But running away from the fire was my only option. Maybe someone would be outside under the balcony with some kind of magic that could help me. Maybe someone would see the fire and find someone who could put it out.
I coughed as I ran. Smoke had settled in my throat and made normal breathing much more work. The fire rushed behind me, knowing that I had nowhere to go.
Maybe the fire didn’t know, but somebody was controlling it. And lots of people had to know there was no safe exit at the top of this tower.
When I reached the door, my only options were to stay in the hall and die from the fire or open the door and hope for something else to present itself.
I threw the door open… but did not step onto the little balcony. I scanned the ground for any signs of someone who might help me. I did not see anyone.
I did see a great drekkan flying out of the forest on the other side of the lake at a breakneck speed—so fast that even I could tell it wasn’t safe. A mighty roar filled the sky—even louder than the fires behind me—and a stream of flames left the drekkan’s mouth.
My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. “Aedan,” I whispered, and tears filled my eyes. I didn’t even try to hold them back this time. Aedan was not going to let me die now.
The flames reached me before he did, so I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled to the edge of the balcony, gripping the stony outcropping attached to the castle.
Seconds later, he flew up in front of me. “Callista,” his deep, gravelly voice drawled. “You must jump to me. I cannot fly any closer to the castle. My wings will hit the tower.”
My eyes fell to the ground hundreds of feet below us, and the landscape started to swim. I closed my eyes. “I can’t jump. I can’t even stand up.”
“Callista.” His voice had grown raw, sounding just as desperate as mine. “Do you trust me?”
My lower jaw quivered. I stayed on my hands and knees with my eyes closed, but… his question.
Did I trust him?
Hadn’t he taken burns for me when he could have left me to the karkins? Hadn’t he stepped in front of his aunt’s magic for me? But even more than that, during all the weeks we’d spent together reading his grandmother’s story, he had been so careful, so considerate…
A wave of heat behind me made up my mind. I could not stay here. I opened my eyes and focused on his bright green irises. Black tinged the edges of my vision, but Ipushed it back, refusing to acknowledge a darkness that wanted to consume me.
Only him. I would only allow him to enter my vision. Only his eyes. “I’m so scared,” I whispered, choking on the words.
He flapped his great, black wings so he hovered vertically, his massive chest and clawed arms facing me. “Jump as far as you can.” He held my gaze, not even blinking. All I needed to do was jump into his arms.
It wasn’t as romantic as I’d pictured us in the library, but I trusted his drekkan form as much as his elf.
I stared at his eyes, refusing to even glance away in case that glance became a world-tipping, soul-crushing fear of heights.
I stood, clenched my fists, and ran off the end of the tiny stone balcony. I leaped into the air, as if I could fly as easily as a drekkan. As soon as the ground disappeared under me, my hands flew to my face, covering my eyes.
And then I crashed into a hot, dry body. It wasn’t hot like flames. It was a welcoming bed that had been warmed in advance for me by my mother’s magic. It was the sun at the height of a summer day reminding me that I was still alive by heating my skin.
Still alive. Warm, scale-covered arms wrapped around me, cocooning me against a reptile’s chest. I had survived, and Aedan would take care of me now.
Relief swept the last of my strength away. I closed my eyes, succumbing to the darkness that had been pressing into my vision. Safety enveloped me. I could let go now.
Chapter 24: Aedan
The pounding terror that threatened to eat my internal organs finally subsided when I caught Callista and cradled her against my chest. I had known pain, misery, and guilt. I had known trauma and loss. But never had I known fear until her stark panic, followed by pain, had surged through our bond.
She slipped into unconsciousness, and I shifted her body so I could fly more easily. My drekkan vision had seen her charred and tattered dress before she ever jumped—
“Oh, Callista,” I muttered. “You jumped.”You looked at one terrifying thing—death by flame—and leaped into another.I knew how scared she had been—I had felt it. I tightened my hold on her. The amount of trust she gave me melted my heart.
She had risked certain death if I’d failed her. The more that thought sank into my mind, the more I determined to never fail her. Not when her life was on the line, but also not in the little things. I wanted to spare her from loneliness and sorrowand—
Her arm twitched, and I shifted it so she couldn’t thrash. I needed to let her rest somewhere safe, but I also wanted to rage back to the castle and find out why she had been pushed out of the tower by fire.
I laid her on a knoll covered with soft, spring grass and loose soil that I dried and warmed with magic. Ash covered her face and arms, but I knew she had burns under the black.
