It’s #BookQW and it’s not ‘simple’ for our non-magical heroine.
More from Chapter 7:
“No. Take me to the ground.” Then, realizing she was at his mercy, Fern added, “Er, please.”
“Hmm. I’ll try to.” Beri roved his eyes from her head to her toes as if measuring her for a uniform.
“What? Can’t you just fly me down?”
“It’s nae so simple. After yesterday, we learned you canna adjust your body like we can.”
She pressed her fist to her forehead. That’s why she’d taken Raven down, because of insults about her weight—which was totally reasonable for anyone six feet tall. “I can’t take a magical science lesson in losing weight right now.”
“Nae lose it,” he muttered. “Make the air give you buoyancy. But, no matter. If I hold on to the branches, I should be able to support us both. C’mere.”
Beri turned toward the edge, unfurling his wings. The huge feathered limbs came through slits in his woven shirt, projecting from his shoulder blades. He flapped them a few times.
Their breeze fluttered strands of hair into her face. Ugh, most of her ponytail had come loose. She must look a sight. A shower would be nice. Anything resembling a bathroom would be nice at this point.
“I need my hands free,” he said. “Think you can hold on to me for the ride down?”
“Piggyback?”
Beri laughed. “That truly was the first time you’d seen anyone fly, wasn’t it?” He took her hands and placed her arms around his neck. “With wings, the only side to carry someone is the front, and the only place to hold is around my neck. You ken?”
Fern swallowed. At least it was dark enough he couldn’t see what a mess she was. Both outside and inside. He was willing to fly her out of here, so she couldn’t chicken out. “Let’s do this,” she said with her best bravado, and wrapped her arms tighter.
“Tuck your legs around my waist,” he murmured, his breath warm on her neck.
Before she could even process how close that put them, his wings arched and Beri stepped off the edge. They swung and dropped, jerking with each branch he grabbed and picking up speed. Beri uttered what had to be a curse. Fern clung to him, her face pressed into his neck. The time between jerks came faster and faster. Rough bark loomed close. Needles swiped her arms. They were practically falling.
Damn, this was going to—
“Owww.”
They landed with a jolt. Her legs crumpled, and Beri came down with her, his chest crushing her into a cushion of pine needles and moss.
“Ah, sorry.” He scrambled off her and stood, brushing his shirt and hair. “Seemed to me we’d stay on our feet, but we overbalanced before I magicked away my wings… Say, are you all right?”
Heart pounding, she lay staring up at the now wingless boy.
“Fern? You can breathe, can you nae?”
Breathe? After a free fall like that he asked if she could breathe? “No.”
~~~
Pick up The Witch of the Meadows to join Fern & Beri’s adventure today!
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