Chapter 29 Elowen
ELOWEN
For one endless, impossible moment, I can’t even scream.
The world vanishes under me. The nest, the ledge, the mountain itself—it all drops away in a dizzying rush as Theron launches us into open air.
My stomach lurches into my throat and my arms lock convulsively around him, clinging so hard I’m afraid I might choke him.
Wind tears at us instantly, ripping at my robes and hair, trying to tear me from his back as we plunge straight down.
The sky above us is bright and pitiless, while the ground comes rushing up below in a blur of jagged gray rock and shadow. I can’t breathe. I can barely think. All I can do is cling and stare and feel myself falling.
I bury my face against his shoulder, my eyes squeezed shut so tightly they hurt. Oh, Goddess, we’re going to die.
But Theron doesn’t hesitate. He just keeps diving, his body stretched long and sure beneath mine, as if this is exactly what he meant to do all along.
Above us, I hear the furious scream of the Emperor Hawk as it wheels in surprise. It must have expected us to cower in the nest or try to flee along the ledge. It can’t possibly have expected this.
I certainly didn’t.
The wind roars in my ears. My curls whip across my face and sting my skin.
The feather tucked into my hair pulls and tugs and I pray desperately it won’t tear free.
My whole body feels suspended between terror and trust—between the awful certainty that I’m falling to my death and the equally strong certainty that Theron would never have asked me to do this if he meant to let me die.
Would he?
My grip tightens even harder. The ground is rushing up to meet us and then something shifts beneath me.
At first, I think it’s just the wind changing again, catching us at a different angle. But no—this is deeper than that—stronger. I feel it in my bones, in the very way Theron’s body moves under my hands.
He’s changing—Shifting in midair while I’m still on top of him.
His shoulders broaden suddenly, expanding beneath my grip. His spine lengthens and arches, muscles shifting and reforming so quickly it leaves me breathless. Heat floods through him—through us—as though I’m clinging to a living flame.
My eyes fly open, and I see I’m no longer wrapped around a man. I’m straddling something vast and powerful and alive in a completely different way.
His Drake.
The Drake’s wings explode outward with a thunderous snap just as the ground looms impossibly close beneath us. The impact never comes. Instead, there’s a jarring, heart-stopping moment where it feels like we might still be falling…
And then the vast, sail-like wings catch the air and hold.
The force of it jerks me upward and I gasp, my fingers tightening instinctively in his scales as the dive turns into a climb. His wings beat hard—powerful strokes that send us surging back up, into the sky.
The wind changes from a scream to a rush, still fierce but no longer trying to tear us apart. I press myself low against his back, clinging to him as tightly as I can, my whole body trembling with the shock of it.
We’re not falling anymore—we’re flying.
My breath comes out in a half-hysterical laugh at the dizzying euphoria of the Drake’s swooping flight. Goddess, my heart is pounding.
Below us, the jagged rocks that would have shattered us are already shrinking, dropping away as the Drake climbs higher, angling away from the mountain face.
I risk a glance over my shoulder and see the Emperor Hawk wheeling in the distance, its great wings beating in frustration as it watches us escaping its territory.
We’re safe—somehow we’re actually safe. We nearly died but now we’re all right—everything will be all right.
The realization hits me all at once, and my hands start to shake. I have to press my face to the sleek, silver scales beneath me and breathe deeply to try and calm down.
The Drake doesn’t slow until we’ve cleared the worst of the peaks and descended back toward the forest below. The air grows warmer again—thick with the scent of pine and damp earth—and at last he banks toward a small clearing nestled among the trees.
He lands with a heavy thud that jolts through his whole body—and mine too.
For a moment, I just cling to him, unable to move, my heart still racing and my thoughts spinning. Then the great body beneath me Shifts again, shrinking, changing, the sleek scales giving way to warm skin and muscle.
Suddenly, I’m no longer straddling a dragon…I’m wrapped around Theron.
He drops to one knee as the change completes and I nearly slide off him, but his arms are there instantly, catching me and holding me close.
“Elowen,” he breathes, his voice rough with something I can’t quite name. “I’m so glad you’re safe. I was worried you couldn’t hold on to me.”
A laugh bubbles up out of me—wild and shaky and completely uncontrollable. At the same time, I feel tears burning behind my eyes and spilling over before I can stop them.
“I—I almost didn’t,” I admit, clinging to him. “I thought—we were falling—I thought we were going to…to die.” The last word comes out shaky and hoarse—my body still hasn’t completely processed the fact that I’m going to live.
