Umbra

Chapter 7

Festus wasn't working.

She heard Piper screaming, she saw Leo shooting past her, she sensed Festus far from them, spinning out of control with limp wings, fire flickering in its mouth.

"Level out!" she heard Jason yelling. "Extend your arms and legs!"

Emilia wondered if she could shadow travel them all to safety in these conditions. Maybe not; she felt her heart hammering in her chest as she thought of her dream. And besides, she'd arrive somewhere else at this exact same speed. They'd splat on the ground anyway, bones broken in a way ambrosia and nectar couldn't fix.

She tried to listen to Jason, spread-eagle as she watched him grab onto Piper, then reach for Leo. Yes, she'd heard them say Jason could fly, but seeing him struggle to slow their fall didn't bring much reassurance.

She tried to conjure shadows to break the air, but it caused a great deal of strain, as if the wind was refusing to yield. This would be such a stupid way to die and she was powerless to stop it.

"Emilia!" yelled Jason over the wind. "Reach for Leo!"

She extended herself out, trying to grab onto him as he flailed. With her arms forward, she tugged the shadows with all her might, forming a rope that brought him close enough that she could grab his wrist, though he almost immediately tried to hit her.

"Hey!" she snapped. "Leo, stop!"

"My dragon!" Leo yelled as Jason reached him, he and Piper below them as they fell in a group, still plummeting far too fast to survive. "You gotta save Festus!"

Jason grunted in effort, and Emilia could feel the wind cutting a little less each second, as if he was slowing them down, but it wasn't going to be good enough. The dragon hit the ground way before they did, an explosion sending a fireball into the sky fro behind a warehouse complex.

"Festus!" sobbed Leo.

Below them was a factory, several warehouses, somestacks, barbed-wire fences, and parking lots lined with snow-covered vehicles. Hitting any of those would be extremely painful. Emilia tried once again to conjure shadow, this time on her and Leo's shoulders, tugging all four of them upwards to help Jason as he encouraged the winds to move in the same direction.

Jason groaned in anguish, "I can't–"

They still managed to drop like stones onto the roof of the largest warehouse. The ceiling tore open, Piper screamed, Emilia tried to make the shadows cushion their fall only for her body to careen further from the others. She tumbled over to the wall on the warehouse's ground level, cushioned only by the backpack carrying all her clothes. Everything spun for a moment, muffled voices calling out to each other.

"Piper!" she heard Jason yelling. "Where's Piper?"

"Ow, bro!" Leo groaned. Emilia sat up as they tried to scramble off of each other. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Piper, where'd you go?"

"Here," came a weak voice overhead.

"There," said Emilia, arm aching as she lifted it to point at the metal catwalk overhead. She forced herself to her feet, giving her neck a good crack before she followed Jason and Leo to the stairs.

Twenty feet overhead, the hole made in the roof was a ragged starburst. On the ceiling, few electric bulbs flickered dimly, doing a poor job at lighting the enormous space they landed in. The logo was hard to make out, spray-painted over with graffiti. There were huge machines around them with robotic arms and some half-finished trucks on an assembly line. Everything had a layer of dust over it, as if it'd been abandoned for years.