“Don’t,” he begged. “Please, just wait. We’ll figure this—”
The forest floor lurched, knocking us apart. I landed on my back, staring up at the gray sky, rain falling on my face. It took a moment for my head to clear before I pushed myself up. I was near the edge of the creek, water splashing up and onto my hands. Ryan had fallen back toward the others. He was on his knees next to Gary and Tiggy. He started to rise, and I could see the determined set of his jaw. Once he was on his feet, he was going to come for me, like he always would.
Would he? the voice whispered. Would he always come for you? Humanity is such a strange thing to be afflicted with.
I looked toward the cliff edge.
Then back at Ryan.
Then toward the cliff again.
And decided to do the stupidest thing I’d ever done, regardless of what I’d just said to Ryan.
The problem with me having stupid ideas was that I tended to broadcast them on my face even before I spoke them aloud. Gary had said it was a manic expression, like I’d gone suddenly and unequivocally mad, and that it wasn’t very attractive on me. I’d glared at him. He’d licked my face.
So that must have been the look on my face when the idea hit me, and I could see Gary’s eyes widen, and Ryan shouted my name, but this was the only way. I had to get them to leave before it came.
“Kevin!” I bellowed. “Catch me!”
And without looking to make sure he’d heard, I ran along the creek as it started to break apart, toward the edge of the cliff. I had the forethought to send up a quick prayer to the gods that the drop was as far as I hoped it would be; otherwise Kevin wouldn’t be able to get to me in time. Either the fall would be short and I would die as soon as I hit the ground, or it’d be too short, and I’d land face-first in the mud and be really pissed off at myself.
I didn’t hesitate as I reached the edge of the cliff.
I jumped.
There was a brief moment when I hung suspended in the air, arms and legs cartwheeling, throat squeezing tightly as a scream rose through me, that I realized there was a reason people tried to plan ahead. It was to avoid moments exactly like this.
The drop was much, much bigger than I thought it would be.
In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was the biggest waterfall in all of Verania.
Birds flew below me.
Birds.
“Oh fuck,” I said weakly.
Then I started to fall.
Water splashed against my face as the wind roared in my ears. I started to gather my magic, sure I was going to die, trying to think of something, anything I could do to stop the inevitable death, all the while cursing myself for actually jumping off a fucking cliff to make sure my brave idiot of a boyfriend didn’t try to stand in front of me, all dashing and immaculate, while the biggest dragon in the world bore down upon us.
Ryan was right. I had stupid ideas.
It was not the best revelation to have while falling.
I had time for life to begin to flash before my eyes (and wasn’t that a disappointing thing to see, that I hadn’t done at least half of the sexual things I’d wanted to do to Ryan—why, oh why had I not thought to get one of those sex swings like Mama had at the Tilted Cross? It would have been glorious), and I thought lightning was beginning to arc from my fingertips to do what, I didn’t know, when there was a flash beside me, and claws circled around me, jerking me up upward, cutting off my manly screaming and knocking the breath from my chest.
“You idiot,” a voice snarled in my ear. “Ryan is going to murder you!”
I opened one eye first to make sure I hadn’t actually died. Instead I was being held in a gigantic fist, black wings spread wide and catching an updraft, dark eyes glittering dangerously at me.
“Dude,” I breathed. “That was awesome. I am a motherfucking genius. Hurray for not dying!”
“Yet,” Kevin snarked at me. “I’m pretty sure Ryan will take care of that for you once this is all over. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him make a noise like that before when you jumped. You’re lucky I was already coming after you.”
The adrenaline was still coursing through my veins, and I felt light-headed. “Yeah, but did you see how badass that was?” I demanded.
“So badass that you’ll probably not get laid for a year,” Kevin agreed. “Let me know if you’ll need some help with that.”
“They get out?” I asked, looking down, trying to see what I could. But we were stuck in some clouds, and they were wet against my face.
“Last I saw.”
“Good, now we just have to—”
There came a thunderous roar behind us.
“—not die,” I finished weakly. “Definitely not die.”
“That’s your plan?” Kevin screeched at me.
“It seemed like a good plan at the time!”
“We’re gonna die!
“Shut up and let me—”
We broke through the cloud that surrounded us, and the Dark Woods appeared below. I jerked around in Kevin’s grip, trying to look in all directions at once. At first there was nothing but trees and rain and more trees, and I bent forward, trying to look behind us. There was nothing there, absolutely nothing, but it couldn’t be hidden. It was too big. It had to be somewhere and I— Something caught my eye behind us.
I squinted at it.
There was Kevin’s underbelly, his back legs, his tail, the clouds, and it looked as if they were starting to glow strangely. It was soft at first, like a lantern in the dark. But then it grew brighter until it was bright and furious orange, and my eyes widened as I began to beat Kevin’s claws with my fist.
“Oh my gods,” I squeaked. “Up, up, go up. He’s right behind us, and he’s breathing fire!”
“Hold on!” Kevin shouted, spreading his wings as far as they could go. We hit an updraft and rocketed skyward, but not before the clouds behind us broke apart with a burst of flames that hurtled toward us. I lifted my legs as high as they could go, muscles burning as I pressed my feet to Kevin’s underside.
The fire missed us by a good distance, but the heat from it was excruciating, and I thought my clothes were going to catch and burn. Kevin’s tail got caught in the fire, and he cried out before whipping it up and away.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” he said through gritted teeth as we rose through the clouds. “It’ll be fine. Just remind me to scratch his fucking face off when I get the chance.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. It seems like it would just piss him off. And if he’s not mad now, I don’t want to see what would happen when he was. Can you set me on your back? I’d rather be on top.”