And my heart drops to my stomach again as I see an enormous creature overhead, wings tucked tight against its body as it plummets toward us.
The Beast.
The blood drains from my face. I can’t kill him. Not like this.
“Go,” Bael yells, hauling me across the bridge behind him, our hands still clasped together.
Wings spread wide, the creature banks. Fire roars past us, jets of heat blistering my skin. I scream as the flames engulf the bridge behind me, reaching desperately forward?—
The world drops out from underneath me as the bridge snaps in half. Bael launches forward, barely hitting the edge. Scrambling to haul himself up, he turns to grab me?—
My stomach freefalls, my eyes shooting wide open as I clutch desperately at the wooden slats of the bridge as it vanishes beneath my feet.
“Zyla!” Bael yells as the ropes jerk to a halt, sending me smashing into the rock wall.
I dangle over the ravine, and Holy Fucking Malus, but the world drops away. A scream tears itself loose from my throat and I clutch the ropes desperately, snatching for a grip of the cliff face.
“Zyla,” he yells. “I need you to stop kicking and swinging. I can haul you up, but you need to help me.”
Nope. Nope, I am staying right here, with my fingertips digging into faint crevices in the rock face as though I’m part beetle. The strain quivers through my arms, but I don’t care, because I’m not going anywhere.
“Zyla,” he repeats. “Look at me.”
I shake my head.
“We’ve got half a minute until that scaled prick returns,” he growls. “That was a warning blast. He could have had me. He’sdrei. Honor dictates that adreiwill never strike you from behind. So he’s warned me. This next pass, he won’t be so kind.”
“You don’t understand,” I blurt, kicking at empty air. I’m not in control of my body at all.
“Eyes on me,” he says firmly.
I look up, staring into his amber gaze.
“Don’t you look away from me,” he commands, his voice rough and low. “You’re my huntress. And I know you’re strong. You’re going to climb, hand over hand, whilst I pull you up. That’s an order, Zyla.”
My body reacts as if he’s controlling it.
Bael hauls me up, one hand over the other on the ropes. The second I reach solid ground, I throw myself forward into his arms. I can’t stop shaking. Bone deep shaking. He saved me. I don’t know what to think about that.
In the distance, thunder rumbles.
Bael rubs my back, his face buried in the side of my neck. “You’re safe, little lioness. Safe here in my arms.”
An insane urge drives through me. I want skin on skin, my hands gliding over that molten warmth. I need to touch him. I need tobetouched. Only this can anchor me, stop the trembling, stop this horrible fucking feeling inside me?—
I shove my hand beneath his shirt, palm grazing over the ripple of his abdomen. He flinches. Heat meets my touch, and suddenly it’s not enough to just touch him.
I want to consume him.
“Zyla.” A hand slides through my hair, his other hand capturing my face. Desperation bleeds through his eyes. For a moment he controls himself. I feel it bleeding through him. Want.Need. It’s there in the press of his body, in the way his thumb strokes against my cheek as though he knows he nearly lost me. And then the moment is gone, his control shattered as something violent and irredeemable surfaces in the depths of his irises. “Curse you.”
He swoops down, his mouth claiming mine, even as the wind whips past us. His tongue is a dangerous weapon, stroking against mine with a possessive claim that brands me. I lose myself in the kiss, fingers twining through his hair, body wilting into his hold, hips grinding against that hard, brutish length digging into my thigh.
I open to him, yielding with a need that inflames me. Gods, I want him. I want this. Not alone. Not now.
I slide my hand higher. The frantic kick of his heart slams against my palm?—
Bael breaks our kiss with a gasp, drawing back and pressing his forehead against mine.
