by Laura Mae
“Ew, god, ack,” Raoul spat. “In broad daylight? In the middle of a field with all these people around? Seriously you guys?”
Silas and Sydona broke apart and sat upright. “We weren’t doing anything, Raoul.”
“That’s not what I saw. God, gross!”
Sydona rolled her eyes and stood up. She held out her hand to help Silas off the soft grass.
“What’s the expression? Get a room?” he continued.
“Okay, Jesus, Raoul. We’re not even touching anymore.”
Sydona made her way over to Knox and Avani who were still looking over the map.
“How’s it going over here?” she asked timidly.
“Bueno,” replied Avani. “We’re only in Iowa right now, so we still got a ways to go. Might get there by tomorrow night as long as everything goes as planned.”
“How many breaks like this would that include?”
“Maybe two,” Knox said. “I know you want to get there as fast as we can, but we can’t risk overworking the only fairy we have. We may be able to do it without him, but I don’t want to take that chance.”
“Yeah,” Sydona nodded. “I agree…”
Yelling and screaming echoed throughout the valley, and Sydona saw Devon jogging toward her. Jet was especially raising his voice at Lacey. What the hell was his problem today? Sydona wanted to go see what the problem was, but after the last conversation with Lacey, she thought it might be best to not interfere. They all looked at each other as if to say: who has to deal with the drama couple now?
“I’ll go,” Knox said with the most unenthusiastic tone.
The two of them weren’t so far away that they couldn’t be overheard.
“...I don’t want to keep traveling with these people if they fucking hate me, Lacey!”
“We can’t go without you, Jet! We kinda need everyone to go in order to get there,” Lacey argued.
“Why should I care? This isn’t a Sparrows mission. This is because of Sydona’s blind revenge. This isn’t our fight!”
“This is all our fight!” Knox roared over them.
They turned to face him with sour faces.
“Knox, I can’t go with you anymore. I don’t want to be with people who hate me.”
“If I recall, you’re the one who started this whole mess. You brought it upon yourself!”
“How did I start this? It’s Sydona who thinks I’m a danger to the group because of my drinking. I have it under control, man. And who is she to judge me? She’s the one who took my bottle of vodka and passed out. You still owe me, by the way!”
He pointed at Sydona. Her eyes would be green if it was possible.
“Enough!” Knox’s voice rang out so loudly birds flew out of the trees from a nearby forest. “I’m tired of everyone’s anger. Give me your flask, Jet.”
Jet stared at him with wide green eyes. “What? No! No disrespect, sir, but this is not going--”
“I said give it to me.” Knox held his hand out steadily.
“Or what?” Jet challenged.
Lacey took Jet’s shoulder to ease him off their huge pit-bull leader. “Jet, just do it. Come on.”
He shrugged her arm off while still keeping an eye on Knox. “What?” He waited for an answer from Knox.
From where Sydona stood, it looked like Knox hadn’t moved a muscle or blinked an eye. He calmly held his arm out and stared back at Jet.
In a matter of milliseconds, Knox’s open palm curled into a ball, and he shoved it straight into Jet’s torso. Jet instantly hunched over and fell to the ground coughing. Knox composed his previous position, retracting his arm as if it were on a spring. Jet whimpered, and Lacey went to his side. Knox’s feet finally moved. He stood over Jet like a statue.
He looked down at Jet, and only his lips moved. “We are going with or without you. If we go without you, it won’t be because we left you here but because you would not be among the living anymore. Your choice.”
Lacey comforted Jet, and he slowly rose back to his feet. He didn’t say another word. Knox gave the group walking back a wink.
“That was mucho bueno, baby,” Avani hugged him.
Raoul raised a brow. “He punched him. You saw that, right?”
“Si, but just once. I’m so proud of you, papi,” she grinned and gave Knox a long kiss.
“Thanks to you, sweetheart.” Knox grabbed her bottom, and she shrieked. [SD298]
“Alright. Think we could go soon?” Sydona asked.
“Yeah. We should be good now,” Knox said. “You guys ready?”
