Page 183 of The Forbidden Dragon King
I tumble through the mud, hitting my hip hard on a ledge and catching onto it with quick reflexes. I haul myself up.
“I knew that you’d come.” Freya’s voice is tear tinged. “I knew…”
Shocked, I stare down at the edge of the narrow ledge, which hangs over the wide, angry river.
Freya must have fallen and rolled off. She’s hanging from the ledge by whitened knuckles.
“By the Shadow Devils…” I lean over and grasp her by the arms. “I’ve got you, love.”
I tighten my hold, refusing to think about how close I came to losing her.
Then I pull, hauling her back to safety with me.
Freya loops her arms around my neck, clinging to me in terror. She is panting hard.
Her hair is tangled across her face. Her uniform is crusted with mud. And her cheek is grazed.
“Don’t let go.” Freya is trembling.
“I won’t.”
I rub soothing circles on her back, pushing her nose against my scent gland to help slow her racing heart.
It helps slow mine as well.
Finally, Freya draws back. She gasps in horror, smearing the ash on my uniform and attempting to brush it out of my curls.
I wince, when she touches my burned cheek. “What happened to you? You look worse than I do.”
Debatable.
“Flattery will get your everywhere.” When I attempt to take Freya’s hand in mine, however, and she stares in horror at my burned palms, I sigh. “Maximinus and the other instructors decided to add in a game of burn the fae. But I felt the pull through the pinion feather that you were in danger. So, here I am.”
“Here you are,” she repeats, sounding like she’s still in a daze. I pull her to her feet next to me, beginning to look around for our way back up onto the bank. “How?”
“A shadow portal.”
“But that’s powerful magic, which you’re not meant to be using. Plus, you’re helping me, when the rule of this trial is that we complete it by ourselves.”
“One problem at a time. Let’s work our way back onto the bank. How far do you think we are from the city gates? Should we be able to make it within the time limit?”
“Maybe. I was following the line of the river to where it comes closest to the city. I was almost home.”
“Home?”
Is that truly how Freya is coming to see my prison?
She flushes. “You know what I mean.”
I don’t.
I also don’t tell her that.
“Hey,” Freya looks up at me, before standing on her tiptoes to kiss me, sudden and sweet and unexpected, “thanks for saving my life.”
“I told you that you’d never be alone. I’ll catch you, when you fall. Even if that’s to tumble arse over elbowinto a bloody river. Also, I made a deal to serve you and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Fae, all about the deal.”
