Page 70 of Minding the Minotaur
“Well, if I do, I’ll just bounce into the lake like those rocks.”
He shakes his head, smiling. “I’ll check out a route first. If it’s safe, you can follow in my footholds. But if it’s too dangerous, we’ll stop.”
“No, we won’t,” I mutter.
“Stubborn little human.” He grins.
We dress quickly and then Arlo charts a path while I stand below, watching. I’m amazed at how nimble he is. I hadn’t realized that minotaurs could climb up steep rock walls, but honestly, with that physique, why couldn’t he?
When he comes down, dusting his hands on his thighs, he says, “It should be okay, there’s some pretty good hand and footholds. Follow me.”
As we make our way up, Arlo checking in on me often and sometimes giving me a big hand to hold onto, I amaze myself with my own climbing abilities.
At the top, Arlo tells me to hold on tight while he hauls himself up through the gap in the rocks.
“What can you see?” I ask. I’m feeling lightheaded. I guess that’s the effect of monumental sex followed by huge boulders falling on top of us, then climbing up a steep rock wall.
He doesn’t come back for at least a minute. It feels longer. I call out “Arlo,” a slight sense of panic taking hold.
Then his head pops back into view, his horns highlighted against the golden light behind him. “Sammy, you have to see this. There’s the most amazing sunset.”
He reaches down, loops a huge hand around my arm, and lifts me up, my feet scrabbling for purchase as he helps me out into the… open.
Eyes saucering in my head, I gaze around at a scene so beautiful I can barely comprehend it.
Purple and pink and magenta streak across the vast heavens, wisps of the palest gold and pink gossamer clouds dancing across it. A huge red orb is sliding toward the purple peaks of hills that are taller than anything I could ever imagine, and covered with swathes of trees, their branches reaching up toward that perfect sky.
Looking down, there’s a thick blanket of green, soft as velvet. It springs between my toes. Grass. So this is what real grass is like. Dotted among it are tiny leaves, and white and yellow and pink petals. The smell is intoxicating. And the sounds—the hum of creatures I have never heard, the sweetest songs of birds …
It’s intoxicating.
Overwhelming.
Arlo turns to me, his whole face radiant.
“Earth,” he breathes, and I try to smile.
But my mouth won’t comply.
There’s a sudden, crushing weight on my chest, and try as I might, I can’t draw a single breath.
I try desperately to speak, but no words come.
And then the sunset and the distant hills, the trees and flowers and soft green grass all disappear as darkness envelops me.
CHAPTER 22
ARLO
“Sammy,” I shout as my beloved crumples to the ground.
I bound over to her side. Kneel down and take her lifeless form in my arms.
“Oh gods.” It’s a pitiful whimper out of my suddenly parched lips. “Oh gods, Sammy, come back to me babe. Please come back.”
I don’t remember much first aid, and nothing that relates to humans. I give her cheeks a gentle slap, but her head just lolls. I loosen her blouse, listen to her chest. Her heart is beating very slowly.
She’s breathing. But only just.
