Wings

14: Down Just Like Holy Mary

NPOV

Track: Mary On A Cross, Ghost

My entire body is rigid and still. My blood is ice, like I'm a deer staring down the length of a bow. Time freezes, but my heart keeps pumping anyway, and I watch in slow motion as Luke leans and—

He lunges, a predator in every way. I curse and use my wings to push myself into the air, just out of his reach, and then I dive through the air toward Will, who's waking up at the commotion but not quickly enough. Luke tries grabbing at my ankles, so I jerk my leg away and—

And oh, Hades—

He loses his balance, and he's going to fall into the fire. I curse, quickly changing my trajectory to intercept Luke's fall, grabbing him by the arms and pulling him away from the fire. My back hits my pile of sticks, snapping several—thorns tear through my skin, and I clamp my mouth shut to avoid making a sound of pain. I can't let Luke know I'm injured even if it's only slightly—he'll take it to mean I'm vulnerable, and he'll become even more determined to get my bounty.

Luke landed on top of me in the fall, and for a moment, he doesn't move. My mind races—did I hurt him? My limbs aren't buzzing, so I guess I didn't, but then why is he gripping his head like I've given him a head wound?

I don't have time to dwell on it because then Will is dragging Luke off me, shoving him a few meters away so I have space to get back to my feet. Luke is still pressing his palm to his forehead as if he's hit his head badly, but that's not possible. He landed on top of me, so it's not like there was a rock to do damage.

"What is wrong with you?" Will scolds. "Nico is my—" He shuts his mouth closed for a second, and then opens it again a second later in a slightly less fiery tone: "—friend. Why are you doing this?"

"I'll be safe, then," Luke mutters. "Soon I'll be safe, safe, safe. The bloodhound just has to catch the rabbit and then—and then I won't be put down, haha, no, I won't."

"You're actually insane," Will says. "What fucking bloodhound?"

"He's the bloodhound." I feel a little sick to my stomach. "I'm the rabbit."

Will looks disgusted. He turns to look at me, and my heart thuds when our eyes meet—

My hands and feet start that awful buzzing again. Fuck. He's too beautiful, this is unfair—I can't just not look at him, not when we're on the run together. But apparently even just touching and seeing him is enough to make me fall in love. This is awful.

I break eye contact, and the buzzing fades. I brush myself off, standing now, as we both turn our gazes toward Luke again.

Luke, as if on cue, suddenly whips his head up from his hands, staring blankly ahead for a moment before a relieved expression spreads across his face again. "That's right! I'll catch the rabbit, snap the neck like you're supposed to, and when I bring the game to my father, I'll be safe. Haha!"

I grab Will, not willing to let Luke try to enact that gruesome plan, and push us off the ground, flapping my wings hard to get into the sky.

"Well, shit," comes a feminine voice from the woods—and a shiver runs up my spine because I have the eerie feeling that I know that voice from somewhere. "The lunatic actually found them."

I make the mistake of glancing into the woods behind me to search for the source of the voice—

An arrow tears through my wing.

I cut off my own cry by clenching my teeth hard, and I manage to get a quick glimpse of the woman in the woods—she's surrounded by knights all armed with swords and bows and arrows, and the woman herself is the one who just shot me. I vaguely recognize her as the general who has marched to the Chase's house the other night to look for us. General Clarisse had been her name, if I remember correctly.