The Best Bride

11. WINGS

AAHHHH!!! 

Éclair's scream filled the night-air as the gravity pulled him down through the air with its maximum force.  

That left me with no choice. I dropped the bag and jumped off the roof. The wind rushed upward as if trying to resist my fall. Éclair was about twenty feet away from me, falling and screaming at the same time.  

I forcefully beat my wings with all my energy and doubled the speed. The distance between him and me started getting small. Ten feet ... five feet ... three feet. But the ground was surging toward him fast, growing and expanding below him.  

One foot ... six inches ... three inches and then finally I caught him by his thrashing hand. His weight pulled me down with him with a jerk, but the wings helped slow down our fall.  

"It's alright, it's alright," I told him, wrapping my arms around him; I could feel his heartbeat racing crazy. "I got you." And just like that we landed safely on our feet on the asphalt.  

People had gathered all around us, or you could say they were there from before watching us fall, obviously attracted to the incident by Éclair's wailing. They began applauding, and there were lots of flickering of cameras flashes directed at us.  

I realized what I had done, but wasn't sure how the people had viewed me. As a fairy or some super heroine? They could decide whatever they liked to call me.  

I parted Éclair from hug and looked into his face that had the expression of a person seeing ghost.  

"Will you be fine on your own here?" I asked him, to which he nodded. "I'm sorry I can't ride your hovercraft tonight." 

He didn't comment. 

Remembering the demon and the bag, I rocketed toward the building's rooftop in the noise of applause.  

The demon had left after I'd sprung off the building, and now I'd the parking lot all to myself.  

I walked to my bag lying on the aisle and picked it up. My head felt fuzzy. Deciding I needed a moment to clear my head, I flew off to some isolated rooftop that wasn't a parking lot. 

I didn't fly far as there were chances of people in hovercrafts seeing me. It shouldn't have really mattered now, but still I preferred to keep low profile.  

Alighting on the neighboring building, I stood at the corner that would keep me as far as possible from the building I'd just left. The roof was empty and broad, prefect for pacing back and forth.  

But I didn't pace. I just kept standing still, leaning toward three feet tall fence while my mind drifted to thoughts that had started bugging my head since the demon attack. Why did the demon try to kill Éclair? And not touch me? What could be the reason behind that murder attempt?  

Except some bad fairies, no evil mythical creatures had ever existed in Wingland. There was no demon or witch problem, well, until River showed up just like a dream. The presence of Red-Faced-Demon proved that the demons were living among the humans just like me, and I couldn't be surprised if there were witches involved too.  

Talking about the witches, I weighed the possibility of Rivera being behind this demon attack. Seeing how the demon handled Éclair, the possibility seemed zero. I mean, if Rivera had sent him to attack me, he wouldn't have wasted time playing with Éclair.  

I got funny feeling. Demons and fairies are enemies by birth, yet why Red-Faced-Demon spared me. I couldn't understand the reason behind it. 

Poor Éclair. He had now got his answer why I couldn't take off the wings.