Yeah, except how were we supposed to reach Hol y?
And what had attracted the birds into the house in the first place? This couldn’t be normal. I reached out with my senses, looking for a spel or charm that would have attracted the birds. What I found was seriously not what I expected.
“Oh, crap.”
Caleb turned halfway around, but he never looked away from the ravens. “What?”
“Those aren’t birds. They’re constructs.”
Chapter 13
Constructs. Just like the cu sith in the Quarter. I opened my shields, already knowing what I’d find. In my second sight, the ravens vanished, becoming instead misty shapes surrounding a nasty clump of twisting magic. I snapped my shields closed again.
“We have to get out of here,” I whispered, reaching behind me for the doorknob to the stairwel . We could escape out through my room and then circle around to the back door to get Hol y. My hand landed on the knob, and I twisted it quickly.
It didn’t turn.
Damn it! We never locked the doors to the stairs, but Caleb had insisted since Falin was staying upstairs. I fumbled with the lock, final y having to turn my back on the birds to unlock the door. I twisted the knob again, jerking the door, but it just shuddered.
“The bolt lock too?” I asked, my voice raising with a mix of exasperation and panic.
“Alex,” Caleb hissed, and as if my name were some sort of signal, the ravens screeched.
The room fil ed with the sound of wings beating the air, the roar almost loud enough to block out the screeching.
The birds dove forward just as I threw the lock.
“Get down,” Caleb yel ed and shoved me back toward the wal .
The ravens swooped at us, shiny black talons flashing and sharp beaks thrusting forward menacingly. Caleb uncorked his vial with his teeth and threw it at the nearest bird. A hazy green miasma exploded around the raven. It bird. A hazy green miasma exploded around the raven. It gave a sharp croak of a cry and then dropped. Caleb kicked it aside, but two more had already taken its place.
He swung his mal et. The sound of bones snapping made me cringe, even though I knew the birds weren’t real. But this bird didn’t fal . Caleb’s death blow smashed its rib cage and it vanished, a smal copper coin hitting the carpet a moment later.
Neither one of us had time to be amazed because there were more birds, so many more birds, to take the first’s place. They swooped at us, talons extended.
I lashed out with my dagger, hitting one of the ravens in the wing. It went down, but didn’t vanish. Climbing to its feet, the raven spread its uninjured wing wide and rushed me, its head darting as it lunged at my leg. Damn. You have to hit to kill.
Another raven dove for me, its talons aimed at my eyes. I ducked, and it got a claw ful of my hair instead, pul ing a clump out by the roots. I yelped, but the grounded raven was stil coming for me. I jabbed with my dagger again.
This time the bird vanished.
“There are too many of them,” I yel ed over the roar of wings as I scrambled to my feet.
“You have a suggestion?” Caleb asked, never pausing as he swung his mal et, knocking birds out of the air.
I didn’t.
Somewhere beside me a door opened, and I spun around. Falin staggered into the room, one arm pressed against his injured side but a large dagger clutched in his other hand.
“Get out of here,” I yel ed as soon as I saw him.
He didn’t retreat. His icy gaze took in the situation in one quick glance, and then landed on me. He hobbled forward, his breathing hard, pained, but the dagger in his hand cut through the air effortlessly. With every twitch of his wrist a bird vanished on his blade so that smal copper disks lined his path as he made his way toward me. It would have been his path as he made his way toward me. It would have been something to watch, if I hadn’t been fighting off the damn ravens myself.
My enchanted dagger buzzed merrily in my hand as I jabbed at the birds. I could feel it making suggestions in my muscles, trying to guide my arm, and I let it, but even with the dagger’s help, most of my jabs injured rather than dispel ed. Frustrated, I dropped my shields. I aimed for the knot of magic in the hazy forms instead of body parts, and the birds exploded into mist around my blade.
“Where did they come from?” Falin yel ed, more ravens dissolving as his dagger struck true again and again.
Caleb’s mal et took out two birds with one massive swing. “Like you don’t know.”
“Guys,” I huffed, but didn’t say anything else. My chest burned, my breathing came hard, and my arm ached from continual motion, but more birds poured in through the open front door.