Page 56 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

He pushed me. Sagepushedme off the fucking cliff!

Chapter sixteen

MORE THAN ANYTHING

Ornella

The cliffside was whipping by me in a blur of plants and stone far too fast for me to grab onto anything.

I twisted midair to get a look around, trying to quell my racing heart long enough to decide if it was smarter to catch myself with the plant roots in the cliff or to grow some wings. Although I was falling so fast now that I was sure I would instantly break any wings I tried to grow. Perhaps I could slow myself down with the roots and then grow wings. Either way, my magic was depleted, and it was going to hurt to conjure.

But I would live. And then I was going to kill Sage.

A frantic bark caught my attention, and I looked up to see Pyrope swooping toward me. Her ears were pressed back in determination, her gorgeous wings working hard to gain the speed she needed to reach me, and then we were side by side. She dipped her left wing around me and turned midair to give me her back.

I felt a compulsion, a soft but firm command to grab onto the thick fur around the back of her neck. But under the order was a desperate plea for me to let her save me.

I did not have time to contemplate the fact that I was pretty sure the vargr had just communicated with me as I reached out to grab her fur. As soon as I had a hold of her, Pyrope swooped more under me, colliding with me hard enough to knock the air out of me at that speed, but I kept my grip. She was a remarkable flier, lighter and faster, and much more agile than Serafin as she eased out of the nosedive to sweep above the trees that had been far too close for comfort. Gravity worked for me rather than against me finally, and I clamped my knees around her. She was obviously a formidable creature, but she was also slender and so much better suited to my size. The girth around her flanks didn’t put nearly as much strain on my hips and knees as riding Serafin often did.

The second I was situated, I twisted to look up and sighed in relief when I saw Sage was safely on Serafin and flying toward us. Fuath also seemed to have fallen from the cliff, probably from a surge of their overeager companions all clambering to get to us. I smirked as the beasts fell by, looking horrified, their screams abruptly ending with cracks as their bodies broke branches below.

Then my smile faded, and I cringed at the thought that it had almost been me hitting that canopy.

I looked up again and saw the Fuath that had managed to stay on the cliff were firing arrows at us, but we were out of their range.

Sage and Serafin glided past in a flash, and I could see pure relief in my mate’s face before they were gone.

Pyrope banked to follow, automatically adjusting her wings and body to me when my weight shifted. I leaned into her movements the way I had learned to do with Sage and Serafin and felt a burst of approval come back to me. That feeling of satisfaction was so… intrinsic that I could have mistaken the feeling for my own, but it was not me. It washer. The vargr wasproud of me for knowing how to move and fly with her. I realized it would be highly annoying for her to have to train a rider, so it was likely a relief that I already knew how to move correctly.

The first few moments, I could focus on little more than clamping my thighs around her. My hands clenched so tightly in her fur that it must have hurt, but Pyrope did not complain. And once I got a little more comfortable with her, I found it was truly incredible to fly with a vargr who could anticipate me. I had often marvelled at the way Sage and Serafin seemed like one entity while they flew, and now I had that in part with Pyrope. I felt like I was partly in control even though it was her wings carrying us. Even though I could not yet actively talk to her, she was sensitive to my comfort while we were flying.

And it was not nearly as cold as I feared it would be flying without Sage to warm me, although it occurred to me that it might have been his armour keeping me warm. Some kind of magic that helped regulate my temperature or comfort perhaps?

We followed Ciaran and Sage some distance from the Fuath and the burned village before the two males began to descend into a clearing. I landed last, nearly thrown from Pyrope’s back when her paws hit the earth hard.

“—set a trap,” Ciaran was saying. He had dismounted and was standing next to Serafin with his arms raised to help Sage get down. My mate was clearly in a lot of pain, so I decided to temporarily table the whole pushing me over a cliff thing for a later date.

I jumped off Pyrope and almost stumbled to my knees when my weak legs nearly buckled beneath my weight. Ignoring the nausea, I staggered over to where Ciaran had helped Sage to brace against a rock.

“They knew we would return to check on the village,” Sage said, closing his eyes in evident relief when I knelt next to himand put my arms around him. I was careful this time not to touch any of the arrows still protruding from his back.

“But the illusion was—” Ciaran cut himself off with a shake of his head. “Sage, Irecognizedthe yurts. I saw them damaged in the ways I remembered before we left. Not only that, but I think they were cloaking some of their arrows. I was unable to see all of them,” he admitted as he turned to go back to Serafin. He unsaddled the wounded vargr before even attending to his own.

“I also missed a few of them,” Sage pointed out with a pained smirk that made both me and Ciaran frown at him. “It’s something new. Much like the explosive green fire. This mage will be a problem,” Sage said more seriously before turning toward me.

My helmet suddenly disappeared as he turned his face into my neck. I was astonished to realize his armour was so comfortable that I had forgotten I even wore it.

Then Sage brushed his nose along my jaw in a tender caress that had my wasted body perking up immediately, and I forgot all about the incredible armour again.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“I need to heal you,” I told him, already knowing that he was going to fight me on it.

“No, Summer,” he growled in exasperation. “Just help Ciaran remove the arrows before we return to the village. My mother will panic if she sees me covered in blood.”

“I don’t care if I’m weak. Please let me—”

Sage gripped me by the back of my neck and drew me back enough to look down at me with a stern expression.

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