The Hidden (Shadowed Wings #1)(20)

Well, gryphon, you’ve got about twenty seconds to do something, or we’re about to become a tree kebob, I taunt, and I spread my arms and legs out to steady myself and slightly slow my free fall.

I realize in this moment, as the tops of the trees rise up to meet me, just how born for the sky I really am. I should be terrified, but instead, I feel alive in a way I never have before. A tingle works its way up my back, and a beaming smile breaks open on my face.

There’s just one thing I didn’t account for as my wings spring from my back...Ryn. He slams into me so hard that it knocks the wind out of me. Déjà vu crashes through me as he once again fucks with my attempt to master my wings and take care of myself. I struggle to pull air into my lungs and battle to get him off of me as we struggle to gain control of our fall. I wiggle enough out of his hold that I’m able to scratch at his face and kick him at the same time. He releases me, but his eyes flash, and I can feel his animal surge up in response to my attack.

My own lazy ass gryphon responds to that for whatever reason, and I feel my vision sharpen. Evidently, my gryphon is cool with just about anything except what she perceives as a challenge. I make note of that as I relinquish control of my body to her, but she doesn’t rush in and take over like I expect. She seems more interested in simply making her presence known, and I can almost feel the fuck you in it as I fix my eyes on Ryn, and a warning growl starts in my chest. I—or maybe my gryphon—adjust my wings, and they fill with air, stopping my fall and lifting me effortlessly on a draft that has me rising to surf the sky.

I can feel something bearing down on me from above. I’m being hunted like prey, and I try to work out how to keep from being caught. Ryn catches a draft that brings him up toward me, and a ripple of air slithers through my feathers, depositing information as it weaves through my black wings. I can sense where they are in the sky. I don’t know how I’m reading all of this on the current with my feathers, but I don’t question it. Everything inside of me is screaming to move, to get away, but I wait. At the last minute, I angle my wings for speed and take off into the night, and Zeph and Ryn slam into each other behind me. My gryphon and I feel smug as fuck about that, and if I weren’t so pissed about the fact that she’s left me hanging, falling, and pretty much screwed up until now, I’d give her a mental high five.

We pick up speed, watching the sky for anything else that might give us trouble and make our way to the cliff castle. I probably have less than a minute’s lead on Zeph and Ryn, and I need a good hiding place. I notice all of the windows higher up on the massive structure are dark, so I aim for one of them. Apparently, my gryphon isn’t interested in assisting with the landing because I feel her slip away as I crash land onto the balcony and skid into the room.

I should have fucking known the evil bitch would do this.

I’m not sure how much of a racket I make when I wreck, but it feels pretty fucking loud as I tumble through the room and ricochet off a wall and slide back out toward the balcony. I slowly come to a stop and just lie on the ground, breathing through the bruises I can practically feel forming all over my body. I wait for the guards to pile into the room and bust me, but nothing happens.

My stomach grumbles, and I have to stop myself from actually shushing it. I hear faint yelling and can picture Zeph and Ryn pissed off and calling a search together. I look around the room and realize that it’s empty. There’s no furniture of any kind, and there’s a layer of dust that I’ve just angered on the floor. I focus on my wings and try to pull them back inside of me. I’m not sure how long I lie like that, bathed in silence and willing the onyx feathered appendages to cooperate, but out of nowhere they’re suddenly pulled into my back, and I have to slam a hand over my mouth to stifle my yip of happiness.

Fuck yeah, take that, wings! I own you now!

I cheer in my mind and then cross my fingers and fucking hope that’s now true. I sit up and lean back against a pillar that separates the balcony from the room inside and release a deep weary exhale. I rest my head back and close my eyes, and my grandmother’s face appears on the back of my eyelids. She never smiled much, and a stern unyielding face stares back at me. Her white hair is pulled away from her face tightly, and I know if she turns around, I’ll find a braid that falls almost to the small of her back.

Her aqua gaze reads me like a book, just as it always did, and the lines around her eyes deepen as she stares at me.

“Why not tell me, Gran?” I ask my memory of her. “Why all this cloak and dagger shit?” The image says nothing, which doesn’t surprise me, as figments of my imagination can’t supply answers that I don’t have. I stare at my grandmother a little longer as if the answers lie somewhere in the grooves that time etched into her face, but I’m still as in the dark as I was when I first woke up in this strange place. Well, maybe not that in the dark, I do know that I’m a gryphon, and Zeph and Ryn now know I’m not a spy, so there’s that at least. I hear Zeph bellow a faint command, and I resist the urge to peek and see if they’re outside scrambling or somewhere in the cliff castle freaking out.

I can picture the two of them, all grumpy and irritated at being thwarted, and I bite down against the chuckle that spills out of my mouth. The image of them barking commands and searching for me is the last thing that floats through my mind before my weary body and mind succumb to sleep.