“Yes, sir!” Harold was the only one to answer.
Knox rolled his eyes. “Alright. Same formation.”
Jet dragged his feet on the way over and lazily grabbed Willow’s arm.
“Let’s try to pay attention and listen to one another this time people[SD299]!” Raoul called over the group like a coach[SD300].
Everyone groaned as they listened to the fairy give orders.
Knox looked over at Sydona and spoke up. “He could be a great Sparrow someday, Syd.”
“Oh no, don’t say that.” she said.
He laughed along with everyone.
Soon they were all back in the air. Raoul went straight to work to make the non-fliers comfortable. She wished she had a camera to capture all the beautiful landscapes out there. [SD301]She just had to try to remember all of it: the colors, the feeling of crisp air in her face and hair, the feeling of being above it all. It was the best high. Better than alcohol. Flying and the feeling of flying never had any consequences. She hated the tension she brought to the group by doing something so stupid, something she thought she put to rest decades ago. Bad habits die hard.
Flying went smoothly for the next few hours. She hoped they had gone at least another state over. The sun was at its highest point in the sky with not much cloud coverage. It was nice that it wasn’t very cloudy. It would be like driving through super thick fog. Anything could be inside. Sydona looked ahead rather than down to avoid the sun rays and saw a massive city on the horizon. As usual, the group veered to the edges of it even though it set them back a lot. It was better to be safe than sorry. After the city was behind them, they turned back to where they were originally flying.
Then, Sydona heard something from the ground that resembled a firework or gunshot. Others from the group heard it too, and Knox and Silas both looked at her with puzzled looks. When it didn’t happen again, they calmed down and kept going. But then, another shot rang out, and it was clear what it was.
“Whoa!” Harold yelled out, causing turbulence in the formation. “They almost shot me!”
Sydona looked down at the ground, but small clouds had appeared. Still, she could see a large vehicle with a sniper gun. The gun was almost as large as the truck itself.
“Go, go, go! We need to move faster!” Sydona shouted.
They flattened themselves out as much as possible, now going almost one-hundred miles per hour. Lacey kept following them, but at their new speed, Devon was now screaming, and Sydona’s heart leaped from her chest. The shooter down below paused for a while, but Sydona kept an eye on him even with her eyes watering like crazy. The driver sped up with them and pulled the trigger again.
Silas yelled out in agony. [SD302]He pulled Sydona down to her left so hard she almost couldn’t breathe. Her heart stopped as her grip almost lost Silas, but she twisted her arm to adjust her hand. She grabbed his bicep as hard as possible. Willow was on her other side freaking out even more than Silas who had been shot.
“Willow! Stop!” Knox shouted.
“I-I can’t. I want down! Now!” Willow bellowed.
“We can’t! Not now!” Knox answered.
Silas screamed out in pain again. Sydona looked back at his body, and his leg was covered in blood.
Another shot was fired, and it must have gotten too close to Willow or Jet. All she could feel was a massive pull from her right. Knox slipped out of her reach, and her arm still stuck out as if it was still attached
to him. Her heart pounded in her ears like a jackhammer.
“Knox!” Sydona screamed. They were separated by clouds, and it felt like they were miles away. She whipped her head back to Silas with a worried expression.
“Silas, are you okay?”
“No…” he said through a closed jaw.
Soon, her right hand was grabbed again.
“Knox!”
Willow was still screaming and shouting. Knox spoke up. “We’re going to land. You go on without us. We still have the walkies. We’ll keep you updated.”
Her face dropped. “What? No, you can’t--”
“We have to, Sydona. See you on the ground.”
“Knox! Wait!”
He let go again. Another gunshot rang out. They had to maneuver around the shooter. [SD303][LM304][SD305]She hated that Knox separated from them, and she didn’t have anyone on her other side, but she would manage. It wasn’t as if she had never flown before. With less people, it would be faster to weave in and out of the clouds, confusing the person below.
“Where’s Elias?!” Avani cried out. She must have just realized they took off.
“We’ll meet him on the ground,” Sydona said.
