2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

— “From the sea,” I breathed. Cassian’s gaze shot straight ahead, to the river before us, to
the towering cliffs in the distance that marked the raging waves where it met the ocean.
And there, on the horizon, a smear of black. Swift-moving—spreading wider as it grew
closer.
“Tell me those are birds,” I said. My power flooded my veins, and I curled my fingers
into fists, willing it to calm, to steady—
“There’s no Illyrian patrol that’s supposed to know about this place … ,” he said, as if it
were an answer. His gaze cut to me. “We’re going back to the town house right now.”
The smear of black separated, fracturing into countless figures. Too big for birds. Far
too big. I said, “You have to sound the alarm—”
But people were. Some were pointing, some were shouting.
Cassian reached for me, but I jumped back. Ice danced at my fingertips, wind howled in
my blood. I’d pick them off one by one— “Get Azriel and Amren—”
They’d reached the sea cliffs. Countless, long-limbed flying creatures, some bearing
soldiers in their arms … An invading host. “Cassian.”
But an Illyrian blade had appeared in Cassian’s hand, twin to the one across his back. A
fighting knife now shone in the other. He held them both out to me. “Get back to the town
house—right now.”
I most certainly would not go. If they were flying, I could use my power to my
advantage: freeze their wings, burn them, break them. Even if there were so many, even if
—
So fast, as if they were carried on a fell wind, the force reached the outer edges of the
city. And unleashed arrows upon the shrieking people rushing for cover in the streets. I
grabbed his outstretched weapons, the cool metal hilts hissing beneath my forge-hot
palms.
Cassian lifted his hand into the air. Red light exploded from his Siphon, blasting up and
away—forming a hard wall in the sky above the city, directly in the path of that oncoming
force.
He ground his teeth, grunting as the winged legion slammed into his shield. As if he felt
every impact.
The translucent red shield shoved out farther, knocking them back—
We both watched in mute horror as the creatures lunged for the shield, arms out—
They were not just any manner of faerie. Any rising magic in me sputtered and went out
at the sight of them.
They were all like the Attor.
All long-limbed, gray-skinned, with serpentine snouts and razor-sharp teeth. And as the
legion of its ilk punched through Cassian’s shield as if it were a cobweb, I beheld on their