Darkness.
* * *
Ablast of pain tearing through my chest rips me back to consciousness, and an agonized groan rends from my parted lips, legs swaying …
Bodyhanging.
I look up the sheer cliff face, see a halo of wild, white tendrils brushing my stretched arm. See a hand wrapped around my wrist—fingers straining.
She caught me.
A red waterfall gushes beside me, spraying my face and the side of my body as it plummets off the edge of the island. My gaze drops to the thousands of crystal shards below, jutting from beneath the silky water.
I look back up to the straining tendons in her arm …
My feet tingle, stomach lurches.
I’m going to pull her over, too.
“You have to let me go!”
She snarls, as though she understands me for once.
Her grip tightens.
“Vicious!”
I kick my feet, trying to wiggle free from her iron-clad clutch.
Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head.
“Let me go!”
She closes her eyes and yanks so hard her face reddens from the strain.
I’m lifted, little by little, until I’m high enough to punch my arm up while screaming through the hack of pain plowing through my chest. More warm wetness dribbles down my front as I grab hold of the cliff’s sharp edge.
Vicious reaches with her other hand and grips a fistful of hair at the back of my head, using it to haul me up—ripping a roar from my throat as she hoists me until I can shift my weight forward and scramble over the lip. I fall in a heap on the smooth stone, chest heaving.
I look up at the pale blue sky, stomach churning, mouth gaping, breath sawing in and out. Heart hammering so hard it’s crippling.
In a scurry of white hair and golden limbs, Vicious straddles me, planting her forehead against mine.
We absorb each other’s labored breaths as her soft hands come up to cup my cheeks, and I thread my arms around her back. Tangle my fingers with her fluffy hair.
She goes stone still, breath halting.
I open my eyes to see hers wide and staring right into me, and the world seems to stand still.
Though she has no words on her lips, Ifeelthe weight of her thoughts pour upon me, a crush that shoves the air from my lungs. Her lashes flutter closed as she melts against me, my pain paling in significance tothis.
She’s so warm and smooth and soft … then taut and tight as her back arches.
She growls, sharp and fierce.
Frowning, I open my mouth, but before I manage to say a word, she dips her face and snatches my bottom lip between her teeth, biting down.
Hard.
