to go, so they neigh and whinny and huddle against each other around Beth at the center.
I need to get to her, but there’s no time, not when we’re speeding toward the ground faster and faster as the lines unfurl. With a running leap, I launch myself onto the framework of the nearest cog. The cylinder rests on a simple metal spindle, but it’s spinning so quickly it’s throwing sparks.
“Parnon!” I yell and stare up at the rapidly unspooling wire. The top cogs must be completely slack, allowed to spin unattended.
He stomps up. “Great.”
“We’re going to stop it.”
“Too fast,” he says, but pulls up his hands all the same.
“I can jam this one, I think,” Chastain yells from the other side, a flash of gold telling me he’s fashioning something to wedge into the cog. “Everyone who can, come help!”
The fighters rush to his aid as Parnon and I grimace at the blurring cog.
“We need to do this together! Slow it down first, then jam it!” I yell back and brace myself against the side of the platform. If one of us stops our side too fast, it’ll send the entire thing careening to the side. Not good.
I motion to Parnon. “When I say go, we’re going to push against the side of the cog.”
“With our bare hands?” Parnon’s sandy brows rise.
“You have any other idea?” I shout over the whine of the spool.
He grumbles, but it’s lost to the wind as we hurtle downward into the dark.
“Ready!” Chastain yells.
Parnon leans out toward the cog, the air pushing his hair straight up.
“One, two, three, go!” I shove my hands against the cog as Parnon does the same. Pain rips up my arms, the skin shredding from my palms as I push as hard as I can. My bones threaten to snap, and I’m certain they would if Parnon weren’t here to help.
The sparks lessen, the cog slowing, but the platform begins to tilt. Beth screams as the wagon rolls toward her and the unicorns. Panic erupts inside me, and I ease my pressure on the cog. The platform straightens, the wagon stopping with a wobble.
“Match their speed as best you can!” I yell over the noise.
“I’m trying!” Parnon shouts, blood splattering onto his face from his own ruined hands.
When the platform begins to tilt the other way, I press harder. Agony coats every nerve in my hands and arms, but I can’t stop, not until the machine is under control. All the same, I howl at the white-hot pain, and Parnon does the same.
Gritting my teeth, I adjust the pressure until the platform finally slows enough to be manageable, but I can’t let off the cog. If I do, we’ll be in the same predicament, or worse, if the platform tilts again.
“Here!” Chastain rushes up, some sort of golden lever in his hands. “Push this into—there, that socket there—” He points to a spot between the spindle and the cog.
I reach out but can’t grip the lever, my hands too wrecked, the fingers bent and shredded. Parnon has the same problem, so Chastain climbs up next to me and jams it into place. With a little more of his magic, he forms the gold to press against the inner cylinder like a brake.
“I’ve got it. You can stand back.” He spins more gold, transforming a goblet from his sack into a bracket that fastens to the framework around the cog. “It’s secure. Same one I made on the other side, so it’ll keep us level.”
I stagger back and fall onto my ass, the burning sensation in my hands almost unbearable. They’re stripped down to the bone in several places, the rest a bloody pulp.
“Gareth!” Beth rushes over and drops to her knees. “Ancestors! Heal yourself!”
“Parnon, here.” I jerk my chin at him. “Everyone else that needs it, come.” I have an idea, one that’s been churning inside me ever since I healed Beth after the bazaar. When I’m with her, I seem to be more in control of my magic, and I also have more. I thought maybe it was because of my feral form, but the buzz she’s giving me from simply being close tells me I might be wrong. After all, I was able to shield her from my destruction at Granthos’s mansion. Maybe she’s the key to it all—not just my destructive ability, but my single drop of healing as well. Beth plus my feral could be the key to it all.
Half a dozen fighters surround me,