Page 104 of The Dragon and the Dove

‘Full,’ she said, turning her hands in front of her face. ‘Like a cloud, heaving with rain.’

Mist spun around her, fine as gossamer. She drifted through it, moving towards the doors.

‘Where are you going?’ he called after her.

‘To see what I’ve become.’

She slipped through the narrow gap, disappearing into the sunlight.

The silence stretched. Ransom’s spine was so stiff it ached. There was a growl of thunder and then a clap so close, the barn trembled. The beams shook and dust plumed from the ceiling.

The air grew dense. The hairs on Ransom’s head rose in every direction, and lightning erupted in the field behind the barn. A wink of silver heralding a sudden furious rain shower.

Paola’s laughter trilled as she returned, breathless, to the barn. Her eyes were gleaming, her smile so wide, he could see her back teeth.

‘Looks like I’m a natural.’

A Saint of Storms, then.

It was a fitting choice for a woman who spent her life outside in the elements and rode like a storm through the world. He sensed no mystery to her magic, no dark writhing underbelly.

Not like her nephew.

‘It suits you,’ he said, the tension easing from his shoulders. It was the closest he could get to congratulating her, knowing that her making had taken a bite out of the woman he loved. He would not fully relax until he saw the blue of her eyes once more.

Paola’s excitement tempered. ‘When will she wake up?’

He traced the curve of Sera’s cheek. ‘I don’t know.’

She looked to the doorway. ‘The Strix will return for us. We should leave before we’re surrounded.’

‘I can hold them off,’ said Ransom.

‘How many? And for how long?’ Her questions stirred his unease. Paola was right. His magic was not infinite, and his assault on Bellevue had ploughed through his reserves. They would take another day or so to recover. A day Andreas would not give them.

They were vulnerable out here, too close to Bellevue Castle and the Silver-tongue’s vengeance. Once the mistbane wore off, he would come for Seraphine at full force.

‘Bolt is fed and rested,’ said Paola. ‘We should ride out while we can.’

Still cradling Sera, Ransom stood and went outside. To the south, shadows blotted the sky. The Strix were circling the forests near Bellevue Castle.

A brisk wind blew, stirring his own shadows. Pushing them west, towards Fantome, as if to say, Go.

They rode out together. Paola kept her eyes on the road ahead, while Ransom watched the sky, tracking the beasts there. As they drew closer, their shrieks echoed in the wind, raising the hairs on his arms.

‘They’re gaining ground,’ he said to Paola’s back.

‘We can’t go any faster.’

Another shriek sounded. Too close.

Paola stiffened. ‘Night will fall soon.’

Night wouldn’t save them. ‘They can see in the dark.’

She muttered a curse.

Dread dogged them as the Strix edged ever closer, the Urnican flock speckling the sky like black stars.