She barely managed a gasp of astonishment before she morphed into alternate form. The room suddenly looked much smaller, the bland curving walls taking on strange new dimensions. And the sky… Oh, the sky called to her.

Fly. Fly to me, my heart.

Gabriel was here. No one else could have pushed her into alternate form. Unless this was all a dream.

Well, if so, then she was going to fly in her dreams. They would give her the escape she craved. Though she’d never actually flown, a dream would be a wonderful place to try it out. She spread her wings, the sensitive feather tips brushing the walls on either side, and pumped down.

And crow-hopped a minute bit into the air before landing with a thud.

Dreams were not supposed to be this realistic. Maybe it was simply another depressing nightmare.

Fly. I know you can.

You are not real, she crossly informed the sense of Gabriel. Hmm. Maybe they were both dead, and they were struggling through some sort of purgatory of the afterlife. Like an old tale, where the lovers struggled to find each other. As with all those tales, it seemed, living it wasn’t nearly so swooningly romantic. It was just a miserable slog.

Her keen hearing picked up the sound of boots on the tower stairs, soldiers calling to each other in excited tones. Huh. Maybe some of this was real and the roof had blown off, attracting attention from her captors. In which case…

The Iblis lock on the door clicked open.

In which case, this was her one chance at escape. Summoning all the spine and determination she possessed, she launched herself to the top of the wall, talons digging in as she bobbled there. The drop below was precipitous and terrifyingly deep, made all the more alarming by her acute long vision. She could actually see the sharp rocks far below at the bottom of the crag, and her avian brain assessed the distance with brutal clarity. If she didn’t manage to take wing, the fall would kill her.

“Stop!” Sergio Sammael shrieked, hitting her with a dose of nerve-frying pain.

Of course, if she stayed, she’d just wish she were dead. Better to reach than fail for not trying.

She took the leap and fell through the air.

~ 21 ~

The group at the forest’s verge exclaimed as one. Even Gabriel, who’d felt Nic become the silver phoenix, who’d been viscerally connected to her as she wondered at the change and decided to try. He’d seen the dizzying drop through her eyes and feared along with her, felt her pain as Sergio tried to immobilize her.

He both watched and felt her fall from the tower, his stomach dropping as they shared the exhilarating terror and wild hope, Sergio’s magic quickly shredding as she escaped his field of power. “Fly,” he urged her, sending magic into her through the silver web they shared. “Fly!”

Alise wailed, clapping her hands over her mouth as the distant silver bird plummeted into the abyss. Then choked on a gasp when Nic popped into sight again.