Meanwhile, I still hadn’t stopped spiraling.
Arthur made a comment under his breath, and a female angel laughed beside him.
I ignored them and focused on Knox’s encouraging smile. Whatever his reason was for suddenly acting nice, it didn’t matter to me. If he wanted to pretend to respect us, then I’d take it.
I pushed my hands off my knees and staggered into a standing position.
Thighs trembling, pain screaming across my shoulder blades, I lifted the wings high at my sides.
Blue-white crystals clattered.
Flexing with everything I had, I gritted my teeth.
Closed my eyes.
Focused on moving the new heavy appendages quickly and pretended it wasn’t like trying to sprint straight up a cliff.
Sweat poured down my face.
I yelled through gritted teeth and strained with everything I had, hands fisted as pressure pounded in my skull from the force of my concentration.
My combat boots sank deeper into the snow as my wings pulled me downward instead of upward.
Cartilage and feathers chained me to the dirt.
Tied me down.
The temperature dropped, and when I opened my bulging eyes, the shades of gray had become shades of black. Emptiness expanded into a chasm within my chest.
“You are nothing but a failure.” Mother straddled my writhing form. Blue flames tortured me as I screamed in pain.
I’d failed as a fae, and now I failed as an angel.
Pressure intensified behind my eyes, and liquid dripped down my cheeks, thicker than tears.
“That’s enough. She’s had enough training for today. Everyone, leave.” Luka’s voice cracked like a whip through the forest, and his tone brimmed with violence.
For the first time, Rina had nothing to say.
“Pull your wings in, Aran,” John said in my ear.
I hadn’t seen him approach.
He grabbed my arms and used his strength to tug me up while he wiped his fingers across my cheekbones. They came back stained with blood.
At least, that was what I assumed the black substance was. My vision wasn’t picking up most of the color spectrum.
Shadows coalesced around me.
I choked, unable to draw the frigid air into my lungs.
“Pull your wings in. Now,” John ordered in an uncharacteristically angry tone.
I complied.
The crushing weight became manageable, and suddenly the chains pulling me to the ground disappeared.
I felt bizarrely light, like I could float away as a shaky trembling permeated through my muscles.
“Whoa, steady.” John wrapped his arms around me.
He grinned down at me with his dimples on full display. His dark eyes twinkled as he took in my questioning expressions and pulled me flush against him.
Pinpricks of pain raced down my spine.
I loved his smile.
“Yes.” John grinned. “I pretended to get mad to make you obey. Reverse psychology. I’m a genius.”
“You’re an idiot,” I huffed as I leaned into his embrace, relieved in ways I couldn’t put into words.
There were two constants in the realms: John was good-natured, and I was depressed.
It was who we were.
Intrinsically.
Two halves of a whole.
His arms wrapped around me squeezed punishingly, and I relaxed for the first time in hours.
He mumbled into my hair, “Let’s get you inside and warm.”
“I think we can still work—”
Knox was cut off by Scorpius shoving him in the chest and sneering menacingly, “She needs to rest.”
Knox’s black and yellow eyes flashed with violence.
They squared up to each other, equally matched in height and muscle, warriors bristling with barely constrained energy.
The forest appeared darker.
Sinister.
Abruptly, Knox’s features smoothed out, and he held his hands up in the universal gesture of surrender. “Of course, I meant no offense. My mistake. I didn’t realize we had been going at it for hours.” He stepped around Scorpius and looked at me. “Don’t get discouraged. Most people earn their wings when they’re younger and have spent their entire lives preparing to fly. We’ll figure it out.”
He smiled.
Too late, I was way past discouragement. We were entering manic breakdown territory.
Everything is going to work out great. Just have positive thoughts and keep trying. Blah. Blah. Blah.
I’d show him how positively deranged I could be.
John stepped forward and blocked me as I flipped off Knox with both my hands. The angel missed the gesture.
I punched him in the gut. “Move out of my way."
He punched me back, with far less force, then the forest blurred as he swung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
I was too tired to stop him.
“To the bunk beds.” He pointed an imaginary sword dramatically and ran down the path.
“You’re so fucking stupid,” I said between laughs. “I hope the ungodly kill us all for being loud.”
The world tipped again, and I shrieked.
Head swinging upside down, it took me a moment to process that John held my ankles in his hands with his biceps extended above his head.
He held me upside down behind his back so I was perpendicular to the ground.
Since we were almost the same height, my head was close to the ground and enveloped in warm steam.
I shrieked and tried to kick free. “Put me down right now, you idiot.”
“Nope.” John ran forward awkwardly as I pushed against his calves.
“I’m going to trip you,” I threatened.
He flexed and straightened his hands so I was hanging higher off the ground.
In this ridiculous position, he ran past the rest of the group, who were walking on the path like normal individuals.
Sadie slapped my ass as we passed.
John almost tripped at the loud crack and then said in his most serious tone, “Touch my wife’s ass again and I’ll remove your hand.”
“What did you just sssssay to her?” Cobra hissed.
Before we could die via snake, Luka appeared out of nowhere and blocked us protectively. There was a loud shhhhhk that signaled Xerxes had pulled out his knives, and suddenly Orion was standing beside Luka creating a wall.
“Later, suckers!” John shouted as he continued running down the path.
Sadie yelled after us, “I fucked her first!”
John stumbled but caught himself and resumed running awkwardly with me hanging behind him.
“Be fucking quiet and stop breaking protocol,” Rina snarled angrily, and Sadie replied, “That wasn’t very quiet of you.”
They were getting far behind us, and I barely made out Rina saying some choice swear words that were mixed with the words grounder and idiot.
Abruptly, we burst into our barracks, and John dumped me.
I was lying in an undignified heap on the floor of our room. Out of breath from laughing and general exhaustion, I could do nothing but lay immobile and gasp.
John grinned down at me proudly. “That was fun.”
I kicked him in the back of the knee, and he crashed down beside me.
“You’re so stupid,” I said. “I don’t know why I put up with you.”
Before I could catch my bearings, he was straddling me as he smothered me with a pillow that he’d somehow procured.
“Be silent, witch,” he said dramatically as he pressed harder and actually asphyxiated me.