“We have to get to Stefan,” Elena said, and grabbed Bonnie with
her other hand. “Help guide me, please. I can’t see the ring very well.”
Meredith, she trusted, would get to the Shi no Shi building on her own
resources.
And then there was a nightmare of running and flinching and false
alarms by a shaken Bonnie. Twice the horror from above came
skimming straight toward them only to crash just in front of them, or a
little to the side, breaking wood and tile road alike, throwing up clouds
of dust. Elena didn’t know about all owls, but Bloddeuwedd swooped
down at an angle on her prey, then opened her wings and dropped at the
last moment. Part of the worst thing about the giant owl was her silence.
There was no rustling to warn them of where she might be. Something in
her own feathers muffled the sound, so that they never knew when she
was going to drop next.
In the end they had to crawl through all sorts of rubbish, going as
fast as they could, holding wood, glass, anything sharp over their heads,
as Bloddeuwedd made another pass.
And all the time Elena was trying to use her Power. It was not a
Power she had used before, but she could feel its name shaping her lips.
What she could not feel, could not force, was a connection between the
words and the Power.