Page 45 of A Glimpse of Music

An icy breath escaped her lips in a small fog when her foot slipped on a patch of ice. Even with her makeshift cane made of a tree branch, her bad leg couldn’t catch her fast enough. She swallowed a yelp and braced herself for impact, but Joel’s strong arms caught her around the waist.

Don’t move, Bastien’s hand signal said, and all three of them froze as several figures leaped from tree to tree in the distance, away from them. Nyana took shallow breaths, the fear of getting caught pulsing through her veins.

Several minutes passed before her brother gave another hand signal for them to continue. She tightened her grip on her branch and followed after, clutching onto Joel’s arm for balance—and comfort.

Crisp, earthy scents greeted her nose as they moved farther into the forest where the bark grew thicker on the trees and winter roses climbed their trunks in a shimmering array of white and silver.

She wanted to stop and admire their beauty.

But she dared not waste a single moment.

The air chilled with each step they took up the incline, snow sparkling on all sides of them. Willow trees dripped with threads of moonlight, shimmering like a waterfall of diamonds. The streams of silver sang beneath her touch, filling her soul with beautiful music. Different than Joel’s music, but beautiful and silent all the same.

Joel’s hand gripped hers as they broke out of the willows and faced a rope bridge that stretched across a ravine with a languid river far below. The sheer drop off the cliffs churned her stomach with nervousness.

“Three guards will be on patrol,” Bastien said quietly, his intense gaze glued to the opposite side of the bridge where what appeared to be the tip of a mountain formation lay. Vines of frost and winter flowers crawled across the gray rocks, the plants also singing to her soul against a backdrop of a crashing waterfall.

The curse crawling through her blood fought against the ethereal music.

“They will see us.” She voiced her doubts just as quietly. “There is no cover on the bridge.”

“Not necessarily.” He shook his head. “Why guard the bridge against our own people? Their attention will be focused elsewhere.” His gaze traveled down her makeshift cane. “If you fall…”

“She won’t.” Joel squeezed her fingers.

“You better not keel over either.” Now he scrutinized Joel’s shoulder. Although blood seeped through his shirt, it no longer soaked the garment. His skin appeared pale, though his thin eyebrows furrowed with determination.

Another several moments of the roaring waterfall filled her ears as she waited for her brother’s signal. When he nodded his head, her heart jumped to her throat as Joel led her onto the bridge. It swayed beneath their combined weight. When Bastien followed closely behind, she clutched onto the rope railing with white-knuckled fingers to keep from falling.

She made the mistake of glancing over the side of the bridge.

Hundreds of feet lay sprawled beneath her, waiting to catch her within its unforgiving depths. Her head spun, her body swaying with startling disorientation.

A shudder ran through her body. “I’m afraid of heights,” she rasped.

“Seriously, Nyana?” Joel shot back quietly with a teasing lilt to his voice. “You are half Forest Fae. They live in trees.”

She glanced down again, and her breaths came in shallow gasps when she spotted sharp rocks lining the steep cliff edges. Slick moss coated large boulders, and misty spray shot up to veil half of the river below.

Bastien rocked the bridge back and forth with several steps. A muffled scream escaped her mouth as she clutched onto the rope for dear life.

Joel glared at him. “Stop that. It’s not funny.”

Her brother shrugged and grinned unrepentantly. “It’s a little funny.”

I’m going to kill you, she wanted to say, but her throat closed around her words. She’d forgotten how much Bastien had teased her as children. He’d been exasperating, but they’d been the best of friends in their childhood.

“Close your eyes,” Joel murmured in her ear as he securely gripped her elbow. “We’re almost there.”

“We’re going to fall.” Yet, she snapped her eyes shut. If she kept them open any longer, she might retch over the side of the bridge, and then she would surely fall to her death.

“We won’t.” With his guiding hand, she dared to lean against him as she took step after step across the rickety bridge, breathing deeply through her nose. A cold spray misted her face, and soon she found herself shivering from both terror and the cold.

But when her foot found purchase on soft grass, she opened her eyes and exhaled a breath of relief. She tried hard not to think about how they had to cross the bridge again on their way back—

Bastien swore, and moments later, she found herself pinned against a rock, half-hidden by the shadows of a bush. Joel’s hand clamped over her mouth, his eyes hard. The breath stuttered in her lungs as dark memories flashed across her mind. Rough hands. Angry snarls. A scarred face pinched with fury.

Joel dropped his hand from her mouth, and only then did the darkness start to fizzle away in favor of bright stars shooting across the sky. In Liam’s place stood a man with a kind, regretful expression. Though Joel didn’t move from his position where he trapped her against the mountainside, the silent apology in his eyes cleared away any lingering darkness from her mind.

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