Page 62 of Of Blood and Banes
“Take it at your pace. You don’t have to do it all at once,”Daeja murmurs.“You don’t even have to do it at all, if you don’t want to.”
Pulling a breath into my lungs, I root myself in determination. Shifting my weight into my heels as I unlatch one finger at a time from the horns, the tension collected in my joints nearly snaps as I let go. I toss a sideways glance at Sethan. He’sseated back in his saddle, though I don’t fail to notice the hooks still aren’t secured to his waist band.
He nods, on the brink of disappointment as I stop moving. With another quick breath and shaking hands, I unhook one of the straps on my thick leather belt. Another glance at Sethan, and he gestures, implying his waning patience.
“You’re doing great,”Daeja whispers, sensing my new spike of nervousness.
As my fingers brush the second hook to undo it, A’nala dives straight into us. Her body slams into Daeja’s, and Daeja tucks her wings to cut away from her. The sudden motion throws me clear off the saddle as I pathetically scramble for something to hold onto. Each swipe for a horn, strap—something—slips. I slide down and off the saddle and slam into Daeja’s shoulder.
Upside.
Fucking.
Down.
I have absolutely nowhere else to look but at the ground. The forest is but a splotch of various shades of greens far below, and a thin blue river snakes through the valley. I swear the one single strap holding me from falling to my death rips slightly, and I slip an inch down. Drawing out my inevitable demise.
“Can you get back up into the saddle?”
I squeeze my eyes shut, my heart in my throat as I fumble for the one lifeline holding me to the saddle. But even trying to pull myself up is useless.“What the fuck was that?”
“Apparently A’nala and Sethan were getting impatient. I’m sorry!”
“I can’t even get back up!”Panic creeps underneath my skin. My head is heavy and tingling with all the blood rushing to it, a heavy constriction of terror gripping my chest in a vice.
“Unhook yourself!”
“Are you out of your godsdamned mind?”
“Do it!”she roars.
I open my eyes, my vision beginning to blur and blacken. The landscape below begins to fade in and out of view. Fuck. My head pounds, drowning out any reasonable line of thinking.
“Trust in me!”
I suppose it makes no difference if I die hanging upside down from Daeja or splattered on the ground far below. As a last-ditch effort, I heave myself up, fighting gravity itself as I grip the strap with one hand. With all my lasting strength, I push down the locking mechanism with my other hand and release the hook. My stomach recoils as I slip from the one thing holding me to Daeja.
And freefall.
CHAPTER 22
A LESSON IN FREEFALLING
Daeja’s black figure shrinks at an alarming pace, along with the rest of the dragons and their riders. The wind whistles around me, ripping an endless scream from my throat. As I fall, my stomach is somewhere between two feet and two miles above me. The speed of my descent forces my eyes closed, the muscles in my body bracing for the eventual impact. The wind and terror drown out my every sense.
And when I have nothing left…I surrender to the fear.
Something snags me, snapping me out of the air. My eyes flash open, my head whipping back violently at the sudden stop, causing a screaming pain to flare in my neck. Black as shadow, swift as the night, Daeja has me clutched in her claws, her thick talons piercing my cloak and shirt, the tips having scraped my chest.
She caught me.
“I want down…I want down, I want down, I want down!”
“Understood,”she says gently.
I hang pathetically from her claws, clenching my fists into my shirt to give me some sort of control. She pulls me closer to her dipped head, gently picking the fabric of my clothes between herdaggered teeth and transferring me from her talons to her jaws. Twisting her neck, she places me back on the saddle.
My hands and entire body tremble as I latch the hooks onto my belt, before lowering my head and keeping my eyes shut. Every nerve and muscle in my body screams and swirls, my heart threatening to burst out of my chest.
