The fire hit nothing and fizzled out.
And what was I supposed to do with earth? Throw rocks at the bird? Even if I could do that, there was a chance I’d hit Kelly, too.
“Mira,” I said, and I turned to my sister. She cowered in fear as she stared up at Kelly dangling from the creature’s talons. They were getting higher by the second. “Use the wind to force it back down.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. Just focus on the wind and use it.”
She didn’t move, and for a moment I worried she wasn’t going to try. But then she raised her hands, palms out, and narrowed her eyes as she focused.
A breeze stirred—Mira’s magic.
“Good,” I said. “Now, push the monster down from above.”
I had no idea what we were going to do once the creature was back in the cove. But we needed to get Kelly closer. We’d figure out the rest from there.
Mira pressed her lips together, bent her knees to steady herself, and cried out as she tried to use her magic. Wind rustled the tree leaves, but the bird-like creature continued flying upward.
Then the creature released Kelly from its talons.
She shrieked as she plummeted down toward us.
“Use your wind to cushion her fall!” I screamed at Mira.
Mira pushed again. A gust of wind shot out of her palms, and it flung Kelly into the side of the cliff.
She smacked into the rocks with a sickening thud and tumbled down in a free fall, hitting the cliff twice more and landing on the sand like a rag doll. Her limbs twisted in angles that shouldn’t have been physically possible.
No.
I grabbed Mira’s arm and stared at Kelly’s body.
No one could have survived that.
Sasha screamed Kelly’s name and rushed to her side. She fell down onto her knees, wrapped her arms around her daughter’s body, and collapsed into a heaving, sobbing mess.
Another squawk sounded from above.
The monster was dive-bombing again.
I raised my hands and shot out a stream of fire. But the bird was moving so quickly that I missed it by meters. I shot out more fire, and missed again.
The creature flew diagonally, toward the ocean.
Rebecca was shoulder deep and swimming off to the side. Maybe she thought birds hated water? But she couldn’t swim fast enough, because the monster grabbed her shoulders with its talons and plucked her out of the ocean.
It flew up and over us, and water dripped off of Rebecca. A few drops landed on me.
“Try again.” I grasped Mira’s arm so she wouldn’t try to run.
“I’m going to,” she snapped, and she yanked her arm out of my grip and raised her palms so they faced the bird.
The wind pushed the bird slightly off-course.
“Force it down!” I said.
“I’m trying!”
She pushed out another gust of wind, which smacked into the bird and pushed it out toward the ocean.
The bird raised its wings and rode the wind, like it was hang-gliding.
“Use your water!” I told Mira.
“I don’t know how!”
The bird released Rebecca over the ocean, and my heart plummeted into my stomach.
It was nearly impossible to survive a fall into water at that height. I’d learned that during a family trip with Mom and Mira to Sydney, when we did a tour to climb to the top of the Sydney Bridge. During construction of the bridge, some of the workers lost their balance, fell into the water, and died. At that height, the impact with the water was as strong as an impact with concrete.
And Rebecca had been much higher up than the height of the bridge.
I stared helplessly out at where she’d fallen.
Then someone came up from behind and grabbed my hand.
I turned around.
“Ethan?” I said at the same time as Mira threw her arms around him and buried her head in his shoulder.
“I brought your mom to the cave at the other side of the cove,” he said, and he reached for me, pulling me toward the cliffs. “We need to hide.”
“No.” I jerked to a stop and looked over my shoulder at Sasha collapsed over Kelly’s body. “We can’t leave her there. It’ll get her next.”
“We don’t have time,” Mira said. “It’s already coming back.”
“I’ll get her,” Ethan said. “The two of you get to safety.”
“You don’t have magic,” I told him sharply. “I’m getting her.”
He released my arm and shot a blaze of fire out toward the ocean. “You were saying?” he asked with a self-satisfied smirk.
I stared at him, shocked. “What are you?”
“I’ll explain later,” he said. “Go with Mira.”
I glanced over my shoulder again. Sasha’s back was toward the ocean, and she was oblivious to the chaos around us. If she stayed with Kelly, that monster would surely kill her next.
But why should I trust Ethan? His loyalty was to Mira—not to some distant cousin of mine.
“Get Mira to the cave,” I told him. “I’m getting Sasha.”
I spun around and sprinted toward her before he could argue.
I stopped once I was behind her and swallowed down disgust at the sight of Kelly’s twisted, mangled body. Jagged bones stuck out of her skin, and her blood soaked the sand. Her neck twisted at an unnatural angle, and her eyes stared blankly up at the sky.
I reached for Sasha’s arm and pulled. “Come on,” I said. “We have to go.”
“No.” Sasha yanked her arm out of my grasp. “I’m not leaving her here.”
“You have to. That thing’s already on its way back. If we don’t hide, it’ll come after us next.”
“Fine,” she said. “Let it.”
“You can’t mean that.” I reached for her again.
“Don’t touch me!” She pulled back and narrowed her eyes. “You’re just as much of an abomination as that thing is.”
I stepped back, shocked.
She couldn’t mean that.
“We have to go,” I repeated. “Please. Come on.”
“No.”
I bit my lip and turned around to see the monster’s progress. It was a stadium’s length away. Its eyes glowed red, getting brighter by the second.
Even if I tried to run to the cave, I wouldn’t have time to get there before the monster reached the cove.
Panic rushed through me. If I didn’t fight, I’d be dead. Sasha, too.
So I raised my hands, screamed with everything in me, and shot twin beams of fire at the monster.
The flames were so bright that I couldn’t see if I’d hit it or not.
Suddenly, two matching beams of fire shot out from next to me. They joined mine, and the four beams fused together to form a burning blaze of magic.
I glanced over my shoulder at Ethan. His gaze was intense as he stared straight ahead, and the light from the flames danced across his perfect features.
He was focused, determined, and deadly.
He glanced over to meet my eyes, and I could have sworn he looked proud of me. “Keep going,” he said. “We’ve almost got it.”
I swallowed and refocused on putting as much magic as I could behind the fire.
Feathery wings extended out over the flames, and the creature squawked, the sound chilling my bones like nails on a chalkboard. The scent of burnt flesh filled the air.