Page 79 of Claiming Sarah

I made for her tree, but a dreck must have heard the commotion and came back. It bolted toward me, giving me another reason to get up her tree,fast. As I started to climb the base of it, the strangest sight locked every muscle in my body.

Sarah, holding onto the talons of the two jem’hora that had come for her. They flew her down to the ground, gently placing her in the middle of their flock. Then, she pointed at the dreck, and the flock went after it. Shock and awe riveted me as theirpowerful talons shredded through the thick hide, like a child tearing paper. The dreck roared in pain, calling out to the dreck mob. They returned to defend their kin. The jem’hora did the same to the rest of the herd, and a battle of talons and teeth played out before us.

They’re helping us. We need to help them.

I shouted at everyone who was armed. “Come on!” and began to attack the dreck myself with my bone knife.

Deacon and Omen were next to throw in, and then Rex and his crew joined us. With the jem’horas’ help, the drecks hobbled away after they lost two of their own. Then, the birds had them as a feast as payment. We walked among them, but kept a distance, still wary of their temperament. All of us, but Sarah.

As we stared at her, she smiled, watching the birds eat. She occasionally petted the silver feathers that crowned their heads, and each one nuzzled into her palm. Deacon had told me of the strange night he had found her sitting in their midst at his father’s yard, but nothing he had said could have prepared me for the sight of the nightmare birds cuddling with her or our ability to walk next to them without being attacked.

She murmured sweetly to them, “Thank you, my friends.”

The bird nearest to her cooed happily with its bloody beak, before it returned to its meal.It had fucking cooed.I didn’t even know they could.

“Uh, Sarah?” Omen quietly asked.

“Yes?”

“What the fuck?” Omen asked the question on everyone’s mind.

She shrugged. “They like me.”

Omen stared at her in disbelief, just like the rest of us. “Yeah, I’m gonna need a better explanation than that, because I just fought alongside creatures that have tried to kill me, and I’m not sure what to make of that.”

“Leave them to their meal,” Sarah replied, giving a bird one last affectionate caress. “They earned it. We should find Augur.” Then she walked down the path ahead of the rest of us.

I exchanged glances with Omen and Deacon, before I shrugged and followed.

CHAPTER 24

Deacon

After the Dreck attack, we regrouped to follow the path to the swamp temple. Still unsure where Augur was, and still trying to make sense of what we’d just seen with Sarah and the jem’hora, we forged ahead and hoped that she caught up.

Sarah and Jac were in the front with two of Rex’s men, the rest of them were in the middle, while I was in the back with Omen. She was a cunning warrior, and I was glad of her company. I intended to learn much from her.

“I thought conduits raised drecks,” I said to her.

“Yes, sometimes,” she said, her eyes still searching the swamp for enemies. We were all more alert since the attack, and the deeper into the swamp we went, the more we tensed.

“Did you not raise some?” I asked.

She chuckled. “I did. They are an interesting animal. A bit nippy when young, but fun to have around until they get too old.Then you release them into the wild. If conduits did not raise them, there is a good chance their populations would have died out eons ago. Not the smartest creatures—they eat their young.”

I gave her a sidelong glance. “I would have thought you would not have feared them, considering your affection for them.”

She met my gaze and raised a brow. “What’s the one thing that kills a ghost?”

I frowned. “Being mortally wounded by bone, of course.”

“What are teeth made of?”

Point taken. “Ah.”

She continued trudging forward. “Their bite force is too much for their long sharp teeth, so they grow a lot of teeth in those huge heads to replace the ones that shatter when they attack. We’re talking about an animal that can have over a hundred teeth at a time. All it takes is one good bite, and I’m reborn to the ether, so while, yes, Idohave affection for them, I have much more respect for them than to assume we could be friendly, once they are adults.”

As we walked along the path, the bald cypress and mangroves tightened against it until the trail wound around them. The mud trees, one of my botany teachers had called them. They were a gift Ladrians had bestowed to many planets, to help create land from water. I always liked mud trees, but not at the cost of being in a swamp. I wanted to leave as soon as possible.

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