Page 207 of Drown Like Heaven
Almost, almost, almost—
Warmth enveloped me as I was roughly snatched up into the sky.
“Oh my God,” I panted against Mason’s bare chest, relief pouring over me, my eyes shut tight. His arms were securely wrapped around me, solid as the cliff I’d jumped from. “Oh my God.”
“Whythe fuckwould you do that?” he shouted.
“Because I had to see,” I said, probably too quiet for him to hear, as my eyelids slid open and I finally glimpsed them.
Beautiful black wings.
The smoky feathers quivered on gusts of wind, the wings stretching ten feet on either side of him, tearing through the air,black and endless. His fingers dug painfully into my flesh, angry and mean as he held me, but I liked how that felt. We were soaring further and further from land, surrounded by nothing but the storm and the ocean.
I needed this. I needed you like this. I want to know you. I want to keep your secrets.
For one wild second, I thought this was it, that I’d actually done it. That he wasmine. I’d broken his walls. But in the next breath, he dropped me like I was nothing.
He fuckingdroppedme.
I screamed, my eyes flying wide and my hands shooting out to try and grab him, but I was already falling, plummeting towards the waves. His stare stayed on mine as helet me fall.
I could practically hear him taunting me, his phantom voice echoing in my head, my heart sinking.You want danger? Then drown in it.
Real, icy fear gripped my chest in a vise grip.
Mason never let me push him without pushing back. And I had no clue how far he was going to take it this time.
Thrausian.
That word scared me. And I hardly even knew what it meant in real life.
He never let me see it.
I wasn’t going to hit the rocks this far out, but I wouldn’t be able to make it back to the shore by swimming. The current was too strong, too merciless. The ocean was a wreck of crashing waves and brutal wind, rain starting to pour from the thunderclouds as they collided above Mason.
My eyes remained desperately locked on Mason’s, terrified and searching for some signal in his expression, a reason to believe he wasn’t going to let me die right now. He yanked the shredded remnants of his shirt off his head.
Before I could blink again, he pivoted sharply, diving straight down towards me.
He wasn’t going to be fast enough.
Even flying straight down, I was still so far below him he’d never reach me in time. Already close enough to the waves to feel the cold spray hitting my arms. I sucked in a deep lungful of air as I prepared to crash into the water, almost accepting this fate.
But I didn’t hit the waves.
Mason hoisted me into the air again, my stomach dropping with the rapid change in altitude. When he caught me this time, it wasn’t safety. It was possession, claws closing over something he refused to let go of. My nerves were frayed and my heart hurt with how hard it was beating. I tested him; he tested me.
“You wanna scare me, baby?” he said. “I’ll scare you right back.”
I twisted my arms around his neck tighter, still trembling with adrenaline. “Don’t do that,” I said shakily.
“Don’t kill yourself in front of me.”
“I knew you wouldn’t let me die.”
“I could’ve.” His voice was dark, menacing.
“But you wouldn’t have.” It sounded like I was trying to convince myself my own words were true. If I’d been clinging to any small amount of hope that I would survive him, it’d entirely dissolved now. He didn’t have limits. He might do anything to me.
