Surreal hesitated a moment, trying to decide what she could hold on to without impeding his wings. She hooked one arm around his neck and snugged the fingers of her other hand under his wide leather belt.

It wasn’t until she felt his wings pumping that she wondered if he could carry an extra person’s weight. “I’m going to learn to do that air walking so I won’t have to be carted around,” she growled.

“I don’t mind carrying you,” Falonar snapped, setting her none too gently on the roof.

Surreal clenched her teeth. One male at a time. And it was the furry gray one who had first dibs on her temper. “Do you see him?” she asked as she scanned the courtyard below.

“No. He could have—”

A blast of Jeweled power came from the next courtyard, followed by a woman’s scream.

Falonar launched them off the roof with enough force that Surreal wrapped her legs around one of his to give herself another way to hold on. She gritted her teeth as her body, with appalling timing, expressed its approval of the hard male thigh riding between her legs. Which did nothing for her temper.

“If he gets hurt because he didn’t wait for me, I’m going to smack him so hard he’ll have to lift his tail to see the world,” she snarled.

“Wait here,” Falonar said as he looked down into the courtyard.

“Do you like having balls?” Surreal snapped, twisting to look around. But she pulled her fingers out from under his belt so that he wouldn’t worry that she’d meant the threat.

She caught her breath and swore. The young tiger, Dejaal, was lying in the courtyard, not moving. A footman writhed in agony. Graysfang was dashing back and forth, not actively engaging in an attack but still holding the attention of the man who had a firm grip on Wilhelmina, who was struggling ineffectively.

She swore again when she recognized the man. Osvald. One of Alexandra’s escorts. Mother Night.

“Can you keep your balance?” Falonar asked a moment before he let go and stepped away from her.

At least he asked, Surreal thought as she used Craft to prevent a fast slide off the roof.

Graysfang dashed in low, as if he were trying to ham-string Osvald.

Surreal saw the flash of Osvald’s Opal Jewel. She threw a Gray shield around Graysfang, fast enough to prevent him from receiving a killing blast of power but not in time to keep him from being knocked over by the clash of Gray and Opal strength.

Seeing the wolf go down, Wilhelmina screamed and clawed at the hand clamped around her arm. Osvald swung around and hit her with enough force to send her to the ground, stunned. Then he turned to make another attack on Graysfang, who had gotten shakily to his feet.