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Her eyes widen. She was expecting me to retreat, to beg and plead. Not to fight back.
If murder had a face, it would be Inara’s right now. I’m so going to pay for that.
But not right now. Using her surprise, I snatch Ruby from the air, shoot for the cliff, and leap.
The second my feet push off the rocky side and the ground disappears, the absolute insanity of my decision becomes apparent.
Shitshitshit—
My stomach churns as I careen toward the raging river.
“Kid, you’re a badass!” Ruby screams, throwing her arms into the air as if she’s on the best rollercoaster ride of her life.
As I release my fingers, sending Ruby to freedom, I can’t help but think that’s the greatest compliment Ruby could ever give me.
Oh, goody, maybe they can put it on your tombstone.
Frothy waves swallow me.
The force of the river takes my breath away. I claw to the surface, gasping, trying to escape the water’s wrath as it slams me into boulders, holds me under, and knocks me in circles until I can’t tell which way is up.
By the time I find a log to cling to, the roar of the waterfall is deafening. I catch Ruby darting above me. She’s holding a limp willow branch as if she could possibly pull me up.
“Grab ahold, Kid!” Ruby screeches, her voice filled with pure terror.
But it’s too late. I hit the edge of the waterfall with just enough time to look over and realize how far down below the water is. Hundreds of feet.
Hundreds. Too high to survive. From this distance, every bone in my body will break.
For some reason, Hellebore’s voice slithers into my mind. I can fly. Can you?
They won. Inara, Hellebore, the whole evil lot of them. Rage pierces my core. I scramble for a foothold on the rocky bottom. For an indention in one of the nearby boulders to grab. I buck against the river’s force, fighting the violent current with all my strength.
I’ve never wanted to live more than now, just so I can watch the hateful smirk drain from their eyes as they realize I survived. My will to live is a spiteful, burning thing. Greater than anything I’ve ever felt before.
It’s so powerful, so real, that I actually think it could magically change my circumstances.
But that doesn’t happen because no matter how much I negotiate and plead with it, gravity’s a bitch.
The second the water shoots me into the air, legs churning and dress tangled around my face, I drop like a freaking rock.
A falling feeling hollows out my stomach, and then I’m tumbling down the waterfall to my death.
15
I always assumed in the seconds before my death, some weird type of calm would come over me, like the clarity main characters in movies find right before they pass away. Instead, I’m pissed. Rage-kicking the air as I freefall. Screaming every curse word I can muster.
One second I’m hurtling toward the lake below.
The next, the world around me goes still as my body jerks to a halt. The force knocks the breath from my lungs in a whoosh. The dark silhouette of wings blot out the stars as they beat the air, which has suddenly gone ice cold.
And I know. I just know.
“Valerian?” I breathe, afraid this is some death dream. A final firing of my synapses.
That the sharp ache throbbing inside my chest, the one I only feel when I’m around him, is fear-induced.
The arms around my waist tighten almost . . . possessively. “Don’t move. Please.”
