“Breathe when I breathe,” he said.
“I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I’m going to fall. I’m going to fall. I’m going to fall.”
Fear whipped around her, tangling and choking and inescapable. The wind rushed by her ears, ripping at her clothes as Gur gained speed heightening the sensations of vulnerability and powerlessness. Against her chest, she felt Hero attempting to send quiet, still feelings into her, but they were too distant and removed. He wriggled out from under her tunic and over her shoulder, fleeing to Kaelan.
She was going to fall. Shewasfalling. Though her fingers were dug deep into Gur’s mane, they trembled. They were weak. They wouldn’t hold.
In vain, she tried to regain something of whatever it was that had prevented her from suffering this feeling before. How she’d been so intent on getting away from Endreas; how bone-weary she’d been; how she’d just needed to get back to...
But now these thoughts only seemed to intensify the downward spiral.
Suddenly, Kaelan’s legs swung forward, twining around hers. He gripped the back of her neck and pushed her down against the curve of Gur’s spine and head. His weight pressed down on top of her back. Sucking in the thick musk and rough strands of Gur’s mane spiked her fear to a nearly unbearable height. Now she really couldn’t breathe.
Inside, it was worse, like he was choking her with the overwhelming influx of his will.
“Let go,” he said.
At first she was too stifled and smothered to understand what he meant. And then she felt it, what he was really trying to take hold of... her fear.
That’s when his intention, the words underlying his incursion into her head, became clear.
“I have you. You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you, Magda. I won’t let you fall.”
Some part of her howled and thrashed against him. Because it didn’t make sense. She couldn’t let it go. She wasn’t holding on to her fear, her fear was holding her, wasn’t it?
Even as she thought it, she saw that she was grasping for some sense of control and panicking when she didn’t feel it, and hence... the fear.
Before she could think twice about resisting him, Kaelan’s emotions rushed through her, ripping her fear away and sweeping her upwards.
“Feel what I feel,” he said.
Suddenly, she was soaring, thrilled by the wind caressing her skin, the weightlessness, the freedom.
She had released her fear to him. Now, she could fly. But it was more than that. For the first time, she felt that she could give up control. And that she could trust him fully.
Something in him changed in that moment too. Some weight was stripped away. A new kind of confidence grew within him. It was hard for her to define, but it struck her as very... Princely.
Slowly, he eased her upright. Her breath evened out, her heart slowing. As he retreated back into his own mind, she caught one more of his thoughts...
“I can control this.”
A part of him was just as relieved as she was.
She blinked, her vision clearing, her fear falling away, a smile touching her lips.
Below, the blue sprawl of the ocean glittered as if carrying diamonds on its back, dotted by dozens of lush green islands. Through the white floe of clouds, fingers of sunlight fanned over the islands with golden caresses, teasing apart the shadows to pluck the colors out and bring them to life.
Though they were upright again, Kaelan leaned into her and placed his hand over hers, where it was tangled in Gur’s mane. Through her, he imparted some thought into Gur. Before she could make sense of it, Gur picked up speed, surging upwards.
Her fingers clenched again into Gur’s fur, her knees tightening against his sides as her weight shifted back into Kaelan. He kept one arm firm around her.
When they broke through the cloud cover, she gasped. The white peaks of the clouds towered like the great masts of ships with thousands of sails. Gur let out a happy roar and behind her, Kaelan chuckled.
“Time to let go,” he said in her ear.
He drew her hand back, taking hold of Gur’s fur in her place.
Her arms moved at his will, spreading wide, trusting her legs and Gur and him to hold her as Gur banked through the clouds. The wind slid over her arms as if she had wings. And she could fly.
