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Don’t look down. Don’t look down. The chant rolls through my mind as much as sickness rolls through my middle.
Jace swoops close enough to send Huey into a frenzy of squawks, shadows swirling in my gargoyle’s wake.
Chest heaving from excitement as much as running this idiotic vertical marathon, I stall only a few feet from the top of the cliff. I won’t beat Jace in a fair fight. I’ll need to cheat. Am I willing to resort to trickery to win?
You bet.
With a soft tap, I turn up the brightness of my bracelet, the green throbbing in a steady beam through his shadow magic. Giving it a quick flick of my fingers, the clasp comes loose, and I drop my wrist, letting the precious gift from Lala slip and betting everything I have that Jace won’t be able to fight instinct.
“Oh no.” Widening my eyes and pulling a sad face to rival the most pitiful puppy, I stare at him, hoping he can see my superior acting job by the light of the two moons.
Jace dives, plummeting after the falling green glow.
Swallowing my fear of heights, I scramble for the top. The whoosh of wings fills my ears as I haul myself over the edge. “I win.”
28
JACE
SIX OF WANDS: CELEBRATE EVERY VICTORY AND SUCCESS. YOU EARNED THE REWARDS.
“You cheated.” I state the obvious, staring at Rosemarie. Her breasts rise and fall as if she’s fought a legion of harpies, and her cheeks flush with the thrill of victory.
“I still won.” She lifts her chin and twists her lips into a wide smile that says she regrets nothing.
“I recovered this for you.” I dangle the glowing green stone on its chain in front of her. A gift from her Lala, she’d said. A beloved possession. She gambled a lot to win the prize she claimed—me.
“Thank you.”
The relief in her gaze makes me glad I hesitated only a moment about leaving her in Hudyakis’s care before I dove after the bracelet. While I know a soul guardian can handle anything, I’d honestly expected her to stay put and not take risks given her fear of heights. She’d proven me wrong.
Taking the crystal from me, she fastens it around her wrist. “Is cheating forbidden at the queen trials?” she asks.
“It’s not,” I admit. “Although my brother would lecture us both for hours about fair play and following the rules.”
She steps into me, so close that she has to tip her head all the way back to stare me in the face, and I curl my claws at my side to resist touching her. “Atticus isn’t here.”
“No, he’s not.”
“Admit it,” she whispers. “You’re glad I cheated if it means I won because that means we both get what we want.”
Her words reel me in. “I don’t mind losing as much as I thought I would. At least not when it’s to you.”
“I won’t tell anyone about this if you don’t.” She trails her fingers over my braid and the beads woven into it. “You can stay undefeated.”
“That hardly seems honorable.”
She runs her hand over my chest, walking her slim fingers lower. “I have less than honorable intentions when it comes to you.”
Oh yeah. Fuck yeah. I don’t speak because knowing my luck, I would growl or do something else equally likely to mess this up.
She stills. “Unless you don’t want…”
The uncertainty in her tone has me hurrying to reassure her. “No, I want. I definitely want. It’s just…” I pause. How do I tell her that we’ve been waiting until she’s queen because then she’ll have her pick of any gargoyle she desires and taking the choice away from her now would be robbing her of that chance without sounding like a patriarchal, self-centered dick? Come to think of it, that’s exactly what I thought the first time Atticus spewed that reasoning. It’d come across as logical, but Rosemarie’s a grown woman who knows her own mind.
“Is it the virgin thing?”
Her question has my brain skidding to a stop. “What?”
