In a blink, he tipped backward and fell off the platform, disappearing out of sight.
I screamed.
Racing forward to peer over the edge of the metal, I watched as he hit the safety net below. He landed on his back and bounced, staring up at me with a satisfied grin.
My heart slammed painfully against my ribs, racing with adrenaline.
Fuck, I’d forgotten there was a net. I thought Daze had just rage quit life in front of my eyes.
I clutched my chest and took several steadying breaths.
“I take back every nice thing I’ve ever said about you!” I yelled, trying my best to stop shaking. “That was mean.”
“Aww, I’m sorry,” he chuckled, patting the net beside him. “Why don’t you come down here and make me pay for it?”
I glared.
No way was he fucking serious.
Climbing up here was fine, and I could probably climb down okay on my own. But pitching myself off the edge of a platform to drop twenty feet onto a net?
My stomach turned, and I tasted bile.
“I-I don’t know if I can,” I said, taking a tiny step back from the edge. I could still see half of him, his vibrant hair splayed wildly.
“Yes, you can.” He patted the net next to him again. “You stood in front of Zero’s target,andyou got in Revel’s cage. This is a cakewalk compared to that.”
He wasn’t entirely wrong.
But he wasn’t right either.
Yes, I’d done both those things, but not because I wasn’t terrified. I had to prove a point, and I’d been determined to impress my scent match.Both times.
With Daze, I didn’t have to pretend to be brave. I could be vulnerable and let down my walls.
And I could be fucking scared.
“Just follow my instructions,” Daze ordered from below. He crawled backward along the net, putting enough space between him and the platform for me to land. “I’ll walk you through it. It’s kind of like being on a diving board.”
“A diving board,” I mocked under my breath. What made him think I’d ever been on one of those?
“You want to land on your back and tuck your chin,” Daze explained. “It doesn’t hurt. If you’ve jumped on a trampoline, this isn’t much different.”
Okay, at least I’d been on one of those. It might have been ten years or more, but I had experience there.
“Are you sure I can’t just climb back down the ladder?” I asked, a whiny tone clinging to my voice. Maybe it was because I was tired—I’d only gotten a couple hours of sleep—or because I was actually terrified.
Daze shook his head. “Come on, cielito. Imagine the look on Zero’s face when he finds out you know more acts than he does.”
My jaw nearly dropped at the mention of my scent match, and I stared at Daze. Either he felt similarly to me about the psychotic clown, or he knew it would get under my skin enough to make me steel my nerves and walk toward the edge of the platform.
“That’s it.” He grinned. “Now, turn around.”
I followed his instructions, clenching my hands into fists to keep them from shaking.
“Perfect. Now, on the count of three, I want you to fall back,” he said. “One…”
My stomach bottomed out, and I closed my eyes.
