The night swallowed them whole.
Levi's wings beat against the smoke-thick air, each strike sending gusts through the broken skylight of the laboratory. Cries echoed faintly below—shifters snarling, security alarms blaring, Shax's voice roaring commands. But the storm of chaos grew quieter as Levi carried Jane higher, away from the ruin and into the cold dark.
Jane stirred weakly in her arms. Blood slicked Levi's grip, warm and persistent, soaking into her torn lab coat. The witch's breath came shallow, her lips pale.
"Stay awake," Levi commanded, her voice low and unyielding. "Do not close your eyes."
Jane blinked up at her, the cracked lens of her glasses glinting faintly in the moonlight. "Y-you… have wings…"
Levi's gaze flicked down, crimson eyes softened for just a breath. "I have more than wings, little witch. Do not waste your words."
But Jane gave a weak, humorless laugh. "Figures… the first time I see them… I'm bleeding out…"
Levi's jaw clenched. She shifted her grip, cradling Jane closer against her chest. Fragile thing. Yet stubborn enough to touch the fire.
The landscape below blurred into the forest and ruins. Levi banked low, wings slicing the night air as she descended toward the ground. Shax's violet flames burned faintly on the horizon behind them, searching, hunting.
"The world has changed a lot since I have fallen."
Levi landed hard, her taloned feet digging into the soil. Dust rose around them. She folded her wings halfway, keeping Jane shielded, and hissed as she glanced back. The dragon would not give up easily.
"Guide me," Levi demanded. "Where is your den?"
Jane coughed, blood flecking her lips. Her left hand trembled as she pointed toward the east. "Old… metro tunnels… hidden entrance under the… bridge… that looks abandoned…"
Levi nodded once and began moving, her strides long and unyielding. Branches snapped beneath her steps as she carried Jane through the night.
Jane pressed her head weakly against Levi's shoulder, eyelids drooping. She whispered, almost dreamlike, "Why… why did you save me?"
For a long moment, Levi said nothing. The question burned sharper than any wound.
Finally, she answered, voice as cold as steel yet betraying a flicker of truth.
"Because you mean something to me and you're different, you have something that's very valuable and if General shax took you away they might harm you ."
Jane wanted to laugh, to argue, but the weight of her blood loss silenced her. She drifted in and out of consciousness, her healing sparks flickering faintly along the edge of her wound—enough to slow the bleeding, not enough to restore what was lost.
Levi felt every drop of warmth slipping from the witch's fragile body. Rage swelled within her, burning hotter than Shax's blade had moments ago.
She unfurled her wings again and leapt, following Jane's faltering directions. The world became a blur of broken highways, collapsed ruins, and skeletal buildings. Finally, beneath a crumbling bridge choked with vines and stone, Levi saw it: a dark entrance, half-buried, unmarked.
The tunnels.
Jane's boots struck the ground as she landed before the hidden door. With one hand she tore the rusted metal aside, the screech of bending steel echoing through the night. She slipped inside, shadows closing around them, Levi's wings folding tight.
Jane stirred again, her voice barely a whisper. "This way… follow the markings… I—made them…"
Levi narrowed her eyes, scanning the faint chalk symbols along the tunnel walls. The little witch had planned this, prepared for a day when she would need to vanish. Smart. Careful. Dangerous.
The further they moved, the deeper the silence grew, broken only by the drip of water and Jane's labored breathing. Levi pressed her lips into a thin line, her crimson eyes blazing against the dark.
When at last the tunnel widened into a faintly lit chamber, the scent of firewood and human breath greeted them. Shapes moved in the shadows—figures, startled, raising weapons.
"Jane?!"
A woman's voice, sharp and desperate. A lantern flared, revealing two young witches and a shifter crouched near a fire.
Levi's wings rose instinctively, her aura filling the space with suffocating pressure. The newcomers froze, staring wide-eyed at the horned, crimson-eyed demon carrying their broken friend.
Levi's voice cut through the silence. "Your witch bleeds. Heal her, or she dies."
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Thank you for reading my novel