Page 98 of Feathers of Ash and Hope

Twenty-Eight

ARA

We are running toward a cliff.Even in the dark, there is no mistaking the drop in front of us for anything else. The drop Tate is going for at full speed. I try to slow down, but he holds on tight, not giving me any chance to fight the momentum or his strength.

“We are… going to jump,” Tate gasps, confirming my worst nightmare.

“No!” I struggle against his hold, but his grip is like iron. “I can’t swim!” I try to reason with him. Our momentum propels us forward and keeps us moving.

“Do you trust me?” He glances my way but doesn’t slow down and never lets go of me.

“No!” Well, not when he’s about to hurl us off a cliff. My breath stutters from the view in front of us.

He snorts. “Well, you’re gonna have to.” He grabs me around the waist and jumps.

We fall for ages, tumbling through the wind and spraying water before we hit the waves. The impact rattles my bones and drives water up my nose. The cold hits me, surrounds me, stuns me.

The frigid water soaks my clothes, steals my breath, and pulls me down instantly. I can’t discern up from down. Bubbles surround me, tickle my face, obscure everything around me. I panic and thrash around. I’m lost.

Slowly, I realize the bubbles are all going in one direction.

They’re going up.

Finding my equilibrium and some sense of direction helps to wrestle down the panic.The relief is short-lived, however, because when I look up, the surface is a silvery shimmer far, far above me.

The water presses in on me, and there is no way I will get up there before I give in to the increasing need to breathe.

Kicking my legs, I fight against the weight of my clothes. The hem of my dress tangles around my legs, making it hard to move. I struggle, kick, and fight against the watery grave around me and make no progress at all.

I would have laughed about the irony of it all if I had any breath left. In my quest to stay alive, I gained the wrath of a dragon, was nearly burned to a crisp, and will now drown. Maybe I should have gone to bed after all.

A strong arm circles my waist and pulls me up toward the light. Sure strokes spur us upward, the beckoning ripple finally coming closer. Our heads break the surface, and I gasp for air.

“You infuriating, arrogant, crazy bastard.” My hands hit Tate with every word. I gasp down another breath. “Drowning is not how I want to die. How could you…” He lets go of me, and my dress pulls me down instantly. My hands grab for him on instinct, holding on for dear life.

He uses the moment to adjust his grip, pinning my arms between us.

“Relax, Ara.” His chest heaves against me. “I won’t let you drown.” Water trickles down his face, turning his long lashes into little spikes. The moonlight turns his normally golden skin a pale silver.

Damn, he’s beautiful.

And I really have a problem if that’s the first thing I notice after nearly drowning.

I avert my gaze and look up at the cliff instead. It seems to reach for the sky.

“You can't promise that.” My breath still comes in gasps, cutting my words in small bites. “How are we going to get out of here? We can't climb like that, the wind will make us numb and clumsy in no time, and then we will fall back into the water and end up eaten by fish.” My voice gets higher and higher, the words tumbling out faster and faster.

He looks at me and smirks. He simplysmirksat me, like what I say is funny. I draw in another breath, ready to lay into him. But he cuts me off.

“You will not feed the fish today. Even though it’s dark, Daeva would come for us before letting me drown. But…we will simply use the stairs over there.” He motions with his head to his right. Now that he points them out, I can see the stairs cut into the stone.

I feel foolish and cringe inwardly about my panic. My brothers would have had some choice words to say about that…after yelling at me about getting into such a situation in the first place.

I would have blushed in shame, but my face feels like a mask of ice ready to shatter at the wrong movement. If there is any color on my face, it’s probably blue or white.

“You knew there were stairs.” It’s more of a statement than the accusation I intended. My teeth start to chatter.

“We jumped off the cliff when we were younger.” He smiles. “Do you want to take back anything you said before?”

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