Change back, Cooper thought. Don’t die like this. Part of you was human once.
But Roger had never put much stock in humanity, especially not compared to the shift form he’d worked so hard to mutilate to his desires. He became dead weight, his wings failing him.
Just like that, he dropped out of the sky, falling hundreds of feet down to the rocks below.
Roger was done.
And from as high up as Cooper was now, he looked very small and insignificant. Eventually, the wilderness surrounding the mountain would close over him, turning him once again into something natural.
And for all he’d tried to ruin Cooper’s life, eventually Cooper would stop even thinking about him.
In fact, he had already stopped: there was only one person he was thinking of right now.
Gretchen.
Cooper raced back to the mountaintop, and his heart stopped in his chest.
Gretchen wasn’t there. He could still see the place where she had fallen, with the spots of blood and the disarrayed grass to let him know that he wasn’t going crazy. She had been there. But now she was gone. The place was deserted.
Monroe? Had he gotten over his scruples and dragged her off after all? His car was gone.
Then, thank God, he noticed a few stray drops of blood leading away, down the road. He followed the trail they made, his keen griffin eyes fixed so tightly on them that the whole rest of the world had become a blur of green and brown.
“Coop!”
Her voice, even as weak as it was, was the sweetest sound in the world. He saw her up ahead of him, struggling down the road alone, one hand braced against the rock to hold herself up. He landed and shifted back to human, taking her in his arms before he’d even lost all of his feathers.
She hugged him back just as fiercely.
“You were gone,” Cooper said, unable to put into words exactly how terrifying it had been to find her missing.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to worry you. But—Phil.” She pointed down the trail, and her jaw was now grimly set. “The cuffs are slowing him down, but he’s getting away.” She cleared her throat. “Roger?”
“Dead,” Cooper said shortly. “Monroe?”
“He ran off too, and since he had the car, he did it a lot faster than Phil could. I tried to shoot his tires out, but he messed with my sight again: all I did was shoot up some rocks. And getting to Phil is more important than anything with Monroe.” She touched his cheek gently, wiping off what he suspected was a streak of blood. “I need Phil so we can save you. You have to go get him, Coop. I can’t catch up, not like this.”
He knew she was right—but he knew with an equal certainty that he couldn’t make himself leave her again, not when he had just gotten her back, not after thinking that he’d lost her.
Luckily, he knew just what to do.
He leaned in and kissed her. Everything else faded away, and all he could feel was the soft heat of her mouth. She still tasted like peppermint from the toothpaste back at Ford’s motel, even though that morning felt like it had been a hundred years ago. He wanted to make love to her in that bed again. He wanted to make love to her everywhere he could think of, for the rest of their lives.
“I’ll shift,” he said against her lips. “Can you hold onto me? We’ll go down together.”
“Are you sure? You’re still hurt—it can’t be good for you to carry me. And I’m not sure I’ll make the best backup right now.”
“I don’t need you to be backup.” He pushed his fingers through her hair, loving how silky the sleek dark strands felt against his skin. “I just need you to be you. I just spent enough time away from you. I’m done with it. I’m always better with you than without.”
He could feel her smile against his mouth, letting him know her answer before she actually gave it.
He shifted and lowered himself to the ground, making it as easy as possible for Gretchen to climb on top of him. His griffin’s back was easy for her to straddle, and she held him with her knees as well as her arms around his shoulders. She might have been feeling weak, but her hold still felt strong and unshakeable.
Maybe it was just always easy for them to hold onto
each other.
Cooper lit up into the air again, racing down the mountain. Unlike Phil, he wasn’t stuck with the treacherous, twisty road. As the griffin flew, the route was a lot shorter.