Agatha

And then... we were flying. Soaring on Norsuk"s powerful wingbeats, the wind screaming in my ears as the ground dropped away at a dizzying pace. I clung to him like a barnacle, not daring to look down at the shrinking rubble far below.

"Let's get out of here," Norsuk gritted out. I felt the strain in his body, the heaving of his chest as his wings pumped harder, faster. The membranes made a hollow thrumming sound with each downstroke, like the drumskin-beat of a racing heart.

From my vantage point plastered against his front, his form seemed perfect—back arched, wings cutting through the air in a powerful figure eight. Each mighty sweep lifted us higher, the ruins of the cave city dwindling to scattered children"s blocks beneath us.

But even as we gained altitude, I felt my own heartbeat rabbiting behind my breastbone. With the ground lost in shadow far below, I had to swallow against a surge of vertigo, locking my limbs even tighter around Norsuk"s straining form.

"Just don"t look down," I chanted under my breath, a useless mantra. "Don"t look down, don"t look down..."

Norsuk grunted with effort, the cords of his neck standing out in sharp relief. Sweat plastered his hair to his brow as he angled us in a wide arc, hugging close to the curving cavern wall. I saw our target straight ahead—that tantalizing crack in the ceiling, limned in piercing sunlight.

But even as I let myself hope, I felt Norsuk"s rhythm faltering. His wingbeats slowed, shoulders bunching and straining as if the sky itself fought against him.

"Can you make it?" I asked, raising my voice to a half-shout over the rushing wind. "Maybe we should land, give you a chance to rest before trying again!"

He shook his head sharply, but his reply came out as a thready wheeze. I watched in mounting alarm as his brow furrowed in concentration, tendons popping in his neck, but even as his wings flailed, we seemed to lose momentum. Stalling out in mid-air.

"Hold on as tight as you can!" he gasped, voice little more than a rasp. "I"m not... sure I have the strength... to keep lifting you..."

As if to punctuate his words, I felt his grip start to slacken, arms trembling with fatigue. Icy terror flooded my veins, and I scrabbled against him in panic, latching on with every bit of strength I had left.

"Don"t look down,"my mind screamed, an endless litany. "Don"t look down, don"t look, don"t look, don"t look?—"

Heedless, my gaze flicked towards the dizzying drop, the hungry void that wanted to swallow me whole. I loosed a whimper and clamped my eyes shut, burying my face in the sweat-damp hollow of Norsuk"s throat. I clung to him like a monkey in the highest boughs, like a sloth wrapped around the last solid thing in the universe.

His every breath sawed in and out in pained gasps, each one an audible blow. A small, distant part of my brain noted he was still flying straight—but for how long? Were we even still gaining height, or just delaying the inevitable plummet?

Then, between one blink and the next, stabbing brightness exploded across my vision. Cold, crisp air swirled around us, chasing away the cavern"s cloying staleness. I squinted into the glare and saw a swathe of purple, a smattering of clouds. Open sky.

We"d made it through the crack. We were free.

And then we fell.

Norsuk let out an agonized groan as his wings crumpled, strength giving out at last. I loosed a yelp as our flight turned into a barely-controlled glide, the mountainside rising up to meet us at terrifying speed. At the last instant, he wrenched us into an angle, absorbing the brunt of the impact as we hit the rocky slope in a bone-jarring crunch.

He set me on my feet with a surprising gentleness, giving me a small push as his own legs buckled. I stumbled clear, heart in my throat as he pitched into a graceless somersault. His huge body pinwheeled down the scree in a tangle of wings and limbs, fetching up against an outcropping with a teeth-rattling thud.

"Norsuk!" I pelted towards his crumpled form, skidding the last few steps on my knees. He was curled on his side in a wretched heap, feet nearly touching his head. "Oh God, are you hurt? Did you break anything?"

I ran, shaking hands over him, searching for swelling, protruding bone, any sign of serious injury. He shifted under my touch with a low groan, slowly—painfully—uncurling from his twisted ball. Relief crashed over me in a drowning wave as he struggled up to a sitting position, somehow miraculously whole.

"Ow," he said, eloquent as always.

Closer now, I saw the tremors wracking his frame, almost felt the heat pouring off his flight-ravaged body. His pecs danced with exhausted spasms, traps knotting and bunching as he rolled his shoulders experimentally. He swiped a forearm across his brow, flicking away rivulets of sweat, and shot me a game attempt at his usual cocky grin.

