annais min had everything to prove and no time to do it. as one of the five children of the underworld destined to lead the seven on their journey of death and destruction, annais had the fate of the universe resting on her shoulders, holding her do...
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CHAPTER TWELVE: BUMPY SKIES
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ANNAIS WASN'T AFRAIDOF heights, but after falling hundreds of feet through the air, that just might change. The endless sky was a hazy pink in the early dawn but she was unable to truly appreciate the sight with death a mere second away. The shadows were fading fast as the sun began to rise and she was struggling to draw them to her in the chaos. Wind roaring through her hair like the failing whines of an airplane engine, her friends and her siblings screaming in her ears. Festus had already crashed below them, his heavy body creating a giant crater in the roof of a warehouse followed by a thick cloud of dark smoke.
It wasn't long before they would be next.
A body shot past her — Leo. He was screeching as loud as his lungs would let him, fingers frantically scraping at the air like the clouds would somehow cushion his fall, all the while Mel was clinging to his back, reminding Annais of a terrified koala. She tried in vain to reach for them, her brow pinched with determination as darkness gathered at the corner of her eyes, but she couldn't focus enough. Annais had never been in a situation where she had to shadow travel in mid-air let alone trying to bring five other people along with her. She wasn't even sure it was possible, but she didn't know what else to do when the impact would surely kill them. She shut her eyes tight, her chest squeezing, before a voice rang through the echo in her ears.
"Annais!" Jason Grace shouted before a body haphazardly crashed into her own. His muscled arm was quick to curl around her waist. "Are you alright?"
She nodded, glancing at his other side where Piper clung to him with shaking limbs. She had Ezra curled around her leg — the tether between them was barely hanging on by a thread — and Jason was struggling to fly with three people stuck to his side like glue. Still, he seemed nothing if not determined, the wind swirling around their feet and slowing their descent enough for Annais to speak.
"We need to get Leo and Mel," she shouted into Jason's ear. "Can you hold us all up?"
He didn't look convinced but he nodded anyway. Then, with a squeeze of Annais' hip, he declared to the three girls, "It's gonna get rough, so hold on."
Rough, in the end, turned out to be a massive understatement. Annais almost preferred the feeling of free-falling through the air — now they were zooming to the ground at break-neck speed with a boy unable to maintain control. A scream tore through her lips, her throat burning, but the sound was quickly torn away from her and lost in the wind. She was almost tempted to let go but Jason's grip only got tighter as they slammed into Leo and Mel, the former cursing them out while the other sobbed pitifully.
"Stop fighting," Jason hissed, his face flushing from the strain of maintaining a weak air cushion beneath them. "It's me."
"My dragon," Leo cried, ignoring Jason as he wriggled around in protest. Annais had grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, his words barely audible through his splutters for air. "Y-You gotta save Festus!"
