My heart is pounding so hardIcan feel it in my throat.OfcourseItrust him.
I trusted him when he refused to ruin me the way any other man would have.Itrusted him when he touched me and brought me release without taking more thanIcould give.Itrusted him when he opened his home to me afterIlost everything.Itrusted him whenIclimbed onto hisDrake’sback and let him carry me into the sky.
SoInod.
“Of course,”Isay, my voice coming out thin and frightened.“Why?”
“Good.”Hisanswer is immediate, grim and certain.“Putyour arms around my neck and hold on tight.”
For one wild moment,Idon’t understand what he means.ThenIsee the way he’s crouching, lowering himself soIcan climb onto his back, andIrealize he means exactly what he says.
There’s no time to argue.
The hawk screams again andIflinch, instinct taking over.Ishove the long feather into the knot of my hair as securely asIcan, praying it will stay there, and thenIlunge for him.
Theron catches me easily, one arm going around my waist long enough to help me scramble up onto him.Ihook both arms around his neck and press myself against his back, squeezing as tightly asIcan.Hisbody is all hard muscle under my hands—warm and solid and alive.Ican feel the power in him, thrumming under his skin.
“Hold on, baby,” he says.
And then…he dives off the cliff.
29
ELOWEN
For one endless, impossible moment,Ican’t even scream.
The world vanishes under me.Thenest, the ledge, the mountain itself—it all drops away in a dizzying rush asTheronlaunches us into open air.Mystomach lurches into my throat and my arms lock convulsively around him, clinging so hardI’mafraidImight choke him.Windtears at us instantly, ripping at my robes and hair, trying to tear me from his back as we plunge straight down.
The sky above us is bright and pitiless, while the ground comes rushing up below in a blur of jagged gray rock and shadow.Ican’t breathe.Ican barely think.AllIcan do is cling and stare and feel myself falling.
I bury my face against his shoulder, my eyes squeezed shut so tightly they hurt.Oh,Goddess, we’re going todie.
ButTherondoesn’t hesitate.Hejust keeps diving, his body stretched long and sure beneath mine, as if this is exactly what he meant to do all along.
Above us,Ihear the furious scream of theEmperorHawkas it wheels in surprise.Itmust have expected us to cower in the nest or try to flee along the ledge.Itcan’t possibly have expected this.
I certainly didn’t.
The wind roars in my ears.Mycurls whip across my face and sting my skin.Thefeather tucked into my hair pulls and tugs andIpray desperately it won’t tear free.Mywhole body feels suspended between terror and trust—between the awful certainty thatI’mfalling to my death and the equally strong certainty thatTheronwould never have asked me to do this if he meant to let me die.
Would he?
My grip tightens even harder.Theground is rushing up to meet us and then something shifts beneath me.
At first,Ithink it’s just the wind changing again, catching us at a different angle.Butno—this is deeper than that—stronger.Ifeel it in my bones, in the very wayTheron’sbody moves under my hands.
He’s changing—Shiftingin midair whileI’mstill on top of him.
His shoulders broaden suddenly, expanding beneath my grip.Hisspine lengthens and arches, muscles shifting and reforming so quickly it leaves me breathless.Heatfloods through him—throughus—as thoughI’mclinging to a living flame.
My eyes fly open, andIseeI’mno longer wrapped around a man.I’mstraddling something vast and powerful and alive in a completely different way.
HisDrake.
TheDrake’swings explode outward with a thunderous snap just as the ground looms impossibly close beneath us.Theimpact never comes.Instead, there’s a jarring, heart-stopping moment where it feels like we might still be falling…
And then the vast, sail-like wings catch the air and hold.