"Y"know... I think I"m really getting the hang of this... flying business."

A strangled laugh punched out of me—half relief, half hysteria. I fell against him, wrapping my arms tight around his waist and pressing my face into the damp crook of his neck. He still smelled of wind and stone and healthy male musk, a familiar cocktail that made my heart clench behind my ribs.

"You have a strange definition of success," I mumbled against his skin. Some old, half-forgotten adage flitted through my head—any landing you could walk away from was a good landing. By that metric, I supposed we"d stuck the dismount.

"Brave, reckless idiot," I whispered fiercely. And then, softer, "My hero."

"Hush," he said, but I heard the smile in his voice, and felt it pressed into my hair. "I"m no hero, sundrop. Just a fool lucky enough to be loved by the bravest woman in the galaxy."

I pulled back just far enough to glare at him, ignoring the pleasant shiver his words sent dancing down my spine. "Oh, no you don"t. This one is all you, mister. I may have been along for the ride, but you were the one flapping his ass off to get us out of that pit."

He flexed teasingly, setting his chest to rippling under my palms. "Flapping my ass off? Such a way with words, my mate. Be still my beating heart."

I scoffed and gave him a light shove, only a little regretful when he released me to sway back on his haunches. "Okay, Fabio, that"s enough from you. How about you put those muscles to work finding us a place to camp for a bit? Unless you feel up to another pulse-pounding round of "dodge the angry mountain"."

"Ugh, not even close." He grimaced expressively, wings rustling. "I"m so far beyond exhausted, I feel like I could sleep for a week."

"Well, I don"t think we have that long." I cast a wary look back the way we"d come, but the gaping maw of the cave had vanished, lost in the wind-scoured stone. "Your ship must be close by though, right?"

"Should be. If those bastards haven"t stripped her for parts." He looked aggrieved at the mere thought. "But as much as I"d like to collapse in my own bunk... I think you"re right. We should find a spot to lie low first. Get our bearings before we go traipsing through hostile territory."

He braced a hand on my knee to lever himself upright, only wobbling a little as he found his feet. I waited for him to offer me a hand up, tamping down a strange pang of disappointment when he turned away to survey our surroundings instead.

The slope we"d tumbled down was bare, unforgiving granite, littered here and there with scrubby brush and tenacious weeds. In the distance, outcrops of rust-red rock twisted towards the sky like the bones of ancient sea creatures, long since lost to wind and sun and the long attrition of years. It looked like the kind of place where a body could wander for a hundred years and never find a drop of succor.

Tipping my head back, I squinted up at the cliff rearing above us, searching for the crack that had delivered us to dubious freedom. The opening was easy to spot even at this distance—a ragged black gash in the pale stone, edges crumbling where Norsuk had dragged us through by sheer animal will. Getting back in that way would be impossible... but it occurred to me that the rift could serve another purpose.

"There." I pointed to the shadowed crevice, a faint furrow forming between my brows. "I"d rather not stumble around in the dark if another quake hits. But that shelf below the crack looks pretty stable. We could probably ride out any aftershocks tucked up under there."

Norsuk shaded his eyes, nodding slowly as he picked out the spot I meant. "Not a bad thought. Beats huddling under a toadstool and praying, anyway."

I barely heard the words. I"d made the mistake of looking at his face in full sunlight, and my breath snagged in my throat as if on fish hooks. The dawn painted him in shades of gold and shadow, gilding the elegant sweep of his cheekbones, the lush curves of his mouth.

Limning the dark fans of his lashes, his teeth flashed in a weary smile. He was beautiful, this impossible man. Bold and brash and wild as a summer storm, and never more so than with his wings mantled behind him like a king"s robe, proud as banners snapping in the wind.

How had I gotten so lucky, to have this fierce, dauntless creature as my own?

"Agatha?" Norsuk"s brow furrowed, a flicker of concern darkening his expression. "Is something wrong?"

I blinked, shaking off the poet-haze with an effort. "No, nothing. Just got lost in thought for a minute there."

If he suspected there was more to it, he didn"t press. Just reached out to run a callused thumb along the crest of my cheek, his touch achingly gentle. "Well, stay with me, sundrop. I need you sharp if we"re going to figure a way off this rock."

"Always," I promised. And meant it down to my bones.