The relief was short-lived; she turned to find the two beasts closing in and snapping their jaws. Taunting her. Toying with their food.
She swiveled around and pushed herself up, reaching for the top of the moat wall. Her fingers didn’t even make it halfway.
A frustrated howl tore up her throat, and she glanced over her shoulder.
An open maw hurtled toward her, water sluicing between enormous, razor-sharp teeth.
Time slowed. She thrashed upward and for one heart-stopping second, the edges of her fingertips grazed the top of the wall.
Hope surged in her chest, then died a swift death as her fingers slipped. She splashed down into the water.
Pressing her wings against the wall, she froze as the beast’s jaws raced closer.
And closer.
Andcloser.
So close she could smell its rotten breath, feel the warmth on her face.
She squeezed her eyes shut and sent three thoughts out into the ether.
One to Mama.
One to Xenia.
And one to Tristan.
Telling them all how much she loved them. How much they’d meant to her. She’d uttered the sentiment to Mama and Zee plenty of times.
But she’d never said it to Tristan.
He’dbeen about to say it before she was arrested, but she’d stopped him. And right now, as she waited to be eaten alive, she regretted it more than any decision she’d ever made.
She hoped he’d known. That she’d loved him all along.
A wave of water splashed her face, a surge from the approaching beast, and she braced herself for life-ending pain.
It never came.
Two strong hands curved beneath her armpits and wrested her from the moat. The beast’s teeth closed onto the toe of her boot and yanked it from her foot.
Her heel dragged against the rough wall as she was pulled backwards and laid out on the cold ground. Her rescuer pushed wet strands from her face.
She opened her eyes, and the world fell silent.
She must have had died after all. She was in that beast’s belly having some kind of post-death dream.
Because staring down at her, his amber eyes ablaze with fear and anger, was Tristan.
Tristan.
Her throat was raw, and she tried to speak, but only managed to cough up foul-smelling water.
Tristan’s fear and anger turned to shock as his gaze snagged on her dirty white wings. He cupped her cheeks, a relieved smile brightening his handsome face, then choked out an incredulous laugh.
“Daredevil?”
Cassandra smiled back at him—or what she thought might be a smile, her senses too addled to truly tell—then beckoned him to lean in closer.
