it impossible to fly.
He concentrated on the objective. Get her somewhere safe, somewhere safe. The midplane. He had to get her to the midplane. Raven rocketed skyward with Nikki in his arms. The gash below her throat, nearly shoulder to shoulder, had started oozing a dark reddish-black fluid. Her blood, mixed with the poison from the slash, appeared to be burning her flesh where it leaked onto her skin. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and streams of tears trailed her face. He’d hoped she would be unconscious by now, have a respite from the pain.
She’ll be safe in the midplane. Raven repeated the words in his head over and over. Partly because he so desperately wanted to believe it.
A lock of her hair caught the wind and fell across the wound. Nikki jolted and let out a howl. Raven took hold of the renegade strands and dragged them away from the cut. He couldn’t tell how deep the wound was, and wasn’t sure if it mattered. The skin around it had gone from peach to charcoal. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was being seared with a torch from the inside out.
The chills began and he prayed he’d get to the midplane quickly. Anything was better than this. “Hang on, Nikki,” he whispered, as much to reassure himself as to encourage her. He tuned into the sound of his wings pumping feverishly.
Nikki’s flesh had become clammy and he had to readjust her in his arms to anchor the slick hold. Every movement was excruciating, but her cries had become moans as strength left her.
She was paralyzed until they reached the midplane.
As soon as they entered the heavenly atmosphere, Nikki bucked, practically slipping from Raven’s grasp. A long solid scream released from a throat tightened with strained muscles.
He nearly panicked when Nikki — writhing in his arms — reached for her wound in an attempt to claw at it. He wrestled her hands away from the cut and dropped out of the midplane. She calmed almost instantly.
Reduced to exhausted whimpers, she curled into a ball in his arms.
“I don’t know what to do,” Raven whispered, his voice sounding foreign to him. If the midplane wasn’t safe … He pushed tears from his eyes and sniffed.
Nikki had become a quiet shell.
“I don’t know what to do,” he repeated, rubbing a hand along Nikki’s back. It wasn’t to soothe her. Tearing his gaze from the small heap she’d become, Raven looked down at the world beneath them.
The sun glinted off something far below. From the distance, he couldn’t make it out, but it beckoned, a searchlight, signaling the way home. He dropped from the sky until he saw the glow of the church’s cross.
Impulse caused him to veer away, but he stopped and inspected the area where the fight with the seeker had ensued. The grounds were empty. The seeker was gone. The Halflings were gone, leaving a handful of cars in the driveway, and not much else.
Raven dropped to the parking lot beside the gargantuan church that somehow seemed even bigger now, more regal, more of a battle station than a sanctuary for lost souls. Before he could get to the door, it swung open and Pastor Layton emerged carrying a towel dripping with water.
“Press this to the wound. She won’t like it, but it will help the stinging.”
The pastor must have noticed Raven’s frown because he explained before the question left Raven’s mouth. “I had a feeling you would come back soon.”
His words were a flurry as he told what had happened. “The girl with the bow …”
“Glimmer,” Raven said.
“She got her weapon after it dropped from the seeker’s chest and sank about three arrows into the thing. Perfect shots, even with the wound on her cheek.”
“Yeah, she’s accurate. Did it kill it?”
Pastor Layton blinked. “No. You can’t kill it. But it did run away. The others went after it.”
Nikki moaned. Raven stepped to take her inside, but Pastor Layton blocked his way. “She can’t be here.”
What? Is he kidding?
“The intercessors are too exhausted. As weak as they are, the seeker could waltz right in the front door and take her.”
Raven wanted to strangle the man, but steadied his hand instead. “What am I supposed to do?”
Layton dragged a hand through already messed-up hair. When he sagged against the doorframe, Raven realized how exhausted the man must be. He looked like he’d aged about ten years since they first arrived. “I tried to take her into the midplane.”
“Burned like