Chapter 29
VAELA
Wind rushed past me as the Wretch climbed into the night sky alongside jagged peaks. I clutched my prosthesis with both hands where I’d latched it around a thick scale, my fingers freezing in the chilled mountain air.
I blinked stinging tears from my eyes, quickly realizing how high we were flying. This was a height I never would have attempted with Min. A height that could have stopped her heart.
And part of me had to admit that it was glorious. The stars looked close enough to pluck from the endless black, and I knew this was what true freedom tasted like. I couldn’t blame the Wretch for fighting so hard to get it back.
I also couldn’t blame Min for constantly wanting to climb her way up these mountains. To taste the sky where the air thinned and where the clouds were nothing but papery wisps. She deserved that even though I could never give it to her.
I turned and stared at the moon, wanting to reach for it.
The Wretch collided with the mountainside suddenly, jolting me from my silly fantasies, and I screamed. It wanted to unseat me. I knew I was like a bug on its back. An unwelcome nuisance that it wanted to squish.
And that was perfect.
If I continued to make myself a nuisance, the beast would forget about the town below and the people who’d caged it, and I could keep everyone safe.
I could protect Eden from the flames.
Just like a wrangler was supposed to.
I sucked in a sharp breath, braced myself against the armored plate behind me, and unlatched the prosthesis, using it as a lever to pry up a massive scale. The Wretch roared in response, shaking as it climbed even higher.
My head spun as the air thinned, and my next breaths were shaky, labored things that hardly filled my lungs.
Uh-oh.
We were already too high. A torrent of wind caught me, and I grabbed my prosthesis, hooking it around another scale lest I be blown off.
Fear blossomed in my chest like a painful bulge.
Not for the first time in my life, I wondered what it would be like to fall from dragonback.
To hurtle toward the ground at an unstoppable speed.
Would I pass out before that inevitable collision?
What happened to the girl who’d jump on the back of wild horses? I heard Trystan say in my head.
I scowled into the wind. She fell in love, dammit! And she didn’t want to die up here.
I wanted to spend this evening, and every evening after, with Eden, wrapped in her arms, holding her as the sound of her breathing lulled me to sleep.
In my hazy, oxygen-deprived brain, I imagined growing old and wrinkled by her side.
I imagined my body aging and my hair going gray, and Eden still smiling in that adoring way from the pillow next to mine.
I wanted all those years together, but most wranglers didn’t get old age. My vision went spotty as the air continued to thin. Eden swam to the forefront of my mind. If I wanted her, I had to stop wrangling.
If I really wanted her, I had to let go.
The image dissolved as a glittery shape cut across my vision. I focused on it the best I could, a voice lingering on the wind.
“Vaela!”
Yes? I blinked hard, pulling on every ounce of my focus, fighting the blurriness.
“Vaela! Down here!”
I peered over my shoulder. The wind tugged at my hair, pulling water from my eyes. When the tears cleared, I spotted Eden and Min flying along the Wretch’s left flank.
“Vaela, you need to let go!” she screamed. “You’re going too high.”
We were all too high, something in my head said. Me and Eden and Min. It was dangerous. It was deadly. “Get out of here,” I cried, waving them away.
“Not without you!”
Min bellowed, the sound striking me like an arrow.
“You have to jump!” Eden shouted.
Jump? A startled laugh bubbled up my throat. Right. Sure. Yeah. “You gonna catch me?”
“I’m gonna try.”
She was actually serious. That sobered me a little more, and I blinked away the encroaching spots. “If I’m gonna do this, I’d like you to be sure.”
“Stop being a jackass and get over here already,” Eden called.
She was right. Now or never. I had no more time to waste. I hurriedly unhooked my prosthesis from the Wretch’s scale. My hands were cramped from holding it so tightly.
What happened to the girl who’d jump on the back of wild horses? She was still here, I thought. She could do it one more time. And then, before I could talk myself out of taking that leap, I used the sharp plate behind me to pull myself up, holding my prosthesis in my other hand.
Min flew into position, slightly behind and below the Wretch. I was only going to get one shot at this. I tensed, muscles coiling, a phantom twinge of memory in my residual limb, and then I hurled myself off the side of the Wretch, tasting some of that freedom for myself.
Tasting the high mountain air.
Tasting the fall.
Tasting flight.
My limbs flailed, my body tumbling forward as my thoughts raced through worst-case scenarios. And then—
Crash!
I collided with Min’s side, sliding down, down, down—
“Hold on!” Eden cried, snagging the other end of the prosthesis, nothing but a bit of metal and wood tying us together.
“Good catch,” I gasped.
“Don’t you dare let go,” she growled, gritting her teeth as she hauled me into position on Min’s back. I grunted as I clamored my way to safety. The last thing I’d ever do was let go of her now.
Once I was seated, facing Eden head-on, her arms wrapped around me, her hands like claws. They clasped at my back, digging into my ribs and my shoulder blades. It felt like she was trying to crawl beneath my skin. It hurt.
It hurt so good.
“Got you,” she whispered, and I could finally breathe again.