Page 23 of Realm of Wind and Vines
“You wouldn’t.”
“Fucking try me.”
I hold his stare. He stares right back. Winds tug at my hair and clothes as he flies us closer to the nearest floating island up ahead. Then he begins lowering his arms, as if he actually is going to let me go. My heart jerks.
With a low snarl, I quickly remove my arms from around his neck.
“You just don’t want to be reminded of that night when you flew me through the star-dusted night sky above Frostfell,” I bait. “Right after you saved my life and right before you told me that I was your mate.”
A sharp tug yanks at my chest.
Draven gasps in what sounds like shock.
And drops me.
My stomach lurches as I suddenly plummet downwards.Winds rush in my ears and my hair streams up over my head. I want to scream but the sound gets stuck in my throat.
Then a strong hand wraps around my wrist.
I suck in a gasp as my fall comes to an abrupt halt that tears at my shoulder. Tilting my head back, I stare up along my outstretched arm and find Draven hovering in the air above me. His hand is still wrapped around my wrist, and that is the only thing keeping me in the land of the living right now. If he lets go of my wrist, I will fall down through the clouds and die painfully on the ground somewhere far below.
“Draven,” I gasp out, my pulse hammering in my ears. “Pull me up.”
But he just hovers there, his wings beating the air, and makes no move to pull me farther up so that he can carry me to safety. That unnatural hatred burns like wildfire in his eyes.
“What the fuck did you just do to me?” he demands.
“What?” I shake my head. “I didn’t do anything.”
“That… tug.”
My eyes widen. Right before he dropped me, I felt a sharp tug on our mate bond. I stare up at Draven, my head suddenly pounding. Did he… feel it too? Back at the rock wall in the underground forest, I just thought that he felt some kind of emotion. Not the actual tug thatIfelt on the mate bond. But maybe he has actually started to feel our mate bond again as well.
“You felt it too?” I ask, my voice trembling with hope.
“I…” he begins, looking uncertain for a moment. Then his features harden again. “I fucking hate you. I hate you because nothing makes sense around you. Nothingabout youmakes sense. I hate your voice. I hate how you move. I hate looking at your face. I hate everything that comes out of your mouth. And yet…”
My heart starts beating faster. “And yet?”
He licks his lips. His massive black wings beat the air on either side of his muscular body. Out here, halfway between thecliff and the closest floating island, we’re too far away to be seen by anyone else. Right now, it’s just me and him.
His grip on my wrist tightens as he clenches his jaw again. I wait, my stupid hopeful heart beating erratically, for him to answer my question.
“It would be so much easier if I just let you fall,” he says at last. “Everything would be so much better if you weren’t here. Because you ruin everything. You always ruin everything.”
Pain slashes through my chest like sharp claws as those words once again hit me with surgical precision. And the fact that they’re coming from Draven’s mouth make them utterly unbearable.
With his merciless eyes still locked on mine, he begins loosening his grip on my wrist.
My heart leaps into my throat as he begins lifting his fingers from my skin.
“Draven,” I blurt out, trying and failing not to sound like I’m pleading. “Draven, please.”
“Don’t,” he snarls. “Fuck, I hate it when you say my name.”
But he stops loosening his grip. I don’t dare to say anything else, so I just hold his gaze while blood rushes in my ears.
A frustrated noise rips from his throat.
