When I’m ready, I take my lioness form and follow the sound of the machines. I beat my wings feverishly to catch up with the others. What are they? They had the wings of a bird, and lines streak their span like those of of bats, but they don’t move like ours do. My ears are stuffed with their endless droning, and my head swerves as I try to count them in the dim light. Five. No, six.

Gunfire peppers the air, countered by deep roars of pain. The smell of blood meets my senses like a fire to dry brush. Immediately, the warriors scatter, one of the fighters falling too fast before someone else swoops to grab her. Screams sound from the streets as I hear others echoing the command to take cover.

The Heliana is under attack. The king.

A sentinel’s first job is clear: protect the king at all costs. Flaring my wings hard, I fly directly at the palace, but the Tower is blessedly empty, and every light has been snuffed out. The royal family will use the emergency tunnels in the palace to shelter in the stone Keep deep within the ridge beneath the palace. They will be safe.

Banking away from the Tower, I find the closest of the machines and head toward it. I swoop up high so I’m above the machine, but I struggle to keep pace with it. A human protected by a glass dome sits at the machine’s controls. I swoop lower, readying to roll onto my back. Wind, smoke, and the unforgiving smell of the humans’ metal makes me gag, but I push the roiling of my stomach away. If I can hit the glass with my armor, it might shatter.

A roar sounds right behind me. A warrior whose name I don’t know materializes by my side, her slim frame keeping better pace with the machine than I ever could. Better yet, attached to her armor between her forelegs is a sturdy bow and capped quiver. An archer. Her piercing blue eyes meet mine, sharp with resolve.

“The glass!” I roar. “Let me break it!”

“Go!” she growls back.

She slows a beat, giving me the clearest shot. With a roar, I curl around and fold my wings against my face and limbs, exposing the unforgiving metal of my armor as I let my full weight fall towards the machine.

The glass explodes, and the human cries out in surprise.

My hind legs bounce off the machine as the machine dips. Suddenly, it pitches upward, slamming into my body before I can get away. Lights swirl in my eyes as the wind is knocked out of me. A tangle of cords and cloth releases from behind the human’s seat, catching my wing like a net.