the horror film where a creepy hand slams itself against the inside wall of the shell to try and get me, but nothing like that happens. Huh.
I hope this isn’t a rabbit baby situation—apparently if you touch baby rabbits, the mom will smell the human on them and kill them.
Yeah. That nature documentary wasn’t all sunshine and roses.
“What do you see?” Dmitri calls quietly.
I haul myself back up onto the top ridge of the nest and peer down at them. “Eggs,” I whisper back. “There are six of them.”
That’s when it hits me—there were six students attacked, including Cam.
Okay, but that’s just a coincidence, right? I mean, what the hell do eggs have to do with stealing magic? Do the eggs need to eat the magic or something? Does the bird need to have the magic to lay an egg? All of those possibilities sound insane.
Roman frowns. “What do they look like?”
“I’m gonna be honest, they look like massive chicken eggs. Not exactly what you’d expect.” No crazy pulsing colors or veins or anything. “Do you have any idea what this is?”
Dmitri shakes his head. “Beats me.”
“It’s not a griffin or anything?” I suggest.
God, that would be fucking ironic, if our school mascot was the thing attacking us.
“No, griffins are only part bird. You would’ve seen the lion half of it while it was in flight,” Roman explains, brows furrowing. “Same with a hippogriff. It’s not a phoenix. The nest is too large. And it’s not a roc; those are desert dwelling birds.”
The fact that even he doesn’t know what this is concerns me. He’s a teacher and an expert in weird shit. When we fought Raul, Roman decided to just go full badass and say to hell with caution and summoned a goddamn demon to fight. It was insane.
It’s also a testament to how powerful Raul was that the kid actually went toe-to-toe with the thing.
“You should get down, Princess,” Dmitri whispers, reaching up for me. The muscles of his arms are bunched with tension. “Before the bird comes—”
He freezes, his eyes going wide.
Oh shit.
Before I even turn around, I know what’s in store. Behind me and above my head, the air stirs, wind blowing at the back of my hair as the bird comes in for a landing. I don’t hear anything though, no flapping of giant wings—it’s completely silent.
Which is fucking terrifying.
If Dmitri hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have known it was there.
Not even really thinking about it, I dive, and Dmitri catches me, staggering but managing to keep his balance—it helps that he’s a good several inches taller than I am. He sets me on my feet just as the roof trembles with the force of the bird landing.
I turn and get my first good, direct look at this thing.
Ohhhh my God.
Okay, so it is a bird. I think. But holy shit, it is not by any means a normal bird. And it’s not like any magical bird I’ve ever heard of either. I was right about it being huge. It’s nearly human-sized—about the size of the eggs, actually, which means they must’ve grown a bit since it laid them.
Up close, what I thought were kind of brown feathers actually have this weird orange outline to them. It’s almost like an orange that’s black. I can’t even describe it properly. Something about the color is familiar, but I can’t quite place it.
And then there are its eyes.
Look, animals can be plenty intelligent, I won’t say they can’t be. But this is not animal intelligence. This is pure malevolence. It has slitted pupils like a snake, and the irises are molten orange like lava, and I swear to God, it’s staring directly into my soul and thinking about ripping my heart out.
Sweat pops out on my brow, my stomach churns, and I start to feel panicky. Like I should run away. Like running away is the best idea I’ve ever had in my life.
Dmitri grabs my hand and squeezes it tight. The bird tilts its head, and its razor sharp beak catches the moonlight. It flexes its huge claws, and then it spreads its wings and lets out an awful shriek.
Not a cry, or a caw, or any sound a regular bird might make. I mean a goddamn shriek, as if the souls of the damned are taking their best shot at breaking the sound barrier. I clap my hands over my ears and squeeze my eyes shut, feeling hot and cold at the same time as