Page 103 of Of Masks and Fury

I was already moving toward the nearest window. “Watch me.”

Pherin launched into the air, flying out into the rain to scout our route.

I swung my legs through the window opening, finding purchase on wet stone. The tower spiked down into darkness below, rain making the surface slick.

Trew followed, his larger frame barely fitting through the opening.

The door behind us swung open just as he closed the window.

We ducked down.

Thunder rumbled after, deep and low and ominous, and lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating our precarious position clinging to the tower exterior.

I froze, unable to move as terror grabbed onto me and ripped its way through my bones.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

TREW

Isi’s whimper of fear cut through the growl of thunder and lightning ripping across the sky.

She gazed wildly at the storm, her body frozen in place.

My boot tips secure on a thin ledge, I gripped stones jutting out of the tower wall. “Climb onto my back. Wrap your arms and legs around me. I’ll get us down.”

She shook her head. “I can do it.”

“I mean it. Close your eyes, and I’ll bring you to the ground. Then I’ll hold you until the storm has passed.”

Another crack of lightning split the sky, and Isi flinched.

I remembered holding her during the thunderstorm at Syllavar, the way she’d trembled in my arms while I’d told her a story to keep her mind off the lightning. But I couldn’t hold her now. A story wasn’t going to fix it this time.

Voices rose inside the tower room above us, footsteps moving closer to the window.

We needed to move around to the other side of the tower. Now.

My protective instincts screamed at me to reach for her, to pull her against me and shield her from the world. But if I tried to takeher into my arms while barely clinging to wet stone, we’d both fall. Our position made tenderness impossible.

So I did the only thing I could.

I made my voice a weapon.

“Minx.” The command cut through the storm and her panic, hissing close to her ear to keep from being heard above. “Eyes on me. Now.”

She didn’t move.

“I said look at me, Isi.” I spoke harsher this time, sharp enough to pierce through her fear. “Remember how you trusted me during the storm at Syllavar while I told you about the lonely thunder dragon?”

Her head turned, and she frowned.

“That’s it. Keep those eyes on me, not the sky or the fear inside you.” I gentled my tone. “I’m right here. I’m not letting you fall.”

Lightning flashed again and she shook, her fingers white-knuckled on the stone.

Pherin flew past us in a blur of wet feathers, her distressed chirps cutting through the rain.

“Pherin, help her.”