“I know.” His arms tighten around me, pulling me closer. “I had you. I wasn’t going to let you fall, baby.”
Something in his voice—so sure, so gentle—undoes me completely.
I bury my face against his chest, laughing and crying at the same time, my fingers fisting in his shirt as I hold onto him like I might still be falling if I let go.
“You jumped off a mountain,” I manage between breaths. “You absolute lunatic.”
A low huff of laughter rumbles through him. “
Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
I pull back just enough to look at him.
His hair is tousled from the wind, his horns catching the light as he tilts his head down toward me. His eyes—those strange, beautiful, tarnished silver eyes—are fixed on mine, dark with something intense and unreadable.
For a moment, everything else falls away. The mountains…the danger…the quest. It all fades and all I can see is him. All I can feel is the way his hands are still on me…the heat of his body so close to mine…the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathes.
My heart stutters and then I’m standing on my tiptoes and kissing him.
I don’t even remember deciding to do it. One moment I’m looking at him, and the next I’m leaning in, my hands sliding up to his shoulders as my lips find his.
He makes a low, startled sound against my mouth, but then he’s kissing me back—hard and deep, his arms tightening around me as if he can’t get close enough. The world tilts and I feel dizzy all over again, but this time it’s not from falling—it’s from him.
From the heat of him. From the way my body responds instantly, melting into his, every nerve lighting up at once. The ache that has been simmering under my skin since the witch’s curse flares hotter, sharper, turning into a pulsing need that makes my breath hitch.
I press closer without thinking, my fingers tangling in his hair.
Goddess, I want him—want him so badly it makes my breath come short and my whole body tremble.
The thought hits me like a wave, overwhelming and undeniable. But just as quickly as it begins—my body responding eagerly to his—he pulls back.
“No,” he says, his voice rough, strained. “Don’t, little one.”
I blink at him, dazed and confused, my lips still burning from his kiss, my body still leaning toward his.
“Why now?” I whisper.
His jaw tightens and he drags a hand through his hair, stepping back as though putting distance between us is the only way he can think straight.
“We can’t,” he says. “My Drake is too close to the surface right now. He wants you too much.” His gaze drops to mine, burning. “We both do.”
The words send a shiver through me, even as my body throbs in protest. The need is still there—stronger than ever, curling low in my belly, making it hard to think and even hard to breathe.
The curse is riding me hard now, urging me forward, whispering that I don’t have to wait, that I can take what I want.
But somewhere beneath it, I know he’s right. If we go too far now…if we lose control…
“I understand,” I say softly, though it takes everything in me to take a step back. I miss his warmth as soon as I do. The space between us feels cold and wrong.
He exhales slowly, like he’s forcing himself to calm down.
“Did you get the feather?”
The question snaps me back to reality.
“The feather!” I reach up at once, my fingers tangling in my curls. For one horrible second, I’m afraid it’s gone—torn free during the fall—but then I feel it there, caught securely in the thick strands of my hair.
Relief floods through me.
“I have it,” I say, carefully pulling it free. It’s just as long as before, gleaming faintly in the dappled light of the clearing.
The moment it’s free in my hand something appears in the air in front of me.
I gasp when I see it—it’s one of the crystal orbs. It hovers there, just as it did above the Grimoire—clear and perfect, stoppered with a small, glowing cork. It pulses faintly, as though aware of the feather in my hand.
“Oh,” I breathe.
Carefully, I reach out and take it. It feels solid and cool in my fingers, though it hums faintly with magic. My heart is still racing as I pull the stopper free and slide the long feather inside. And even though the feather is much bigger than the crystal container, somehow it fits.
The moment the stopper seals again, the orb flares with light. For an instant, it glows so brightly I have to squint. The feather inside seeming to dissolve into pure radiance. Then the light softens, fades…and the orb vanishes.
Just like that.
Theron lets out a startled laugh.
“Fuck! I guess it’s working.”
“I guess so,” I say, still staring at the empty air where the orb and feather were a moment ago. I blow out a slow breath, trying to steady myself. “One down…three to go.”
He gives me a look.
“If that was the easy one, I don’t even want to fucking think about the others.”
I manage a weak smile, though something uneasy curls in my chest.
“Let’s just hope the next three quests aren’t as difficult.”
Even as I say it, I know better—deep down, I can feel it. The three other quests we must complete in order to work the Time Weaving spell loom before us.
This is only the beginning…and I have no idea how much harder things are going to get.