Strength-lifts nevermore head

Only to gasp in what seemed like particularly foul smoke instead of air. I started coughing immediately, going to one knee, but there was still no air to draw in. I struggled to lift the Nevermore's beak—though that meant lifting its entire head, really—but I'd done too much, too quickly and my stamina was shot for the moment.

I pushed on anyway, even as I tried to cough up my own lungs, because I was not going to go through all this just to die on the way out.

Suddenly the beak's weight eased. I saw bright light, a shadowed figure, and then I was being hauled out. Adam dumped me on the ground even as the smoke signifying the Grimm's passing billowed out around us, and as close to the ground as I was, I could at last breath.