Page 59 of Surrendering Hope (The Hope Legacy)

“Shit,” Zee mutters and snatches my arm, the floppy useless one. White hot pain blinds me as I jolt to a stop.

“Is it dislocated?” he asks.

“Yes,” I grit out.

“Sorry, I have hold of your whip with my other hand, otherwise I’d swap.”

“It wouldn’t be dislocated if your dumb ass hadn’t jumped in after me.”

“My dumb ass? How about you making a decision without talking to us? Again.”

“We were procrastinating, it’s a pointless trait. I’m trying to stamp it out.”

“Do you know where this leads?” he asks.

I snort. Yes, of course, Zee, it either leads to the pits of Hell or to the pot of gold at the end of the mother-fucking rainbow. “Natia? Are you having a sargasm again?” I’m going to kill Jed for introducing him to that term.

“Why would I know where it leads?”

Zee grunts and I slip a few inches. “Shit,” Duncan mutters.

“Seriously? You jumped down the death tunnel as well?”

“She’s pissed we followed her.”

“It’s about to get a lot worse,” Duncan says.

My shoulder jerks again as more masculine grunts occur somewhere above me.

“You all freaking jumped in?” I curse. What the hell were they thinking, following the accident prone, death seeking, curiosity ridden being? Idiots. “If we get out of this alive, we need to talk about your life choices of following my lead.”

“Sorry, Natia,” Zee says. I frown. Since when did he apologize? The fucker lets me go. Before I can remind my brain that we are badass, a girly yip escapes my lips as I plummet. I grab my arm and strap it across my body.

“Do any of you idiots know where this death slide leads?”

I get a chorus of ‘No’s’ from above me. Even if I land on a bed of the softest feathers, I’m going to get squashed like a pancake. Maybe we’ll pop out in…

“Hey what’s on the opposite side of the world to Greece?” I shout.

“New Zealand is the antipode of Greece,” Zee’s deep voice rumbles.

“You know some weird shit.”

“And you ask weird shit, so we’re a perfect match.”

I snort as we turn a sharp corner. I go weightless, the breath leaving my body and for a second, I’m airborne. Then that bitch gravity kicks in, and I scream as I plunge into pitch black. There are some masculine yelps above me. I take it back. The death slide is much preferable to free falling and not being able to see the ground means I can’t brace for impact. The griffin drop might have been preferable, because if death is coming for me, I want to stare him straight in the eyes.

“Natia?” Nathan shouts to my right.

“What?”

“Can you summon air?”

I tug deep inside me, the magic floods my veins at my calling.

“Yes.”

“Can you create a gust and keep us from falling?”

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