The wind rose hot and smoky beneath Hawk's wings as they glided overhead the fighting, angling south against the sunset. The smoke had gotten so thick that the knotted crowd of monsters was barely visible but for the distant, shining shields that the Order soldiers still held in place. Hawk kept his eyes ahead, focusing on putting as much distance between them and the fighting as possible, but Teige--tucked in the crook of Hawk's arm--peered down at the ground.

"Hawk," he said, after a long moment, "I've been doing some hard thinking."

Hawk spared a look over his shoulder on the next downbeat, searching the sky behind them. "Yeah?" he asked, not really listening, "what--"

Quite suddenly Teige was on fire and very, very, very heavy--Hawk felt his shoulder creak and the air rush out from under his wings and his stomach plunge as Teige's sudden weight ripped him towards the ground--the fire was green and heatless and billowed blindingly around Hawk's face--

He lost his grip on Teige, all at once, and watched a ball of bright green fire go spinning down towards the earth below, slamming into the top of a police car with enough force to crush it. Hawk barely kept himself in the air, wings beating heavily; below he saw the fire burn off just a little. The black shape that appeared in the middle of it was a large bull, hooves planted in the roof of the collapsed car, back shedding rivulets of fire, eyes blazing bright white.