Page 121 of Trial of Bronze and Blood
“Don’t—”
Tightening her grip on the barbed chain, she loops her leg over and falls from her horse before he can finish.
His stomach drops, bile rising in his throat. Pulling on the reins instinctively, the horses stop abruptly at his command. The black rider passes him, dragging Dru through the silt as she gradually pulls herself up the chain. Her pants begin to tear from the friction, and soon there will be no barrier between her skin and the ground.
Muscles strained, the Phaedran competitor does all he can to hold onto his only weapon while also maintaining control of his horse.
Until another curve in the path appears.
“Dru!” he yells, whipping the reins of both horses and heading in her direction. But they continue to pull away.Fuck,I’m not going to make it in time.
The black rider finally glances in front of him—right before he and his horse fall over the cliff’s edge, dragging Dru down with them.
Marcus opens his mouth to yell but nothing comes out. Not a single breath leaves his chest, as if it’s been knocked from him.
Dismounting without a care for whether or not the horses runoff, he stumbles to the spot where he watched her go over and falls to his knees. Rain lashes at the sea, making it difficult to see anything. Squinting, he recognizes two bodies floating in the shallow water far below, one the unfortunate horse, and the other…
The Phaedran competitor floats atop the gentle waves like a lifeless splatter of ink. Hope springs in his chest.Maybe Dru’s not dead, maybe?—
“A little help,” a familiar voice below him croaks.
Peering closer to the cliff, he finds the barbed chain barely hanging on to an angled tree stump nearby. One look over the edge and relief guts him: there’s Dru, dangling over the ocean with the chain gripped tight in her hands.
“Hold on,” he tells her.
Grasping the chain with both hands, he pulls with all his might. The barbs dig into his palms, but he barely feels it.
Once she’s within reach, he grabs onto her forearm and yanks her up until they’re both on their feet again. The chain loosens from the stump and falls down the cliff.
She stumbles into him and he wraps his arms around her, heart pounding. He buries his face in her wet hair as she presses her forehead into the top of his chest, gripping her too tight. She doesn’t pull away.
They stay like that for a moment, allowing her to catch her breath. Stellae, he could kiss her for being alive, if he wasn’t so furious with her.
Once the movement of her chest slows, he releases her, maintaining his grip on her shoulders. “That was the stupidest thing you could’ve done.”
She shrugs him off, wiping her bloody, quivering hands on her ruined pants. “I told you, it’s what I do.”
Marcus bites the inside of his lip to quell his irritation, wanting to shake her and hold her tight again all at once.
Instead, he runs a hand through his soaked hair. “I swear you didn’t used to be like this.”
She sobers. “I wasn’t when you trained me. The world changes people.”
He nods “It does.”I know that all too well.
Glancing around for the horses, he finds they’ve stopped not far down the path to nibble on some of the high grass. The two of them head in their direction as the rain starts to let up.
“Well, we’re definitely going to be last now,” Marcus notes, helping Dru onto her horse before mounting his own.
“Blaise specifically said the final competitor, not competitors,” she reasons, gently taking the rein in her injured hand. “They didn’t expect anyone to work together. If we finish the race at exactly the same time, they can’t kill us.”
Starting on their way again, Marcus argues, “We can’t be sure they’ll honor the rules.”
“They’ll have to if they want the competitors to do the same.”
Marcus wishes he could believe it. “Let’s catch up then, at least make an attempt at finishing close to the others.”
Dru nods, a hardened look in her eyes.
