until their flock-mate pries me off Dain.
The harpy is working on my right hand. The one pressed against my dagger handle. It’s smart. Get that hand free, and I’ll lose both my grip and my weapon.
I clasp Dain’s trousers with my left hand, fingers digging in for a better hold. I wrap my arm around his leg, too. Then I clench my right hand, and the harpy lets out a shriek of victory, feeling my fingers move and thinking it has achieved its goal.
Keeping my right arm around Dain’s leg, I slash using my wrist. It’s awkward, but the harpy isn’t expecting attack, and the dagger slices its chest. It howls and strikes out blindly. A flick of my wrist, and blood wells on the beast’s forearm. It screams and flaps down to get out of my reach…and it swoops right into Malric’s range. The warg grabs it.
The other harpies are all screeching now, those terrible human cries, underscored by the thump of their wings as they valiantly try to stay in flight.
If the harpies were hawks, they’d just keep trying to fly off with us. Being monsters, they see the futility of it. They lost their one chance to unburden themselves of the extra human, and if another harpy releases Dain to dislodge me, the remaining four will drop us both. They’re screaming for the rest of their flock. And no one is coming.
As the five remaining harpies screech in vain, Malric doesn’t even bother jumping for my feet. He’s just tracking me and waiting, knowing they’ll tire any moment now.
But then, a shriek. And an answering one. Two more harpies appear, dark forms against the dusk. They’re winging straight for us and—
One falls. It barely emits a gurgling cry as it drops. I twist to look, still clinging to Dain’s leg. I’d heard
