Page 97 of Feralheart

More amusement. Then something else. Determination that matched my own.

We learn together.

She lowered her shoulder, extending her wing, creating a step.

My voice died in my throat, but I made my body move.

Such an undignified climb. It was good that she didn’t know better. I scrambled up her leg, my boots slipping on scales slick with water. I latched onto her wing strut when I started to slide back. She shifted her weight, steadying me without being asked.

I hauled myself up onto her back, straddling the ridge spikes between her neck and spine where a saddle would normally sit.

There was nothing to hold onto. No stirrups or reins or saddle horn. Just heated scales under my thighs and back spikes rising ahead and behind me, their tips sharp enough to slice through flesh.

I settled my hand on the base of the spike jutting up between her shoulders.

Terror slammed into me.

Hers.

“You won’t hurt me,” I said. My voice shook, but the words came out steady. “I trust you.”

The terror eased, replaced by a fierce feeling of pride.

She turned and launched, her wings snapping out to catch air, her powerful legs driving us forward.

Straight through the waterfall.

The world exploded into white. Water hammered my head and back, trying to shove me off her spine. I leaned forward, my fingers white-knuckled on the spike, and my teeth clenched tight.

We burst through into open air.

My belly plunged downward. The ground tilted sideways and I was slipping.

Falling.

Plummeting into the ice-cold water.

The pool gulped me down, the cold of it shocking through my system. I thrashed, my boots finding stone, and burst up to the surface, gasping.

Selira perched on broad stones beside the pool. Her head tilted, and her humor through the bond was smug as anything.

“That wasn’t funny,” I sputtered, swimming toward the edge.

Warmth and happiness flooded back.

I supposed it was a little funny.

I dragged myself out, water sluicing off my leathers, my hair plastered to my skull. My boots squelched with each step.

Selira extended her wing for me to mount again.

Anticipation thrummed through the bond. Eagerness.

I climbed back up, even more undignified now that I was soaked. After settling, I gripped the spike.

She shot forward, and I pitched backward immediately, my fingers scrabbling for purchase on wet scales. The spike I’d been gripping slipped through my grip and I was sliding, sliding⁠—

I fell again, splashing into the water, sinking deep.