Sabir’s voice tore through the air. He tried to scream, but the creature’s enormous teeth clamped down on his collar, lifting him high into the sky. He felt as though the fabric of his jacket would tear from the speed they were flying. His arms flailed helplessly. If he even freed himself, he’d be buying a one-way ticket to becoming a puddle of blood.

A gust of wind slapped against his face, forcing his eyes shut, but when he blinked them open, he glimpsed the beast in his periphery. He had seen that creature before. He knew who it belonged to as well. Maize Gaian, among the nobles he met, she was probably the nicest, minus the fact she enjoys watching him almost die.

The memory of that day hit him like a cold slap. He had ridden on that bird after Elektra attacked him and Cassius. Maize offered him a ride, and he had no choice but to take it. A monster that the Gaians tamed, it was one of many, part of the nobilities’ proud collection of creatures. Riding on the beast had been one of Sabir’s most terrifying experiences. He begged for Maize to drop him off at The Commons. He feared his life was on the line if they flew any further.

Gritting his teeth, he realized this was Maize’s doing. She probably thought this was all a game. With the black veins on his chest spreading like ink under his skin, Sabir didn’t have the strength to struggle. His body refused to respond. Every breath sent waves of pain through his chest. His will to fight back crumbled.

Sabir gave up. His vision tunneled, and the wind embraced him. He accepted the darkness, only acutely aware of the scream that faded from his throat.

Suddenly, a sharp whistle broke through the blanket of wind. A single, shrill sound that pierced through the high clouds. The monster snapped its neck; the sound bringing its attention. Without warning, it plunged downward, pulling Sabir with it. His stomach lurched as the ground surged closer, the wind now a roar in his ears. The descent was so fast, Sabir hanged on for dear life. They plummeted to the ground; the landing creating a small crater. The griffin cushioned the momentum by skidding along the dirt with a spray of debris before coming to a halt.

The griffin spat Sabir out, dropping him onto the cold, hard ground like a discarded toy. It jutted out its beak as if it did nothing wrong.

Sabir grasped for air. His vision shook from the intense speed. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder that steadied him. Zabo crouched beside him, his face full of worry. On his other side, Warren bent down, watching over him, his lips tense, as his eyes darted to someone else.

“You alright?” asked Zabo.

Sabir couldn’t answer, still gagging for air. As his mind reeled from the near death experience, he tried to follow Warren’s gaze. To his horror, Maize Gaian waltzed towards them, her expression unreadable as she marched straight toward the lion eagle hybrid.

“What were you thinking, Violet?” she hissed at the beast, wagging a finger like she was scolding a pet dog. “I told you not to fly so high. That was reckless!”

Warren snapped upwards, heading straight towards her with his fists clenched. “Reckless? That thing nearly killed him! You call that reckless?” His voice was low, but laced with anger. “You could’ve gotten him killed!”

Maize turned her attention away from her pet towards Warren. She looked at him from top to bottom, a smile playing on her lips. Her gaze then flicked to Sabir, still on the ground. Her eyes narrowed as she approached Sabir and Zabo.

“Don’t just walk away from me, damn it,” Warren called out, an edge of frustration in his tone.

Sabir tensed up under her stare, the memory of her making him fight those Vinefiends played in his mind.

“Sabir Quinn. Long time, no see,” said Maize, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “I hope you haven’t forgotten about me. Sorry about Violet. She was just excited to see you.” She hung her head low, apologetic over her pets behaviour.

Whipping her brown hair away from her face, Maize leaned close to his ear. He could smell the sweet scent of flowers wafting off her. “What happened to you?” Her tone was low, filled with concern.

“What do you mean?” stammered Sabir.

“You’re dying,” she whispered.

Sabir shook, taken aback by Maize’s perception. Can she fix what’s wrong with me? She had healed him once before. Why can’t she now?

Shock jolted through Sabir. He stepped away from Zabo, standing as straight as he could. “I’m fine.” He couldn’t show weakness here, not to a noble. He needed to show he wasn’t some charity case. It was a matter of pride for him.

“Of course you are,” she murmured, her smile never fading.

Two men from the group of hunters disrupted their moment. Wearing light brown fur coats with dark blue details, both of them stood tall. The first one to approach her was a man with icy blonde hair; smirking, he walked towards Maize with a grin."I must say, I’m impressed, Gaian. A griffin, under your control? I wouldn’t expect any less from your family—after all, you are a bunch of hippies." His haughty voice brought the attention of the entire hunters present.

The man next to him, short and squat with an oddly frog-like appearance, let out a strange, wheezing laugh that drew everyone’s attention. Zabo muttered under his breath, “Weirdo.”

Maize puffed out her chest. The vines and flowers that decorated her hair seemed to grow bigger. “My family may be ‘hippies,’ but we’re not as dedicated to murder as yours, Rudiger Boreas.”

