Page 30 of Soul Forge

A faint smile threatened the corners of Reiner’s mouth. “Not even him.”

Elda turned back to the horizon, stroking the soft mane of the Pegasus. He grunted in contentment, tossing his head when she stopped. She chuckled and resumed her steady rhythm, digging her fingers in just enough to ease the tension in his neck as he flew.

Her eyes fell on Sypher, dark wings outstretched, raven feathers shining in the sunlight. He’d taken his hood down, letting the wind rake its fingers through his pale hair. He seemed… content. Whenever Atlas changed angles enough to see his face, the Soul Forge had no ridge between his brows. The fire in his eyes was bright, his wingbeats steady and strong. Elda found herself drawn to him, unable to look away when he tilted his wings to bank left, the movement smooth and graceful.

She’d give anything to feel freedom like that. To have wings of her own that could carry her away from trouble at a moment’s notice. She’d dreamed of something similar when she was younger, but then she learned that most people didn’t have wings. They didn’t fly away from their problems to touch theclouds. Even avian shifters were rare, only occurring once every few generations.

Her father had worked hard to stamp out her idyllic daydreaming at a young age, taking away her books and fairy tales, limiting her visits to the city, and forcing her to take up lessons in needlework, dancing, etiquette, painting, music. Anything to stop her from wondering what existed outside the gates. Bit by bit, he’d stripped away the light and the hope that burned inside her, leaving only the barest embers flickering in her soul.

And then she met Sypher, the man who really could fly.

It hit her then – she wasfree. Not in the sense that she had no obligations or that she could choose where she went next. But there were no walls around her. Nobody expected her spine to remain straight until it ached or for her hair to be perfectly pinned, her feet forced into uncomfortable silk shoes, and her body weighed down by voluminous, expensive skirts.

A laugh bubbled up her throat, wild and unsteady. It built inside her until the pressure was too much and tumbled out of her mouth. Another followed, chased by an excited holler. Behind her, Reiner chuckled. Elda threw her arms out and screamed at the sky, tears of joy glistening on her cheeks. And through them, she saw the Soul Forge look back. It was faint, barely there, but it lifted her spirits even higher to see it.

Sypher was smiling.

Hours passed, the landscape changing from thick swathes of flat forest to rolling green hills and deep valleys. Elda drank in every inch of the scenery, watching Eden proper turn into the outlands Sypher fought to protect. Despite the lack of trees, the greenery of Eden’s outer areas made a beautiful carpet far below, some of it left to grow wild, other parts sectioned off by orderly hedges and stone walls to protect crops from straying animals. In the wild parts, large puddles filled every dip and depression, reflecting the daylight back at her. Elda soon learned why.

On the horizon was a line of huge, bruised-looking clouds. They stretched as far as she could see in either direction, pelting the ground below with heavy rain. Lightning flashed in their centre, illuminating every billow and swell of mist from the inside. It was a violent storm, and they were heading right for it.

“Looks like we’re getting wet,” Sypher mused, gliding closer so they could hear him.

“Can’t we go over it?” Elda asked.

“Sure, if you want to suffocate,” Reiner snorted. “Look how high those clouds go. They’re taller than the mountains of Cenet.”

“In my pack, there’s a cloak,” Sypher told Elda. “Put it on.”

She unhooked the bag from her shoulders and reached inside, Reiner’s steadying hand at her waist keeping her seated when the wind began to pick up. Her fingers touched something smooth and hard, but flexible.

“Why can’t we go through the clouds?” she asked.

“I need my eyes to see. I’m not a bat,” the Soul Forge replied.

Elda finally pulled out a cloak of black so deep it seemed to shimmer, fashioned from thousands of scales of varying sizes. They shone like glass whenever the fading light touched them, as though hundreds of tiny jewels had been fashioned into a cloak. For a moment, she was stunned by both its beauty and the work that had gone into it.

“It’s heavy for a cloak,” she remarked.

“Hurry up,” Reiner instructed, pulling up the leather hood attached to her own armour.

Elda fastened the clasp at her collar, the strange material shielding her from the cold immediately. She pulled up the hood and put her hands back on Atlas’ neck just as the first drops of rain hit them. In seconds, water was sluicing off his feathers and running down Elda’s cloak in rivulets. She could feel the extra strain on his wings when his muscles tensed beneath her, but the Pegasus kept them on a straight course, dutifully following Sypher through the downpour. Reiner hunched over Elda, ignoring her grumble of protest when she was flattened against the horse.

Sypher’s hood was back up, the dark shape of him just visible through the downpour. Like the Pegasus, water dripped from his wings with every beat, but he carried on through the stormwithout complaint. She kept her eyes on him until he slowed to a stop, turning to peer into the clouds.

“Something is here,” he called out. “I can feel it.”

“A demon?” Reiner asked, and Elda’s heart lurched.

“Several,” was the grave reply, but when she turned to look through the rain and cloud, she saw nothing. There was no sight or sound of anything beyond the storm, but somehow, the Soul Forge knew.

A blood-chilling shriek to the right caught Elda’s attention, but she couldn’t see anything through the torrential downpour and the gloom cast by the clouds. Everything was a mix of grey on grey, darkening by the minute as the meagre sunlight faded to night. Another scream sounded, much closer this time.

“Shit,” Sypher cursed. A third shriek pierced the dark.

“Balls,” Reiner muttered. “Wraiths. Take the reins.”

Elda turned as far in her seat as she could, straining against the captain’s weight to look her in the eyes. “You want me towhat?”

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