Page 64 of The Crown of a Fallen Queen
He grins from ear to ear. “Believe what you want.” He wipes the drizzle from his face, his magic letting more and more rain through. “We’ll have to make camp soon. This typhoon is getting too strong for me to deal with, and by the time it dies down, it’ll be too dark.”
I look down, but we’re still pretty high up, and a cloud of rising mist prevents me from seeing the ground. “I wouldn’t mind a break.”
A lightning strike booms above our heads, and rubble pelts down the cliff. The rope in my hand slacks. First slowly, then all at once.
I gasp, my boots skidding on the slick wall as I scramble for purchase.
A sickening line of fear sizzles up my spine.
There’s nothing beneath me.
Nothing to grip.
Just wet, unforgiving rock and a foggy, dizzying void.
Percy’s wings flutter near my heart, his nails digging into my skin as we start to fall.
Next thing I know, Seth slams into me. My forehead hits the rock, hard, and the whiplash dizzies me for a beat. The force of his rescue sends us arcing on the rope in a jarring swing before we crash into the cliffside again. His arms lock under my shoulders, clasped tight across my front.
“Fuck,” he grunts in my ear. “You okay?”
My voice trembles. “For now.”
A loud, ominous sound grates from above, and I flatten myself to the cliffside. Seth shields me from the incoming onslaught of rocks with his body, his muscles twitching with every hit.
I screw my eyes shut, my nails digging into his arms.
If his rope breaks, too…
The harsh grate of shifting stones crescendos before it ends as abruptly as it began, and Seth moves behind me. “That was the last of it. We’re okay, but the rope is stuck between us. It’ll be easier for me to get us down safely if you pivot so we’re face to face.”
The adrenaline in my system screams at me not to move, that I’m about to fall, but I force my fists to open and mold my palms to the almost vertical wall in front of me. “Okay.”
Seth slips a knee between my thighs to support some of my weight, but the thick backpack between us makes for an awkward hold. “Spin around slowly, and hold on tight.”
The cold wind and rain batter us in relentless, punishing waves. Seth’s magic doesn’t shield us anymore, and I figure he’s too busy keeping me from plummeting to my death to channel it. I’m trembling all over, fingers numb and boots sloshing with water.
I twist my upper body, slipping my right arm under the rope until I can grasp his shoulder, then thread my arms around his neck.
“Easy.” He braces his other foot against the cliff to keep us steady. “Now, I’m going to remove my knee. Wrap your legs around my waist, alright?”
I nod, following his instructions. Seth wraps one steady, powerful arm around me, the other one holding the rope, and I muffle a sigh of relief into the crook of his neck, unwilling to show just how terrified I am.
“I got you, witch,” he whispers.
Seth maneuvers us so we can resume our descent. My heart beats like a flock of frantic birds in my ribcage—enormous, wild, unsteady—until, finally, my boots touch solid ground. My knees buckle, but Seth catches me, keeping me upright. He leans in, resting his forehead on mine.
“By the spindle,” he whispers, “I’ve never felt such relief.”
I don’t answer right away. My knees, my arms…my entire body is shaking, and not only from fear, but from his heat.
We’re both trembling like lost petals in the wind, his rushed breaths warming my cheek. He squeezes the nape of my neck again, his thumb caressing the space behind my ear. His eyes are almost completely purple, the storm inside them blown away, replaced by something far more dangerous. Want. Need. A desperate softness I don’t know how to carry.
He dips his head down to claim my mouth in a bruising kiss, and my brain screams in warning. I sink a hand into his damp hair, nails scratching his scalp, and tug him closer. My other hand slams against his chest, but I don’t shove him away. I clutch. Desperate. Frantic. Caught between a hunger to survive and the fire of his touch.
My whole body lights up like I’ve stepped into his lightning, relief and madness thrumming through my veins. We’ve been quite literally swallowed by a cloud, the world around us reduced to mist and the rock beneath our feet, and I can’t see beyond him.
Beyond this kiss, this moment.
