Rise of the Gryphon (Belador #4)(108)

Her wings moved but not in unison. She started flipping over and over. Trees. Sky. Mountains. Sky. A blur of green and brown. She curled into herself and prepared to crash.

Kizira yelled, Boomer needs help. He’s on the ground and they’re killing him.





FORTY-FOUR





Quinn listened to the radio reports coming through to the mic in his ear. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing about dragons, then Trey’s voice came into Quinn’s mind, overriding everything. I reached Evalle and . . . passed on the infection. I powered up the telepathy. She’s a . . . gryphon. Golden head. Flying overhead, but sick now. Falling.

I’ll pass that on. Go to the healer before you lose consciousness.

When Trey withdrew, Quinn picked up a radio call that a female witch was riding a gryphon. Kizira?

He put the radio away and closed his mind to everything except calling out, Kizira, where are you?

Quinn? You shouldn’t be here. Evalle was supposed to warn you. Where are you?

Evalle hadn’t warned him away, but then Evalle would know that Quinn and Tzader would never avoid a battle necessary to protect their warrior queen and Treoir.

He mustered a weak voice and replied, I need you.

Sad to use that ploy to call her to him, he waited as she followed the connection to where he sat on a log in a highly visible spot.

In the next moment, a giant gray-blue creature landed and Kizira jumped off its back. Now that he could see it better, Quinn recognized the lionesque body and eagle-shaped head.

A gryphon.

But not a golden head like the one Trey had mentioned.

Kizira said something to the gryphon, then the creature dipped its head and took to the air again. She hurried over, but stopped fifteen feet from Quinn, suspicion in her frown. “You don’t look hurt. What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry.” He pushed to enter her mind and got shoved back.

“What . . . what are you doing?”

Powering up, he surged again, blasting his way past her defenses.

She grabbed her head. “Stop it, Quinn. I’m not here to hurt you.”

He was relentless, reaching deeper, banging into the other voices booming in her mind, probably the gryphons’. She started screaming in her head.

At that moment a massive golden-headed gryphon barreled down at him from the sky.

Quinn twisted around and threw his hands up, forcing a kinetic blast at the gryphon.

The beast stuttered in flight as if buffeted by the wind, then rolled away and kept coming. Quinn watched in shock as the gryphon landed in a skid, jaws open, roaring.

Using his kinetics had weakened Quinn’s hold on Kizira.

The gryphon’s forward momentum threw the beast at Quinn, who couldn’t release Kizira in order to use his mind lock on the gryphon.

She vanished and reappeared in front of Quinn as a massive claw swiped at him.

It ripped her middle open.

Quinn released her mind, shouting as he dove into the gryphon’s mind, then funneled his kinetics inside to explode the beast’s head.

The headless beast flopped backward, its wings quivering.

A whimpering sounded wrenched Quinn’s eyes to Kizira. “No, no!” He dropped and lifted her into his arms. The claw had gouged a wide canal from beneath her breasts to above her hips. He begged, “Heal yourself, Kizira.”

Blood ran from her lips. “I . . . can’t. Flaevynn took that . . . away right before she sent me here. I need . . . to tell you . . .”

Quinn cried, tears streaming down his face. “Please don’t die.” He’d never said the words that fisted his heart, but they poured out now with panic that he was losing her. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Quinn. I tried . . . for peace.”

He bawled, pleading with every god in the universe to save her.

She moved her hand to his wrist. “The bracelet I made of your hair . . . don’t lose it.”

“I want you, not a bloody bracelet. I’m so sorry. I should have believed . . .”

“Quinn, please listen.” She jerked and coughed.

“Anything, my love.” He covered the gaping hole, trying to hold on to her life force.

When her lips moved again, he leaned his ear to her face. “Don’t let . . . the Medb get her.”

“What do you mean?” Evalle?

Her eyes started to roll back.

He clutched her to his chest, pleading, “Please don’t leave me.”

She clenched with pain and said, “Promise me . . .”

“Anything.” He brushed his lips over hers, savoring the feel.

“Find Phoedra. Keep her safe.”

“Who’s Phoedra?”

“Our daughter.” She gasped and the light went out of her.

Quinn’s howl of pain shook the trees and ground.





FORTY-FIVE





Still tucked into a falling ball, Evalle hit trees. Limbs snapped. Sharp edges stabbed and scraped her body. She bounced down a hillside, finally landing at the bottom, where she sprawled her wings open.

Every bone felt broken or cracked.

Vertigo still swamped her. Bile raced up her throat. This had to be the infection.

Trey had intentionally infected her.

Didn’t Tzader understand her message? Evalle had really thought that between Tzader and Quinn, they’d realize all they had to do was have Quinn take control of Kizira’s mind.