Rudiger chuckled, shaking his head. “Come now, we’re all nobles here, aren’t we? Let’s not spread disharmony. We’re here for a common goal, after all.” His gaze shifted to Elektra. “Your older brother, Elektra, was a mentor of mine. I’ll look after you, of course.” He gestured to his frog-like companion. “And my friend here, Saliba, was a friend of Vincent.”

Saliba grinned, his bulbous eyes fixated on Elektra in a way that made everyone uncomfortable. “Oh yes, I took excellent care of Vincent. We had a lot of… fun.” His lips curled into a grotesque smile as he licked them.

Elektra grimaced, trying to maintain her composure; she clenched her jaw. “This is a joint operation, we–” she began, but Maize interrupted her.

“We value your experience,” Maize said smoothly. “I’m sure you’ll be of great help.”

Elektra shot her a glare, her irritation clear. Maize matched her gaze as if telling her to watch what she says.

“Very well then,” Rudiger said, shaking Maize’s hand, then Elektra’s, and finally Warren’s. “Bastard, huh?” he sneered at Warren. “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you.”

Warren’s hand remained tense as he reluctantly shook Rudiger’s, his expression unreadable.

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Rudiger’s eyes narrowed as he turned his gaze to Zabo and Sabir. “Porters, are you?” He smiled at them, yet his voice dripped with disdain, that made both of them shudder. “Skinny, frail—perfect. Though I must admit, we could’ve used more. Resources are thin, I suppose.”

He snapped his fingers, calling out to the other hunters. The murmurings went deathy silent, all of them afraid to offend a noble. “The porters will carry my luggage, as well as Lady Voltaire’s and Lady Gaian’s.”

“Any objections?”

A deafening silence followed upon the question. Was anyone stupid enough to defy a noble?

With that settled, the pecking order had been established. The nobles were on top, followed by the rest of the hunters and then finally there was Sabir and Zabo left to be their dogs. Rudiger then snapped his fingers in their faces, “Well, come on then. Get over here.”

Zabo looked across at Sabir, shrugging, they both reluctantly stepped forwards. Rudiger thrust a great, heavy pack into Sabir’s arms, nearly sending him tumbling backward. “Mind you, don’t drop it,” Rudiger added with a snarl. “There’s more where that came from.”

Before Sabir had time to settle under the weight, Elektra walked up, her face a mask of irritation. “Here, take mine as well.” She slung her luggage—another impossibly heavy load—at Sabir without so much as looking his way, the bags thudding into his chest.

“Try not to slow us down,” she grumbled under her breath, already walking off as if the matter had taken up far too much of her time.

Sabir winced, his arms buckling under the weight of both sets of baggage, but kept his features neutral, refusing to show signs of weakness.

Watching the scene unfold, Maize Gaian approached them next. Her frown deepened when she saw Sabir under the heavy load. “I’m sorry, Sabir,” she said, her words laced with a curl of genuine regret. “It’s… it’s just a little heavy for me to manage… I wouldn’t ask, but…”

For a moment, she hesitated, then gave him her pack, lighter than the others but still adding to the burden. He met her eyes, noticing the apology in her gaze, but he said nothing, simply nodding in response. His shoulders already ached under the weight of it all.

Zabo, shouldering his own equally heavy weight with a grimace, shot a look at Sabir. “This had better be worth it,” he muttered, his voice so low only Sabir could hear.

Sabir ground his teeth, changing the way he held the packs. “We don’t have much of a choice,” he whispered, glancing at Rudiger and Elektra. They entered one of the military vehicles. “We just keep moving and we’ll find a chance.”

Zabo, rolling his eyes, muttered to Sabir, “I hate nobles, and these damn chains are so uncomfortable.”

Sabir smirked. “What an astute observation. Those chains could’ve come off, but you said no. Why?”

Zabo’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “You will see.”

Before Sabir could ask what he meant, someone pushed them towards one of the large vehicles. With a shove, they were crammed into the back, along with heaps of luggage. Warren slipped in next to them, earning an annoyed glare from Zabo.

“Why are you here?” Zabo grumbled.

Warren sighed. “No one else wanted me in their car.”

Zabo smirked. “Guess we’re your only choice, then?”

“No,” Warren shot back. “Sabir was my first choice. You’re the one I don’t want to be caught dead next to.”

The two slid immediately into their usual banter, Zabo sighing with his eyes rolling, Warren leaning forward as if to press his point home. Sabir was hardly listening, though; his mind was somewhere else. The aching in his chest was getting gradually worse; every breath was becoming an effort to take. The black veins crawling across his skin crept up from under his shirt as if settling.

