A Hippogriff for Christmas - Zoe Chant Page 0,64

heavy warmth of Beau’s body as he fell forward on top of her, limp as a ragdoll.

“Beau? Beau?!”

He didn’t answer. Annie frantically wrapped her arms around him, trying to hold him up but he was too heavy, and together they slipped to the floor.

It was only then that she noticed the bloodstain blooming across his back.

Annie felt as if the breath had been knocked out of her lungs as she stared at it. Around her, she was vaguely aware of shouting voices and running, but she could only stare at the wound in Beau’s back.

I – I – what happened –

It all came back to her in a rush. Scott had grabbed a gun. Rosalind had transformed into – something, made of wings and flames. And then –

Horror rushed through her.

The gun went off – and then I felt like I was waking up – oh my God –

Staring down at Beau – at his ashen face, his limp, lifeless body – Annie realized suddenly what had happened.

“Beau!”

He’d explained to her earlier what happened when a hippogriff used its powers. He’d explained to her the toll it took on their bodies; how his own mother had been in a coma for three weeks after using her own power to save him from tumbling into a ravine.

And now he’s done the same for me, Annie thought, hands clutching at his chest desperately.

She’d barely had time to realize Scott had been waving the gun in her direction before it’d gone off, but Beau had seen it.

He used his power to throw himself in front of the bullet. He saved my life. But –

But, it seemed, at the cost of his own.

“No – Beau, please –”

Annie couldn’t have cared less about the commotion going on around her as she leaned down, crying out Beau’s name. She was vaguely aware of her purse falling over, spilling its contents across the floor, her dress tearing up the side seam as she scrambled to pull Beau onto her lap. She felt his warm blood on her hand, and panic tore through her.

How can I help him if I don’t know how?! she thought desperately, forcing herself to lift her head and tear her eyes away from his unconscious face.

“Someone – please, help me –!”

She cut herself off as what was going on around her suddenly came into sharp focus. Her mouth dropped open.

There were black-clad agents spilling into the massive foyer from the doors behind her, shouting at the guests to remain where they were – most were not, and were either fleeing on foot or had begun to shift into their animal forms.

Annie counted three massive eagles trying to bully their way out the door, while a peacock, long tail trailing, was flapping its way upstairs.

A wombat waddled past her at surprising speed, followed by no less than three of some kind of hopping mouse.

And there, over by the front of the staircase, was the massive, fiery bird that Rosalind had turned into, flapping its flaming wings as it screeched furiously in the face of – of a –

Is that a unicorn?!

It was a horse, shimmering white, with a golden horn in the middle of its forehead.

Okay, yeah, that’s a unicorn.

The fire bird swept the flames of its tail through the air, making the unicorn dance back on its silvery hooves, parrying the blow with its shining horn.

Annie blinked, dazed, and wondered if this could possibly all be real.

I wish… I wish it were a dream, she thought, looking back down at Beau’s face. I want to wake up. I want to wake up back in my bed, with Beau’s arms around me, and find that all this was just a nightmare –

She couldn’t lose Beau now. Not when they’d only just found each other – not when the only reason he was dying was to save her –

“What’s happened here?”

Annie looked up at the sound of a man’s deep voice in her ear, eyes wide. A man with a no-nonsense expression and piercing gray eyes had come to crouch next to her, a small first aid kit in his hand. He opened it quickly and efficiently, revealing not only neatly packed standard medical supplies, but a lot of other items Annie didn’t recognize at all.

“He – he used his hippogriff powers,” Annie managed to stutter out as the man looked at her, face serious. “A gun went off – he must’ve seen that it was going to hit me, so he used his powers