Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
I AM HERE, Luminoura tells me, and her thoughts are like a balm on my shredded mind. ALL WILL BE WELL.
FLY, Sallavatri commands, her tone less sweet than Luminoura’s.
Fly…
…fly?
I come to my senses, only to realize that I am plummeting toward the ground, my wings collapsed, the wind tearing at the small passenger on my back who only stays strapped to me due to the cords holding her to my shoulders.
Rachel.
My everything.
I can feel the frantic beat of her mind against my own. She desperately says my name over and over again, and she sobs, only for the sounds to be ripped away by the wind. She is terrified we are going to die, but more than that…she is terrified that I am broken. While I floated outside of myself, I forgot everything.
I have to save her.
She’s everything I have struggled for. Everything I have ever wanted. I can’t let her fall.
I have to fly.
Now.
I spread my wings. Hard.
The wind rips at them, and we fly backward, caught in an updraft. My bones creak, pain throbbing through my body. The world resists trying to stop my fall, but I clench my jaw and force myself to remain locked, to keep my wings out and upright no matter what.
I am here, I tell Rachel. I have you.
Jurik, she sobs, her mind full of relief. Oh my god. Are you okay?
I am now. My muscles feel as if they are on fire as our tumultuous flight slows and we begin to drift, lazily, toward the ground below.
What—
No, I interrupt. We cannot talk about it yet. I am still afraid that if I do, I will get lost in the darkness of it and lose myself once more. I can’t risk my mate. She is everything. I fill the mental bond with a rush of love, of protectiveness. Let me get you to safety, then we will talk.
She leans forward on her saddle and presses her cheek to my neck scales, ready to collapse. We’re together, she promises me. That’s all that matters.
38
RACHEL
I have never, ever been so scared in my damn life.
Jurik glides to the roof of the parking garage, the same spot that we launched from a lifetime ago. Vaan is there in dragon form, Gwen waiting with him, but I barely pay attention to them. I’m too focused on Jurik, the rigid set of his thoughts, the pain that I can feel throbbing through his wings from trying to stop our free-fall. Jurik lands as gently as a butterfly, and the moment he touches the ground, I rip at the belts and buckles that hold me strapped to him, gasping for air. I’m on the verge of a panic attack as I fumble at straps, tearing them free until I slip off his side and land on my ass on the concrete.
“Rachel!” Gwen rushes to my side, Vaan ruffling his wings in distress. “Are you okay?”
I roll onto my side, closing my eyes and pressing my cheek to the warm concrete for a moment. Ground. Solid ground. Or…close enough. I take a deep, shaky breath and then sit up, nodding. “I’m okay, Gwen.”
Then, I immediately look over at Jurik.
Jurik, who’s been so quiet in my mind. Jurik, who’s shifted back to two-legged form and has his head in his hands, as if it holds entirely too much information right now.
God, I know how that feels.
With a choking sob, I get to my feet and fling myself at him. I wrap my arms around his big golden body, my fingers on his skin, wishing I had two hands to touch him, two hands to cup his face and tell him that it’s all right, that I wanted to try that just as badly as he did. Because I can feel it now, even though he’s trying to trap all of it inside his head.
Jurik is riddled with guilt. His thoughts creep in through our bond, even though he tries to hide them from me. He should never have taken me with him. He should never have risked me like that. He almost got me killed. The thoughts roll through his mind over and over again.
You risked her, he chides himself.
You risked everything.
“I’m here,” I tell him, choking on my tears. “I’m here.”
He looks up at me, and there is such intensity in them, the gold so heavily striated with black that I can see the torture he’s putting himself through even if he won’t share all of it with me.
“We chose to do that together,” I remind him with a whisper. “I didn’t want you to go alone.”
I risked you—
And if I hadn’t been there, I might have lost you. Who’s to say you wouldn’t have reacted worse to that thing if I hadn’t been there? If we hadn’t been linked?
He shudders and buries his face against my chest. I…was not prepared for that.