“I don’t... Life sigh!”
He doesn’t see my life sign.
Shit! Sometimes physical barriers could prevent a good reading on a life sign, especially when using the small, weaker scanners we took out into the field. The snow was hiding my life sign.
I fought to keep my dismay under control, listening harder. Major Corey was saying something else.
“Eez prolly ed! We’re ot! Tha shi... eve out us!”
That what? That shit? That shiv?
That ship?
Out us...
Without us.
They’re leaving.
Min-Ji screamed something else, or maybe it was Suvi this time, but I didn’t catch it. I was too busy taking the deepest fucking breath I’d ever taken in my life. If I could hear them from outside, if I yelled loud enough, maybe they’d hear me, too.
Just as I opened my mouth, another explosion rang out, terrific and terrible. It cut off my scream and made my snowy house of cards quiver alarmingly around my head. More explosions followed, and I lost track of how many there were or how many minutes ticked by. By the time the reverberations died down, there were no more voices outside. No more gunfire from what I could tell, either.
And the sound of engines...
Was quieter. Getting quieter every fucking second until I couldn’t hear anything outside at all.
I tried to lie to myself. Tried to tell myself that maybe it just sounded quieter because more snow had drifted around me. Or maybe because my own frantic heartbeat was drowning out everything else.
But I knew, deep in my snow-buried bones I knew, that they had left. Left the atmosphere.
Left me.
The ship was gone.
But what was even worse?
The thing that had hauled itself out of the sky, caused the explosions, and forced an entire military crew into retreat despite weapons and shields and machinery...
Was probably still fucking here.
CHAPTER SIX Wylfrael
The sky door Maerwynne had opened for me from Heofonraed formed near my castle. Thankfully, Sionnach wasn’t located in the dark part of his star map, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to open the door here and I would have waited for some more of my strength to return. I owe him a great debt. I would pay it as soon as I was able. I did not like owing things to others.
I liked being weak even less.
But I was not too weak to confront and kill these ones. The ones in the valley. My valley.
I crashed to the ground, sending shockwaves through the snow. Calamity ensued at my arrival, and I felt a bitter stir of malevolent satisfaction at their fear. How dare these weak, wingless creatures think that they could come here and dig into my world like worms while I was gone?
They should have known that I’d be back.
My satisfaction turned to fury when some of the humans, the ones not running, aimed small machines at me. Weapons. A vicious spray of sound filled the valley, and rock-like projectiles pinged off of my hide. Stone of the sky. I was weaker than I’d realized. Some of the tiny things they sent my way actually penetrated, leaving bloodied marks along my chest and wings. One hit my cheek, skidding just under my eye and leaving an infuriating burn.
Enough.
I heaved up the last vestiges of strength I possessed, concentrating my energy on the snow. I roared as my star map glowed brighter and thrummed with power. I raised my hands and the snow rose with them, becoming a freezing spear that crashed over the group of humans aiming those tiny machines at me. Maerwynne was right. They are weak. Not a single human recovered from the blow.
I turned, fangs bared, from that group, my gaze slashing over the scene. Many of the humans were running into a large, disc-like thing. The contraption that had brought them here, no doubt. It was entirely different in design from a Tvarvatra machine, so at the very least I could surmise they were not allied with those foul beings. The disc machine whirred.
If I’d been stronger, I likely would have killed them all. Collapsed their machine into the snow with a single blow of my fist and forced them all to stand, fight, and die.
But as it was, my energy was too depleted. I wanted them gone, and they were going. Let them look upon me and run. Cowardly little creatures.
The ones who did not carry weapons were all stowed in the disc machine now. The only ones left upon the snow still aimed their tiny weapons my way, flinging their quick, biting stones at me. I stalked towards them, about a dozen of them in all, ignoring the scoring sensations across my skin. The sounds of their weapons gave way to shouts, bleated commands I could not understand. New weapons were engaged against me – ones that they threw from their hands, detonating all around me with fire and fury. For every explosion that went off, I ripped up a wall of snow and ice to protect myself. The snow melted and dispersed quickly under the fiery blows, but it kept me protected enough as I advanced on the remaining warriors. When I got close, they tried to turn and run into the machine, like the others had. I decided these ones would be worth spending some of my dwindling power on. With a stretch of my hand, pummelling snow heaved over them with the force of a mountain falling. I turned my attention to the disc machine to see three figures jumping inside – stragglers I had not noticed before. Two were smaller and weaponless. The taller one aimed his weapon at me as he entered the disc machine.
That enraged me. I was being stupid, now, to keep using my power when there was so little left. But my restraint had become even more eroded than my stores of strength. With a vicious snarl, I snapped open my wings, leaping forward and grasping the human’s neck in my hand. I pulled him from the disc machine as some of the humans screamed. A few of them continued fighting, showering me with little rocks that did not explode and lobbing the large rocks that did explode.
I flew into the air with the wriggling, struggling warrior, out of range of the others on the disc. Even now, he still tried to kill me, clutching at my throat, grabbing my hair.
“You’re a fool,” I hissed at the flat, dark sheen of his eye. “You do not know whose world you’re in now.”
Sounds – maybe words – came from his white and mouthless face. I understood none of them, and wanted to even less. The human unloaded his weapon on me at close range, and I grunted as the stones dug deep into my guts.
I snatched the thing from his hands and crunched it in my grip as if it were nothing more than a bit of wayward ice. I let the black pieces fall to the ground, far below us now. My grip on his neck tightened, and I dragged his hideous, mouthless face up to mine.
“I’ll tell you, then,” I rasped, blood coursing down my legs, my wings beating. “This is Sionnach.” The human squirmed and gasped, but I did not let go. “Sionnach is mine. Mine to guard, mine to protect. And because you’re in it, your life is mine, too.” I held him by his neck out in the air, further away from my body.
“But not for long,” I said grimly.