“He can’t be serious!”
“No time to debate this, Avani. We need to get to a safe place and help, Silas.”
A million thoughts ran through her head on how the hell they would get out of this situation. They couldn’t out-fly the shooter, and Silas needed to land. His leg was getting worse, and she couldn’t take his cries anymore. “Raoul! You think you could help me fly. Just you?”
“Uh… are you sure?” Raoul asked.
“Silas needs help, and I think they are after me. I could fly ahead and let them land.”
“Okay. Yeah, let’s do it!” Raoul shouted.
Sydona looked to her right at Avani, Harold and Silas. “You guys okay with that plan?”
Harold spoke up. “Anything that gets me out of the sky.”
Avani and Silas agreed.
Sydona looked over at Silas one last time, wrapped her free arm around his neck and kissed him.
“I love you.”
Silas stared at her wide-eyed and frozen. Sydona pulled away and took a second to realize the words she uttered aloud. As her entire body blushed from embarrassment, she let go of Silas, and he disappeared into the clouds.
Chapter Sixteen
Raoul dusted every inch of Sydona’s body as she flew stiffly at a thousand feet above the ground. That was the first time she ever uttered such delicate words to Silas. She wanted to cry and hug him so badly it hurt. If the shooter wasn’t just after her, maybe the ground was the last place to be. They could be hunting down the others right now. She watched as the three descended to the earth, far away from the truck on the white dirt road. A cloud of dust still rose from the road[SD306], which meant they were still after her. Why were they trying to shoot her? Didn’t the doctor want her alive? Judging by Silas’s injury, they weren’t darts like she experienced before. They wanted to kill her. But why?
“I’m going down, Raoul.”
“What? Why? They’re going to kill you!” he shouted.
“No, they won’t.”
“How do you know?”
She didn’t. But if she wanted to protect the rest of her pack, she had to stop the attack at the source.
“Stop dusting me.”
Raoul looked her in the eye. “But you’ll fall!”
“It’s alright. I know where I’m going.”
He did as he was told, but she could tell he was confused by what she meant. She spun her body around to direct herself back toward the shooter. Straightening her body out like an arrow and keeping her head level, she flew toward them with narrow eyes and teeth clenched. The truck and the person standing in the back became clearer and clearer.
They shot again, and she dodged it with one quick turn of her body. All that Sparrow training really paid off. As she got closer and closer, she pulled out her trusty dagger. She kept it down at her side but with the blade resting on her forearm. They shot again. She heard it whistle past her, but it still missed. Raoul dusted her quickly to slow her landing, but she still made direct contact with the shooter, shoving them over the edge of the truck.
The two women rolled out over the truck and down a hill on the side of the road. Branches, shrubs and stumps hit her as she rolled down. They both finally stopped at the bottom in a large puddle of mud. Every inch of her body felt like it went through a shredder. As she tried to get to her feet, she kept slipping on the mud. She heard the other woman grunting as she attempted to stand up. Once Sydona was able to stand on two feet, her heart sank as she noticed her dagger was nowhere in sight. She was defenseless. She panicked.
Just then, the shooter stood up and their eyes met. A young Hispanic woman stood hunched over with a snarl on her dirt-covered face. Her natural black hair was wild [SD307]and dirty, matching her clothes. She had shorts that didn’t conceal much and a black shirt that tied in the front to expose her stomach. Sydona didn’t know who the woman was, but it was clear she knew who Sydona was.
“Who are you?” Sydona started.
The young woman cried out a tribal cry and lunged out toward her. Taken off guard, Sydona didn’t stand in her way and ran. But she continued to slip on the unyielding mud and fell. Down on her hands and knees, she crawled away from the crazy woman, but not for long. She grabbed Sydona’s hair so hard she had no choice but to let her.
“Get off me!”
The woman pushed Sydona down in the mud and put her hands around her neck.
“Stop!” Sydona cracked. She wanted to kick her off, but with the weight she put on top of her and the slippery ground, it was nearly impossible. Next thing she knew, Raoul pulled the woman’s hair back, allowing Sydona to breathe again. [SD308][LM309][SD310]
“Es eso un hada?” she asked in Spanish.
