The Glass Man - Lila Gray Book 1

Chapter Twenty

The liquid sky darkened to black as we approached the tall, wooden doors of the portal building.

"They're coming!" Garret shouted against the roaring wind, squeezing me hard.

My ribs creaked, and I folded my arms over my brother's. I would not lose him, too. "You need to go faster, Liam. God, there are so many I can barely see the sky."

"Look, I'm just learning to fly this thing, so stop talking."

"What do you mean, just learning?" I'd assumed he'd purposely omitted the fact that he could transform into an owl from his list of skills.

Liam gathered his wings close to his body, and we crashed through the doors. The building moaned in pain. A jagged shard of wood sliced my arm and knocked me sideways, but I held on, yanking one of his feathers out in the process.

"Goddamn it, that hurt."

"We almost fell off. Thanks for your concern." I was thankful for the distraction. Thinking about how to survive the moment took my mind off darker thoughts.

Inside, Liam couldn't spread his wings out, so he crouched and hopped to the back of the chamber. He pushed off, and we burst through the ceiling. I buried my head in his feathers, certain I was about to be smashed against the marble.

A rush of cool air turned warm as we appeared in the middle of the Grand Canyon in a nose-dive. With a few thumping flaps of his wings, Liam changed direction and headed for the upper lip of the cliff.

"Why is it night here already?" I shouted back to Garret. "It was dawn when we went in, and that couldn't have been more than three hours ago."

"Time moves differently in the Black City." He shifted closer to my ear. "Dun Bray is different, so I heard. It moves along with the human world."

"How do the Unseelie usually leave the Black City? We came out falling."

"Parthalan controls the gateway. If he doesn't want someone to leave, they'll fall. Anyone else will appear on the top of the cliff where we jumped earlier."

Moments after we cleared the upper ledge, a black swarm of Host boiled over the rim in pursuit.

"Shit." I said. "I didn't think they'd follow us through. Where is Seven Gates?"

"It's in Northern Ontario," Garret said, his voice hollow and unemotional. "Too far. We'll never make it. Even if..."

"Even if what, Garret?"

"N-Nothing."

I hadn't the time or patience to deal with cryptic shit. I peered over my shoulder. A fast-moving storm of hooded freaks approached, their black wings carrying a sheen from the muted moonlight. I shivered in the damp air and the punishing wind. Clouds covered most of the sky in front of us, drawing an ominous blanket over the land. The moonlight wouldn't last for long, and then we'd be flying mostly blind.

Liam dove toward the ground. The G-forces pressing against my body drove the blood out of my head, leaving my vision star-dappled. I strained to hold on to Liam with one hand and my brother with the other.

When we slowed, I sat up straighter for a better look around. "What are you doing? They're right on top of us."

"Trust me," was all Liam said.

A series of twitters rang out before dozens of birds rocketed out of a tree-top in front of us. Liam banked hard and followed the birds. The thrumming of his wings boomed like a death-march drum.

The Host broke around us, black water around a rock. They encircled us completely, except for a narrow path in front. I found them above and below us, too. The day wasn't improving.