“I can haul her out if she gets in trouble,” Matt said.
Sebastian met my eye. I wondered at the reluctance in it. “Then it looks like you and I will have to take the bridge. Don’t think either can help us out.”
I flexed my wrist. A little better—I healed fast, but not that fast. “I still can’t use my right wrist,” I acknowledged. “Can I cross just using one hand?”
The Bellati shook his head. “Doubtful, you need both. This bridge be all about balance. We’ll have to link for the crossing. It will be tricky, but we can do it.”
My heart jumped at the wordlink, but Mari was handing Matt the grapple end of the rope, and I hurried to help him tie it around himself.
“Do you think there’s enough rope?” I asked Sebastian.
“Yes, there should be. Don’t tie off this end until he be across. If he falls in, we can pull him out.”
“I’m not bleedin’ falling in,” Matt growled.
“You might,” Sebastian insisted.
“I won’t.”
“Boys,” I said. “Can we get on with it?”
They both glared at me. Mari played the rope out as Matt backed away. Then he raced toward the river and launched himself from the bank.
It was an impressive leap, but although his front legs snagged the opposite bank, he had to scramble with his hinds to pull himself up. Moments later, he squirmed out of the rope and used his teeth to loop it around a tree, before hooking on the grapple.
“That’s my cue.” Mari knotted the rope around her substantial waist.
“Can we borrow your belt?” Sebastian asked.
The ogress raised her brows, but she removed it and handed it to him. Then she picked her way down the bank.
“So, what is your plan?” I asked Sebastian.
“We’re crossing that bridge in tandem.”
“Oh, good.” I paused, waiting, and when he just stared at me, added, “So. What is that, exactly?”
Did I imagine the lip twitch? Or just the tiniest gleam in those eyes? I figured if he ever truly unleashed, I might just faint. His features were so perfect, but cold as ice most of the time. A smile would transform him to angelic status.
“We strap ourselves together,” he said, “and cross as a unit.”
I regarded him with exasperation. “How the hell do we do that?”
“With great care.”
The words that flitted through my mind would have blistered paint. If he’d designed this, he was far from angelic.
I planted my hands on my hips.
He eyed my expression and relented just a tad. “We strap ourselves together at the waist. And go across linked, with each of us holding one of the hand ropes.
“That’s—diabolical.”
“It be possible. I have done it.”
“And in any of these not-so-hypothetical situations, did you ever go for a swim?”
His lips tightened. “Once. Cody got distracted.”