Zabo, feeling the silence from Sabir, finally nudged him with his elbow. “Look at what you’ve done Sabir, you got him thinking you can do and say anything,” he muttered. “You’re so lucky these hunters are around. Let me remind you, they call you ‘weakling’ Warren.”

Before Warren could shoot back, a shadow fell across the vehicle. Sabir blinked and cast his gaze upward; the aching in his chest was momentarily forgotten as the sound of flapping, mammoth wings captured his attention. Above them, some fifteen feet in the air, Maize Gaian rode majestically on the back of the big griffin, its talons glinting in the sun.

Zabo bent forward, and his irritation over Warren gave way to wonder for a moment. “Would you look at that?” he breathed, his gaze fixed on Maize as she flew the griffin through the air with apparent ease.

“She’s showing off,” Warren commented, but his eyes were filled with approval.

“Think she’ll let me ride it?” Zabo asked, half- serious, half-joking.

“You wish,” Warren said, drily.

The griffin beat its wings in powerful sweeps of air, blowing gusts about the vehicle as Maize looped overhead of them, poised and confident in her figure. Sabir looked at her for a moment, a minor diversion from the burning in his chest. But when the griffin flew a little higher, he was drawn back into the tightness in his lungs; the veins throbbing on his skin with each beat of his heart.

Zabo, visibly shaken by Warren’s comment earlier, turned back to their banter and shoved him lightly. “You think you’re hot stuff just because you’re a noble, huh?”

Warren pushed him back, though the cramped space barely allowed for movement. The two men were practically pressed up against each other, their shoulders knocking awkwardly as they struggled to assert dominance in the backseat. “Shove off, gopher,” Warren sneered. “I’m not in the mood.”

“Gopher?” Zabo scoffed, his lips curling into a grin. “Come on, electrocute me! Oh, wait—you can’t.”

Warren’s glare intensified, but Sabir, caught between them and burdened by both their luggage and the worsening pain, felt every jostle like a hammer to his chest. He clenched his fists, trying to keep the pain from showing on his face, his breaths shallow and shaky. The effort to keep his focus was growing harder with each passing second.

Warren, stilling glaring at Zabo, finally recognized that Sabir was not getting involved in the scuffle; unusually quiet from him. He frowned and elbowed Sabir in the ribs. “What’s the matter with you?”

“—both of you shut up for a second,” Sabir interrupted, his voice strained. He sighed deeply, knowing he couldn’t hide it much longer. “You might as well see.”

Sabir grimaced as he lifted his shirt to show the instrument of his eventual death, revealing the web of black veins snaking across his torso. The sickly black lines pulsated beneath his skin.

Zabo winced. “That’s disgusting. Put your shirt down. I’m about to throw up.”

Warren’s expression became stern. “You’re dying.”

Sabir pulled his shirt down and nodded. “It seems like it. Even Maize noticed something.”

Zabo’s breath came out heavy, his bravado slipping as he looked at Sabir, the struggle writhe in his face. “That wasn’t what I was expecting,” he muttered, his eyes transfixed on the slightest bit of a black vein that crawled up Sabir’s neck. “I was thinking you were gonna explode or something. Dying like that… sounds way worse.”

Warren’s eyes remained fixed on Sabir, his expression solemn. “What can we do to pull him out of this?” Warren questioned, his voice carrying the thrust of urgency that sliced through the thick atmosphere. “Just look at him—he’s running out of time.”

Before anyone could respond, a loud bang erupted from the front of the car, as if someone had just smashed their hand against the dashboard. “Can you all be quiet back there?” came a voice from the driver’s seat, unmistakably irritated.

Zabo shot a glare at the source of the voice and then lowered his voice, speaking quieter now. “Listen, I don’t know how to save him,” he said, sounding more serious than before. “Or even what could save him. Hell, I don’t even know why he’s like this.”

Warren glanced between Zabo and Sabir, frustration building in his voice. “There has to be something. This can’t be it for him.”

Before anyone could reply, Sabir felt his chest constricting, but this time it wasn’t just from the pain. There was something else—something out there. His heart beat like a drum, and his instincts were yelling at him.

“Jump!” Sabir shouted, his voice cracking with urgency. “Get out of the car, now!”

He stared into the wasteland beyond, searching for whatever he was sensing. Warren and Zabo turned to him, then behind them where Sabir was looking. “What? What are you looking for?” Warren asked, but Sabir wasn’t listening. His eyes were wide, focused on something unseen beyond the car.

An odd humming resonated around them, with each second it only grew louder. The floor of the car vibrated subtly at first, but intensified quickly. Sabir’s instincts flared even brighter, a gut feeling that something terrible was closing in.

Zabo’s brow furrowed as he glanced around, confusion turning to dread as the vibrations intensified. Then he felt it too—something massive, something dangerous. His breath caught. “Something’s coming,” Zabo whispered, his voice tight with fear. “And it’s big.”