Instantly she gained height, only to be swarmed by the mini drones, which pelted her with painful light and burning projectiles. She ignored them, putting everything into her climb, pulling up at first just inch by inch but then foot by foot. She focused on the rooftop, eyes locked on her escape, aware that Malahidael was on the ground and running her way. Ignore him, ignore everything but getting out of this realm. At first, she had a fear that he would leap at her again, but he ran past underneath her, straight to the wounded witch and the human boy who held her most deadly weapon. Relief, sweet relief that he hadn’t attacked her in this vulnerable state. Then fear, sudden bowel-loosening fear, as below her the fallen angel came to a sudden stop, plucked the spear-like SHUKUR from Mack’s hand, and, with a graceful spin, threw the weapon straight at her. It moved like a pulse of light, flashing faster than a pistol bullet, maybe too fast to dodge, the deadly blade headed right for her center of mass.

With a fantastic flex of her entire body, mid-air, she twisted herself sideways, feeling a burning line cut across her stomach and sternum before it blasted through the thin membrane of her right wing, tearing a massive hole. The SHUKUR shot off into the night, but Lilith could only focus on the twin sensations of pain and falling, her body flipping end over end, her vision filled first with darkened sky, then open portal, then sky before the portal again came into view.

Part of her realized she had made it far enough to fall straight into the open portal, part of her realized the landing would be bad, and part of her was aware of a high-pitched howl racing toward her through the night sky. As she flipped over and over, she picked up one additional view with each rotation—a small silver object that was growing larger and larger each time her sight of it came around.

Twenty feet before she hit the portal, her brain came up with a possible idea of what it was—a massive upsized version of the computing machine’s killer drones, a giant silver ball headed straight for her, from the south. But as fast as it was, she was almost out of its view, her own descent bringing her just about into the opening of the portal. And her spinning sight showed her that the portal had fully opened, revealing that she was falling directly into a chamber in the Summer Queen’s tree fortress.

Blinding light from behind her seared her vision, the pain in her right wing suddenly disappearing, as did the wing itself. The giant drone had fired, one shot, just as she fell through the portal and slammed into the polished wood floor of the Queen’s chamber.