Defy by Raine Thomas Read Free Book Online

they didn’t fully
understand the connection between the twins, he had to believe they
were heading in the right direction.
    As he ran, scenes from the dream flashed
through his mind. He saw Tate’s face as her terror overtook her. He
felt the life draining from her.
    Cursing the fact that they couldn’t extend
their wings within the area of protection because of the many
levels of dampening protections in place, he pushed himself to run
even faster. Within minutes, they burst from the edge of the
forest.
    As they cleared the tree line, Tiege pulled
his blessed kamas from the special harness he wore strapped to his
back. Caleb drew his sword, his gaze flying along the landscape,
his brain registering things on a subconscious level that he didn’t
even have time to process: footprints on the muddy bank, pebbles
trickling down the cliff face, ripples circling out along the
lake’s surface, a turquoise tank top splayed across the rocks, a
single, light blue feather fluttering toward the ground.
    Then he caught a flash of silver in the far
distance. Quincy. He knew he had to take flight after him. He also
knew Tiege wouldn’t be able to follow.
    Catching his son’s gaze as everyone else took
flight around them, Caleb said, “I’m sorry.”
    Swallowing hard, Tiege nodded. “Just bring
her back, Dad. Please…just bring her back.”
     
    In the form of the eagle, Sophia shared as
much of the mind of the animal she resembled as she did her
Kynzesti self. She instinctively knew how to judge the wind
currents and adjust her wings for more effective flight, something
most Estilorians had to train to learn. The large and powerful
kragen moved farther with each stroke of its wings than she could.
But she was smaller, more aerodynamic and gaining ground.
    Fighting against the other instincts of the
eagle, she resisted the urge to scan the ground and her
surroundings for prey or predators. She focused only on the kragen.
She had to stay with it so she could see where it landed and try to
get Tate back.
    She lost track of time. When her wings tired,
she pushed past it. Bringing forth the image of Tate’s lifeless
gaze, she ignored the warning signs that usually meant she was
losing her hold on the shift. If it had been Tate tracking her—Tate
trying to get to her to offer her aid—she knew her willful cousin
wouldn’t stop, regardless of how exhausted she got. She had to
press on, and she pushed her powers to their limits.
    But kragens could fly without landing for
days, whereas the eagle was built for speed, not endurance. She
never really stood a chance.
    Still, she flew until the kragen was nothing
more than a small dot at the edge of her vision and the sun had
shifted many degrees in the sky. She flew until the ground came
closer and closer, and she absolutely couldn’t hold the shift
anymore.
    When her power failed at last, she couldn’t
even care that she was going to crash spectacularly. She welcomed
that pain over the other, deeper one that awaited her.
    But Quincy caught up with her. As she had
slowed, he had been able to catch her and pace her. So when she
lost the shift, he only had to dive to pluck her out of the sky and
carry her safely to the ground.
    She didn’t want him to save her. She wanted
him to go after Tate. She wouldn’t be able to live with the fact
that he was choosing to save her instead. But the words sat
unspoken in her tight, aching chest. And when her eyes closed
against her unavoidable exhaustion, two tears trailed down her
cheeks.
     

Chapter 6
     
    Just before the sun rose on the tenth day
after Tate’s death, Tiege leaned on the waist-high wood fence
surrounding his mother’s flower garden, gazing at the cherry tree
his Aunt Olivia and Uncle James created in his sister’s memory. The
garden was a peaceful place, planted not long before he and Tate
were born. The two of them had shared many adventures among the
brilliantly colored blooms.
    He supposed it had been a fitting place to
have