hard surface, and he slammed into it beside her on his knees, his breathing rough in his ears as he pulled her over onto her back and sought the wound. His heart clenched, fear at the helm as he stared at the long gash in her tunic.
Thanatos leaned over and tugged the two sides of the material aside, revealing the top of her shoulder. A groove cut over the muscle there, but the wound wasn’t deep. The spear had only grazed her.
“Calindria?” He patted her cheek and she frowned and groaned, her face screwing up. “You really need to wake up now.”
Her eyes fluttered open and she winced, clutched her shoulder and dug her fingers into the black material of her tunic. “What happened?”
“You were hit. It is only a graze.” He swallowed his racing heart and kept telling himself that, trying to convince himself that she wasn’t about to die on him even when it felt as if she was. He was overreacting, but he couldn’t help it. The sight of her going down had shaken him to his soul. “Come.”
He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, ducked as another spear flew over his head. She winced and stooped, picked up her dagger and frowned as she stood again. When she pressed a hand to her forehead, worry arrowed through him.
“What is wrong?” He pulled her towards him when another spear came at her, shielding her with his wings, gritting his teeth as the blade of it sliced through his feathers, shortening a few of them. He couldn’t afford to take another hit like that. If they clipped any more of his feathers, he wouldn’t be able to fly.
“I feel.” She squeezed her eyes shut and grimaced. “I think the blade… toxin.”
His gut clenched and heart seized. “Toxin?”
She shook her head and blinked rapidly, as if trying to keep herself awake. “Like the water.”
The water.
His eyes widened as he realised what she was trying to say. Her captors had given her water laced with a drug, one that had suppressed her powers. Now, they were lacing their blades with it, which meant he couldn’t afford to take a direct hit from their weapons. He couldn’t be sure whether all the warriors’ weapons had been poisoned, or whether only those who were throwing their spears had coated them in toxin. He couldn’t risk it either.
His plan had been to fend off the warriors, taking whatever damage was necessary to protect Calindria, but if he did that now, there was a chance he would be poisoned as Calindria had been. He wasn’t sure what effect this drug would have on him and he didn’t intend to find out.
Thanatos swept her up into his arms and spread his aching wings, beat them hard and kicked off, launching into the air.
He flew left, trying to skirt around the enemy, and growled as he spotted more of them in that direction.
“I can still fight,” Calindria muttered and pushed at his shoulder with the knuckles of the hand that gripped her dagger.
“Not going to happen, little goddess. I am getting you out of here.” He flapped his wings and banked right, had to veer more sharply than he had intended as one of the warriors launched a spear at him.
It sailed past him and he growled down at the male, a fierce need to land and kill him blasting through him. He gritted his teeth and resisted it, focused on getting Calindria to safety. Every muscle in his wings trembled as he beat them harder, trying to gain elevation as he approached the mountains.
Pain blazed through his right wing and he bellowed as he tilted in that direction, as fire swept through him and he furiously fought to keep airborne.
“Thanatos.” Calindria’s fear shot through him too as he looked at his wing, at the black spear jutting out of it, smeared with his blood.
“I can make it.” He steeled himself against the fiery burn that swept through his bones with each beat of his wing, focused on the mountains and reaching the peak. If he could just reach it, he could glide down the other side.
His vision tunnelled and he growled, clenched his jaw and wanted to roar out his rage and his fear as he realised that he wouldn’t make it. At this rate, he would blackout and crash into the side of the mountain. He swooped lower in a circle, desperately trying to control his descent as his right wing