It was all the time she needed to get the upper hand again. Without her dagger, she had to rely on her own strength. With the woman knelt at the right distance from her, Sydona did a sweeping kick to her jaw, pushing her back into the mud.
“Tu puta perra!” she yelled. She clumsily got up but was able to grab ahold of Sydona again and punch her in the face. Sydona tightened her jaw as the impact made her vision go black for a second, but she socked her back just as hard.
While they took a short break from hitting each other, Sydona asked, out of breath, “You work for the doctor?”
“Fuck you.” She spit in Sydona’s face.
Sydona wiped it away, smearing more mud and blood over her face. “That’s a yes.”
She angrily pushed Sydona back to the mud with a frighteningly loud growl. [SD311]Sydona knew her tactic already and would not let her do the same thing again. Using her hips and knees, she pushed the woman over and had the upper hand. She bound her hands to the ground and sat on her legs.
“Why are you trying to kill me?”
She didn’t answer and Sydona asked again. “Why do you want to kill me?!”
“I don’t have to answer to you, la punta.”
Sydona slapped her so hard the woman's lip split open. All she could do was wriggle and growl.
“Syd! Raoul!” A voice that sounded like Avani echoed through the trees.
Sydona glared down at her. “No, but you’ll answer to Avani.”
“Over here!” Raoul called out.
Avani and Harold barreled down the hill with Silas limping close behind.
“Avani?!” the woman called out. A slow, menacing grin took over the woman’s entire face, and her eyes sparkled. She stopped squirming underneath her. The three met them down in the mud pit.
“Dios mio, Syd! You are filthy! And… oh my god, is that…?”
“Hermana! You came!” the woman bent her neck backward just to see Avani.
Sydona only knew a tiny bit of Spanish, but she remembered “hermana” meant “sister”. What did she say the name of her sister was?
> “Natalia!”
That was it.
“¿Estas loco? [LM312]You could have killed me, you cabron!” Avani shouted and began to hit her sister in the head. Too close for comfort, Sydona backed up and out of the mud. Harold halfway held up Silas. He smiled at Sydona but then winced.
“You okay?” Sydona whispered.
He nodded but hobbled, trying to balance on one leg.
“What are you doing out here?” Avani asked.
“What the hell do you think? Trying to capture the celebrity over there. Why you with her?” she gasped. “Oh my god, Harold? Que carajo? You here too?”
“Nat…” Harold said flatly.
“Malik is super upset with chu,” she laughed. Her teeth looked blinding white against the blackened mud on her face.
“I don’t care. He’s wrong. You’re all wrong.”
“Of course it’s wrong. But it feels so right!” Natalia squeaked. She stood up and splashed off some dirt. “Hey. That your fairy?” she directed to Sydona.
Sydona’s nostrils flared. “Yeah. Why?”
Natalia shrugged. “Just curious. He’s gonna love seeing him coming in with chu. Maybe give me an even bigger bonus.” She danced.
The group stood around watching the woman who had more than a few screws loose. She may have been Avani’s sister, but they were nothing alike.
“Ben--Benji? Where’s Benji?” Natalia asked looking up the hill.
“Benji’s gone, Natalia. You’re stranded. Just give up,” Avani said.
“You killed him? Maldita sea… told him I’d split it with him. But, whatever. More for meeee.”
“You’re psychotic,” Silas said.
Natalia turned her attention to him and cleaned herself a bit. “Oh shit, did I hit you? My bad. I’ll try to aim higher next time.”
Silas grunted, propelled forward and tripped. Harold regained his balance. “Don’t waste yer energy on her, Silas. She’s nothing but a huge disappointment.”
“Oh, do you need help carryin’ such a big word? And I’m far from a disappointment, Harold. You’re the one who turned your back on Malik. He’s gonna kill you, hombre.”[SD313]
“I thought he was dead. We all did.”
“You musta shit your pants when you found out then, huh?” She chortled.
