Page 62 of Spirit Storm

The mountain shakes.

"Three."

Here goes everything. I press my palms against the stone and push magic into the channel.

“Wow, if I’d ever wondered how Dorothy felt being picked up by a twister in Kansas and being spit out in Oz, I now have a fairly good idea.”

I laugh at Asher’s comment, not that it’s particularly funny while I’m down on my hands and knees puking, but because I can’t believe we’re alive. “That was horrible. Who thought that was a good way to travel?”

Mica grunts off to my right, where she’s lying on her back with her eyes closed. “I never said it was a good way to travel, just that it was an old way.”

“Come on, ladies. It wasn’t that bad.”

I’m about to tell him to shove his chipper, adventurous spirit somewhere very rude, when another round of out-you-go takes hold of what’s left of my burger and onion rings from dinner.

My stomach muscles convulse and I retch.

Comfort food my ass.

One second, we were standing on firm ground on a plateau in a thunderstorm, and the next we shot straight up like someone dropped a pack of Mentos in our Coke bottle of life.

“You dare to invade the sanctity of the guardian’s domain!”

My world spins again as Asher yanks me off the ground and pulls me and Mica against his side. A golden shield snaps around all three of us a half-second before a horrifying set of daggered talons descend.

They hit the barrier with a sound like a crack of thunder, the force of it driving us back two steps toward the edge of the plateau. Rain whips around the outside of the shield while the magic holds.

The guardian pivots its wing thrusts and pulls back.

It stares at the shield with unbridled fury, its pupils narrowing to a point. Its claws hover over the ground as if it doesn’t want to land in case it gets another run at us.

Asher is breathing hard next to me.

Mica has her hands up, ready.

"We mean no harm to your colony." I push my voice out past the storm, past the grinding wind and the rain. "We're not here to fight. We're here to get my sister and bring her back to the Academy where she can get help. That's it. That's all."

The guardian stretches its neck toward us, its beak catching the flash of lightning. "You have entered guardian territory without invitation."

"And I’m very sorry for that." I keep my hands open and visible. "But my sister is up here and she's scared, and we need to get to her."

“I took an oath to protect our home.”

“And I took an oath to protect my sisters. So where does that leave us?”

Two more enormous guardians touch down before us, each of them landing with a thunderous crack against the stone ground. “She smells of demon. Like the other.”

“She’s the one from before,” the third bird snaps.

“She carries the taint of betrayal and evil.”

“Screw you, bird boy,” I shout. “Headmistress Briar told you I was no danger to Arcana because of something done to my mother. She told you to leave me alone. That doesn’t mean you get to pick on my sister.”

“You bring the tainted stench of demon corruption into places under guardian protection. And now another of your cursed bloodline brings chaos to Arcana. I will not allow your family to cause further destruction."

"Violet is not a threat."

"The female is very much a threat.”