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“Move, love,” Jace calls, and I climb.
The cupids nip at my ankles and tug on my hair. They send my heart racing and turn my palms damp with sweat. Still, I move up one hold at a time, gaining courage with each inch as I come closer to the top.
“Leave,” I command the cupids, putting as much royalty behind my order as possible.
They giggle and sing creepy nonsense, crowding me so that I can see their pink-rimmed eyes filled with burst veins. Do the cupids not sleep, or does the blood signify something more sinister? Where the twins have four short fangs, the cupids flash rows of sharp, snapping teeth set in rosebud lips amid pudgy, dimpled cheeks.
“Bet she’ll taste good,” one says in their lilting kiddie voice. For a moment, I wish I could turn off the super-powered translations of the runes.
“Soft and squishy,” chimes another. “Just how we like.”
“Freaky flying baby carnivores,” I mutter, scrambling from one toehold to another as fast as I can go. Huey chirps encouragement. “This would be a lot easier with wings,” I tell him. “Wanna magic me up a pair?”
The owl chirps again, less patience in his trilling peep this time.
“Hurry, hurry,” the third cupid sings.
“No, she’ll go splat.”
“Mmm, tenderized.”
Their laughter turns maniacal, and I wish the little brats would buzz off. I tune them out as best I can and race upward to a flat jut of rock where Huey hops as if cheering me on.
Jace finally waves the cupids away when I reach the ledge. They leave, their disappointment loud and obnoxious as they fly off to wherever the little psychos keep their lair.
“Last challenge,” he says.
“What will I win when I get to the top?”
“An awesome sense of accomplishment?”
I snort. “You suck at motivation.”
He chuckles, and the sexy sound slides over my skin. “You pick the prize.”
I perk up at that, my mind racing with naughty fantasies that have tormented me each time I played with the twins and was denied more. “Promise?”
“I swear it.”
“Even if I ask for sex?”
His eyes widen. Need and hesitation war in his expression.
I won’t let him back down now. “You said anything. I don’t need to wait for the trials to know who I want, and I want you.”
“Then I absolutely promise.” He strokes a claw along my cheek, a purr coming from his chest that rumbles through me. “I would say I hope you win.” He dips until his lips brush my ear, making me shiver. “But you won’t.”
“Bring it.” Forget playing fair. I’m tired, testy, and turned on.
He smirks, and I need to kiss that cocky grin off his face. “You’ll have to get past me.”
“Then why don’t you just let me win?”
“Because I’ve never been defeated,” he brags and tips his head so the victory beads in his braid clink against each other.
He’s obviously never played against a woman who stood to win as much as I will.
I move, and a predator’s fierceness lights his expression. Fear sparks in my belly along with heat. I lift my foot to the next solid hold and hoist myself up, glancing toward him long enough to see his tail lash my way. Heart pounding and breath coming in pants, I race as fast as I can without falling in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
