I heard a faint chuckle from the other side of the door and closed my eyes in anger, letting out a slow, controlled breath.
“Ezrielle.”I spoke her name like a curse.
Analleia’s eyes sharpened, whipping around like daggers as she reached for the handle of the door, jiggling it.When it refused to budge, she shoved against it.She’d have better luck trying to move a boulder.She tried again and again, her breathing growing labored as she sought an escape.
“You’re going to wrinkle your dress,” I mused.
“If you’re so worried about it, then why don’t you give it a try?”She glared at me.“I don’t see you offering any help.”
I shrugged.“I could, but I prefer to not waste effort where it’s useless.”
She shoved the door a final time then winced in pain.
My brow furrowed.“Are you all right?”
She ignored the concern.“You tricked me into coming out here, didn’t you?”
I didn’t trick her into anything, although my insistence she join me could be viewed as strong coercion.
“How does me being trapped in a room with you—and no way out—help me win the game everyone else is playing out there?While they are most likelynottrapped in a room?This is Ezrielle’s doing, nothing more than her trying to sabotage any chance I had.”
She pursed her lips, and I found myself distracted by it.By her sharp cheekbones and eyebrows curving into an angry frown.I wished she would smile just once.A genuine one.Not a manipulative one like she’d given me on the first night I met her—
She was my enemy.If she smiled at me I should be worried.
She marched over to the window and looked out.
“Jumping is a grand idea if you don’t mind doubling the number of bones in your body at the bottom.”
She ignored me, easing up onto the window ledge.“No jumping.I prefer to shimmy my way across and climb.”
My stomach dropped as she eased away from the window and onto the outer wall.“You’re not serious, are you?”
She flashed a wicked smile.A challenge.
I was worried.
“You can do what you want,” she said.“But I’m not going to sit here and wait for a winged horse to descend from the sky.”
“If you fall—”
“I won’t.”
She was serious.“Do you realize how far away the ground is?”
“I’m perfectly capable of seeing how far away the ground is, but I’d prefer you not mention that while I’m hanging above it.”
Her fingers gripped at the rough stone as her toes balanced on the designs carved into the stones jutting out that was little more than a lip.
“This isn’t that bad,” she called back.“Almost like walking on a ledge.You coming, or are you staying behind?”
My jaw ticked.Some ledge.She was mad.I wouldn’t risk falling to my death to avoid being outdone.I leaned out the window, watching her inch her way along the wall, and saw that with the proper grip and balance...what she was attempting might be possible.
Not mad, but genius, in a mad sort of way.I pulled myself up onto the lip, keeping my attention on the stones and off the ground far below.My eyes strayed to her hands, which were practiced and confident, not the work of someone scaling a wall for the first time.This must have been how she got into my room after spying on Ezrielle.She angled herself for a smaller window ledge a short step down from the lip.She descended first, grabbing the window frame for support, and I sidled up beside her, glad to have something thicker than the lip beneath my feet.She sidestepped at my presence, about to dip through the window.
The stone beneath her gave way, and I both felt and saw her body drop beside me.My hand shot out, grabbing beneath her arms to yank her against me.My other hand grasped at the inside of the window ledge, my muscles screaming at the sudden extra weight and effort of having to hold us both aloft.Adrenaline coursed through my veins like a raging inferno as I gritted my teeth.
Analleia grasped at me, her legs dangling in the open air beneath us.I grunted and groaned as I heaved, dragging her body forward with mine until her toes brushed against the stone.I pitched us forward, twisting my body beneath hers to take the brunt of the fall as we tumbled into the room.
