Page 44 of An Accident Waiting to Dragon

Inch by inch by inch she gained altitude, moving higher until finally she touched the bottoms of the clouds. Doing her best to not get tossed around, she beat her wings, which thanks to the deluge of rain grew more and more heavy with every beat. Pixies could fly in a light rain shower, but this was like getting dunked in the ocean, like lifting cement. Any second they’d stop working and she’d drop like a rock. But she didn’t stop.

She couldn’t.

Keep going. Keep?—

Something slammed into her from the side, tackling them both so they flipped end over end as they grappled through the skies. Gwen didn’t hesitate. Not struggling in its grasp to get away, but instead turning in toward it.

She was close enough to see the wraith’s glowing eyes widen in the recess of its hood when she dragged the talon the fucker had left in Asher across where it’s abdomen should be, gutting the damn thing, or so she hoped.

The wraith reared back, its scream more like a whistle, piercing her ear before it disappeared. Entirely. Here, holding her, screaming at her, then gone. Like smoke in the wind.

Gwen fluttered her leaden wings, hovering there for a second. “What in the seven hells?”

Then lightning illuminated a sky that sent horror cleaving through her like a scythe.

Oh my gods.

It took every teeth-gritting ounce of courage in her not to fly for safety.

It’s not just one.

Maybe at the beginning they had been dealing with one wraith, but like sharks scenting blood in the water, the thing had help now. And the skies were filled with…at least a thirty of the fuckers.

Hanging in midair. Hovering.

Every single eerie hooded gaze trained directly on her.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Gwen

* * *

Get above the clouds. Now.

Gwen shot straight up in the sky, gritting her teeth with every flutter of wings that didn’t want to work as she tried to outrun a pack of wraiths made of shadow.

She didn’t get far.

One showed up in her path, reaching for her with those otherworldly hands that were somehow both shadow and flesh. She spun out of reach and angled away and up. But another grabbed her by the long, bottom loop of her injured wing.

It broke off with a wild flare of pain that dragged a scream out of her, but she could still fly. That was the purpose of that loop. A lure for predators.

She got maybe twenty feet higher before another one grabbed her wing fully and she jerked up so hard, the agony that tore through her was like glass through flesh. Fuck! Her wing had ripped this time. She wouldn’t be able to fly.

But the tops of the clouds—the moonlight—was so close.

“No!” she yelled.

Asher.

The word broke apart in her throat as she was yanked against a body that wasn’t solid but clutched her tightly all the same. The wraith’s hold was like ropes, pinning her arms and her wings to her body. She immediately shimmered her wings away to avoid more damage, even as she kicked at another wraith that appeared in front of them, reaching for her.

“Get off me!” she yelled.

More wraiths closed in, every strike of lightning a dreadful flash on their cloaked bodies. They were coming from every angle she could see, eyes aglow in the dark recesses of their tatty hoods. Panic wrapped around her heart and ribs and squeezed, trying to cut off her breathing.

This is what bloodthirsty looked like on a wraith.

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