Page 72 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Though the suns continued shining the next day, I dwelt in a rain cloud. My feet hurt, my back ached, and dust filmed my lips. I missed everyone and everything I loved with a debilitating intensity.
Just before noon, Briar led us off the road. “You look like you could use a break.”
To this, I only shrugged.
His skin glistened with sweat at he searched my face. “Well, it’s close enough to lunch. Why don’t you head down that hill and take a load off? Maybe gather some kindling. I’ll scare up something to eat.” He squeezed my arm. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I lied, then trudged down the hill as suggested.
At the bottom was an idyllic glen, where I sat in swaying grass and wildflowers and removed my boots and socks to let my throbbing feet breathe. I’d gather twigs when I was good and ready.
Reclining in the grass, I unzipped my backpack and rummaged until I found my iBloom Shimmy. Its pink metal was smooth and cool against my fingertips, so sleek and otherworldly now. Since crossing the portal, I hadn’t removed it from my bag, hoping to conserve its battery. I’d determined to use it only for a pick me up, and right then, I really, truly needed a little "I Like it Our Way"in my life.
When the notes written across my heart skipped sweetly in my ears, I choked back tears and closed my eyes to escape my abysmal life. Finally finding peace in my new daily recitation—30 compressions, 2 breaths—I refused to look whenever something tickled my arm. Smacking it did nothing, as it returned moments later. With a posse.
Finally, I looked, expecting ants, or something similar. Instead, I found winged people the size of locusts crawling up my body. Caterpillar green, they had slits for eyes and manic, blood-chilling smiles. They were also buck naked.Everythinghanging out.
I popped up to sit, yanking out my earbuds. The creatures flapped into the air, displaced—swarms more than what had landed on me. I switched off my iBloom. “Hello,” I croaked at their unblinking scrutiny. “Can I help you?”
The closest beyn flew into my face, leering for an uncomfortable length. My being a million times her size did little to intimidate her.
I inched back, quashing a squeal as several of her brethren crawled through my hair. “Has anybody told you it’s rude to stare?”
The tiny beyn’s lips took an evil slant. Snickering like a stuttering wasp, she pointed a willowy finger at me.
I didn’t even have time to scream before the bombardment. I screamed during, though—until my throat was raw.
Thrashing at the tornado of pulling, prodding, and scratching fae, I blindly scrambled back up the hill, wailing for Briar’s help.
“Amy!” I heard a crack, the rustling of leaves, and then the infestation thinned as Briar switched the miscreants off me.
When I was all but free, Briar clung to me, his face stark white. “Run,” he rasped, then yanked me down the hill, my sore feet bungling over hidden bramble.
The swarms regrouped, bulleting after us.
“What thehellare those things?”
“Sluaghs!” Briar shouted. “Wicked little shits who get their rocks off by pranking travelers!” His distress hinted their pranks weren’t always harmless.
“How do we lose them?” I asked, then tripped over a stump hidden by wildflowers, straining my ankle. I hissed, rippling in pain.
Briar whirled back to help me.
He should’ve kept running.
The swarm pounced on him before he reached me, latching onto his trappings like clothes pins. I gawked as an army of beating wings hefted his writhing body into the air, tearing his switch from his hands.
Briar roared, thrashing as they winged him away.
“Briar,no!” I lumbered after him. “Please, you can’t leave me!”
Growling, he stretched to reach me. I leapt to wrestle him from the sky, but the sluaghs played keep-away, lifting him just out of my grasp.
“Fuck!” I shrieked, pulse pounding.
“It’s okay, Amy!” Briar’s voice trembled through a forcible calm. “They can’t carry me far. I’m too heavy!”
“No, damnit!” My strained ankle hobbled me, though I tried to keep pace. “Put him down! Or take me with you!”
