Page 60 of Hers to Claim

“You ready to go?” he asked her.

Mari swallowed despite her nerves. “I have no idea.”

Cisco held out his hand. “I won’t let you fall.”

She gave Rio a kiss before stepping toward Cisco. “I know, but it’s still scary.”

His warm hand wrapped around hers. “Of course it is. I can put you out if you’d rather?”

“N-no.” Her voice quivered but her resolve grew when Cisco’s lips curled into a pleased smile. “I want to fly with you.”

Lifting her easily into his arms, Cisco cradled her against his chest. He turned toward Rio. “No risks on the way home. As soon as she’s behind the wards I’ll fly out to meet you.”

Rio nodded. “We’ll be okay. Just get her back safe. I love you both.”

Cisco leaned his head down to bump against Rio’s. “Te quiero."

“Love you too,” Mari said as she wrapped her arms around Cisco’s neck. “Stay safe.”

“Take a breath and hold it,” Cisco ordered. “It’ll be a bit before you can remember how to breathe.”

Mari obeyed immediately, not knowing what to expect.

Cisco crouched and then launched into the air with a powerful beat of his wings. For a moment, she didn’t know what all the fuss had been about because the surge upward felt so strong, before gravity took hold and they plummeted toward the ground. She barely kept herself from screaming by pressing her face into his chest.

Chapter 18

Mari thought they werestill headed toward the ground much too quickly when Cisco flexed his wings again, shooting them upward.

After a few more dips and climbs, they leveled off and Mari risked a peek. They were gliding between the towers of the Palms at an unbelievable speed. The lights of the city spread out below them, sparkling and luminous. Mari had never seen her city look so beautiful.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Cisco murmured to her. “When things settle down a bit I’ll take you to my favorite perch. It’s magical.”

She relaxed her death grip on his neck slightly. “I can’t wait.”

Beyond Cisco’s shoulder, Tilly flew beside them with a big grin on her face. Her feathered wings stroked powerfully, though with a very different rhythm than Cisco’s. Tilly suddenly dove into a corkscrew spiral and Mari instinctively tightened her arms, but Cisco didn’t make the same maneuver.

After a few seconds, Tilly surged upwards again, coming up ahead of them. At the same time, the both of them pulled in their wings and angled downward. Their speed increased so quicklythat Mari had to shut her eyes as the ground blurred under them. When Cisco resumed flapping, she looked again.

“You’re using gravity like a slingshot,” she said, her voice shaking only a little.

“Mmhmm.” Cisco’s eyes focused ahead of them as he concentrated on getting more height. “Neither gargoyles nor harpies can fly particularly fast in a straight line, but if we have the space to do this we can really move.”

Mari didn’t have the math necessary to calculate their speed, but she knew they’d long since left the touristy section of town behind. The urban sprawl near the Strip had given way to the calmer streets and residences on the west side of the city and up ahead she could see the foothills where she had lived her whole life.

Ahead of them, Tilly banked hard and came up next to them an instant later. “Head around the back,” she said. “There are some vehicles that shouldn’t be there up ahead.”

Cisco growled. “Mother fuckers were going to ambush you.”

In perfect synchronicity, Tilly and Cisco tilted and headed toward the darkness beyond the city and out into the hills. Mari held on for dear life. Something about moving so fast and heading out into the darkness scared her more than dodging between tall buildings in the city. Nara darted over them and executed a hard turn, her head swiveling to keep an eye out above and below them, though Mari couldn’t see details on the ground any longer.

“Are we sure this is safe?” Mari asked, breathless.

“We can see just fine,” Cisco said, just before they all banked again. A huge shape faded into view along the path where they had been headed and Mari shut her eyes again.

They swooped closer to the ground, and Mari could smell moisture. She steeled herself and opened her eyes. They were in the compound now, surrounded by her father’s palm trees andtropical bushes, the lighted paths flashing by so close that if she could have held on any harder, she would have.

Cisco must have heard her gasp, because he made a soothing noise. “We’re okay. Little bit of a bump and then we’re home.” He tilted sharply to get his legs under them and then curled his arms around her just before they jolted to a stop. He held her for another few seconds while her breathing settled, and then put her on her feet with one steadying hand on her elbow.

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