Page 187 of The Last Syphon

“CHOMPERS! CHOMPERS! CATCH ME! CATCH ME! HELP! HELP! HELP⁠—”

Fraener swooped down and clutched Felix tight in his other taloned grasp.

“Ugh!” Felix grunted, much like her at the sudden shift in momentum.

For a moment, they both hung loosely in Fraener’s claws as he held them tight, his wings pumping hard to fly them up further into the sky and away from the Arelian tower.

Fraener placed Inara on his back first, and then Felix.

“I hate you,” he groaned, settling in behind her.

Fraener shot forward with unimaginable speed, and Felix yelped, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist.

“I fucking hate you!” he repeated, again, and again, and again…

And then, he threw up over the side of Fraener.

Inara didn’t blame him at all for that.

“Hey, we’re alive, aren’t we?”

“You won’t be for long!” he yelled, wiping his lips with the back of his hand.

Fraener’s mind brushed up against hers, filled with an intention Inara was able to decipher instantly.

Fates. If Felix didn’t like that, he was going to hate this.

“Take a deep breath and exhale on reapperance!”

“What?! What are you talking about?!” he screeched.

“Just do it!”

Felix inhaled deeply and squeezed her tighter.

Inara tucked her elbows in, gripped the two spikes in front of her, and took a deep breath in.

GO.

Fraener jumped. They disappeared, reappearing over 100 feet away in the blink of an eye.

“Oh, what the fuck?” Felix groaned in her ear.

There was no time to adjust or explain. Inara wasn’t sure how long ago Prince Walder left. There was a very real possibility it was already too late.

They had to get to him fast, and Fraener, so attuned with her emotions, sensed her inner turmoil and distress and was determined to fix it any way he could.

Fraener jumped again, and they raced across the sky, vanishing in and out of sight as fast as one could blink, almost too fast for the eye to see.

Inara ignored the queasiness that began to rise within her belly. She didn’t have time to be sick. She pushed Fraener to go harder. Faster. Not to let up.

She sent all her feelings down the soul-link. The desperation. The urgency. The fear she had in her heart for a man she shouldn’t.

Fraener felt it all. Embraced it all. Power surged through his body, flowing into her. He jumped even faster, sporadically flashing across the sky as they hurtled through Arelia towards the Borderlands.

Felix’s grip around her waist was iron-clad. He held on tightly and breathed through every single jump. Inara had to commend him. He was holding up far better than she did when she first went through this.

Inara lost count of how many jumps they did. Eventually, they came to a stop at the Arelian Border, just before the Borderlands began.