Midnight Frost

and fierce. Most of all, I tried to show him how I’d come to view the gryphons as my silent friends and that I wanted to be the same sort of friend to him.
    It was so freaking hard , especially since the gryphon kept beating his wings against my body and trying to worm himself away from me. Sweat slid down my face, and my hand ached from gripping his paw, but I held my position and poured all of my energy, all of my concentration, all of my magic, into trying to reach the gryphon and put his mind at ease. Finally, I felt the creature settle down and sensed his realization that I wasn’t going to hurt him, that I wanted to get the trap off his leg. That would have to be enough for now. I didn’t have the strength for anything else.
    I opened my eyes, let go of the gryphon’s paw, and wiped the cold sweat off my forehead. Then, I looked over my shoulder at Daphne. “Okay. You can pull the trap off his leg now. He’s not going to bite us.”
    Rory looked at me, then at the gryphon, her green eyes wide with surprise. “How did you do that? One second, I thought he was going to tear your nose off or try to beat you to death with his wings. But now, he looks like a puppy you could pet.”
    It was true. The gryphon had flopped down on his side, exposing his pudgy baby tummy to me. I reached out and carefully ran my fingers over his silky bronze fur, before reaching up and scratching his head. Nyx always seemed to like that, and the gryphon did too, judging from the happy little squeaks he let out.
    “What can I say?” I grinned. “I have a magic touch when it comes to animals.”
    Daphne snorted. “You’re touched in the head is more like it.”
    Still, she handed Vic back to me and dropped down to her knees beside me. With her Valkyrie strength, it was easy for her to reach down and carefully pry open the trap clamped around the gryphon’s back leg. Rory lifted the creature’s leg free from the metal. Daphne eased the trap shut, then kicked it away.
    “Horrible thing,” she muttered.
    I stayed on the ground next to the gryphon, still petting him. “It’s okay, buddy. Everything’s going to be just fine now.”
    I didn’t know if the gryphon understood my words or not, but he surged to his feet—and promptly fell back down again. He let out a pitiful screech that told me how much pain he was in.
    I turned to Daphne. “Do you think you could work your healing magic on him? He’s really hurting, and I don’t think he’ll let us carry him back to the stream where the others are.”
    She looked at the gryphon. Doubt filled her black eyes. “I guess I could try. I’m still learning about my magic. But I know what you mean. We can’t just leave the little guy out here like that. It’s worth a shot.”
    Daphne put her bow on the ground and slowly crawled toward the gryphon. The creature eyed her with the same suspicion it had me, so once again, I put my hand on his paw and showed him my memories of Daphne and how she was my friend.
    “She’s going to make your leg all better,” I told the gryphon. “It’ll be okay. You’ll see.”
    Daphne reached for her magic, and the pink sparks streaking out of her fingertips combined to form a beautiful, rosy golden glow. She leaned forward and gently pressed her hand to the gryphon’s side, just above where the trap’s teeth had dug into the creature’s flesh. The rosy golden glow slowly spread down the creature’s body and pooled in the ugly, jagged gashes that ringed his leg. As I watched, the edges of the wounds slowly pulled together and then seamlessly healed. All the while, I felt the soothing power of Daphne’s magic, wave after wave of it pulsing off her and sinking into the gryphon. Just being near her when she was using her power made me feel a little stronger and my heart a little lighter, and I knew that if I put my hand on top of hers, I would see the bright princess-pink spark that burned at the very center of her being.
    “There,” Daphne said a few minutes later. “It’s done.”
    She dropped her hand from the gryphon, leaned back, and let out a long, tired breath. When I looked at the gryphon, the creature’s leg was completely healed. Except for the blood still matted in his fur, you would have never known that the gryphon was injured to start with.
    The baby gryphon seemed to sense the change too. The creature scrambled to his feet and shuffled back and forth, as if he was testing out his once-injured leg to see how good a job