the smaller animals at the back of the crowd, past an odd assortment of deer mingling with bobcats and other predators.
Cresswell roared his frustration, but I ignored him, weaving and slinking and pushing my way through to the front of the crowd. Through the legs of soldiers, I could see flashes of the heap on the ground, no longer small, and with a shade of crimson deeper than Griffin's feathers. She'd transformed back into the woman, still tangled in the net.
One of the soldiers bravely spun to face me, eyes wide but arms outstretched. "No! We promised peace."
I flashed back into my human form, perversely pleased when he looked more terrified by my feminine form than my feline one. "Let me through immediately!" I snapped.
But it was too late, Griffin was surrounded on the ground, one soldier holding a spear over her. She was trying to stand as the men bellowed for her to flatten herself on the ground. I wasn't sure if it was an accident, or intentional, but the spear came down at Griffin's face at the same moment she tried to rise.
"Griffin!" I screamed.
I didn't notice the hands on my waist, pushing me through the line of soldiers to reach my friend.
"Release her at once," I cried.
"Step back from the woman, by order of Her Royal Highness, Princess Bryony," Cresswell echoed.
"Magic," Aric hissed in my ear, jumping forward and tugging two of the soldiers roughly back from Griffin as I marched forward. There was another scream from the air, Sam's white owl landing heavily on the ground next to Griffin before quickly becoming the man.
"Transform," Sam breathed to Griffin, clutching her shoulders.
"No, wait!" I cried, falling to my knees next to them. "Get her out of the net, I can help."
"It's a fuckin' scratch," Griffin said, but her voice was as tight as a pulled string, and there was blood seeping quickly out from between the fingers that cupped her eye.
"Then it's a scratch I can heal," I snapped back.
"Was flying too low," Griffin breathed as Sam and Aric hurried to untangle her. Cresswell barked orders back to the general to take his men into the barracks. I thought I heard him use my mother's title too, but I didn't care.
"You weren't too low. They shouldn't have been trying to capture any of you," I said, gathering magic into my palms.
"Just glad it was me," Griffin said, but she whimpered as Aric accidentally nudged her arm.
"Move your arm," I said, reaching out to her face.
"What if my eye falls out?"
I blinked at her. Griffin was exceptionally pale and starting to tremble, and she let out a strange giggle.
"I'll—I'll put it back in," I said, trying not to grimace, sincerely hoping I didn't have to keep that promise.
Griffin bellowed as Aric tore her hand away from her face, and I quickly slapped my own over the brilliantly red and bleeding wound running down the right side of her face.
"Hold her still," I said to Aric.
"Why—" Griffin's question broke off with a scream as the magic struck.
"Griffin!" Sam reached for me, about to tear me away, but Aric wrestled him back.
"Leave it! Bryony saved your wings, didn't she?" Aric snapped.
Sam groaned, but together the men held Griffin still, her face thrashing slightly underneath my grip, magic pouring out of me as Griffin's blood also wet my palm.
"Oh stars, enough!" Griffin grit out.
I ignored her for a beat, and then finally lifted my fingers up, just a fraction. Her face was smeared with red, bloody tears running out of her injured eye, but it looked as though…
"You're frowning," Griffin whispered up at me.
I tried to smooth my face, smearing away some of Griffin's blood gently to reveal a shiny scar. She blinked, and Aric, Sam, and I all sank back at once with a unified whoosh of relieved breath.
"Eye still attached," I said weakly. "Can you see all right?"
Griffin kept blinking, forehead wincing, but each blink seemed to wash some of the red out of her vision. Her eye was pale now, almost white, but the pupil was still intact, if drooping down a little. Oh stars, had I left her blind?
"What did you do?" Griffin whispered, eyes widening, looking between each of us. She closed her eyes tightly, and Aric handed Sam a white handkerchief, the other man quick to wipe the blood away from Griffin's face.
"I…healed you? Shit, Griffin, did I—?"
Her eyes opened again, head shaking, taking the cloth from Sam's hand and rubbing her face more roughly.