Page 34

She glanced from his hand to the feline and back. Understanding dawned.

He wanted her to willingly get on thefiilee.

Mer shook her head no just once. She would not go into the skies. “I think not.”

His gaze flattened and he rushed her. Mer yelped, fighting him off. He manhandled her and tossed Mer over his shoulder. The air was knocked out of her as his shoulder slammed into her stomach. She screeched, throwing decorum out the window, and clawed at his back, tearing his shirt from his trousers and slicing bloody furrows into his back.

He slapped her on the rear. Hard.

Mer’s eyes watered, but she gritted her teeth against the pain. How. Dare. He.

“Remove your hands from my person, or I’ll remove your hand from your arm,” she promised.

“Then pull your talons from my back,” he growled in return.

“Do you think that is a good idea?” a blond warrior with bright blue eyes asked as they passed him.

The king grunted, managing to get them both on the back of thefiilee.

“Put me down immediately,” she shouted, pummeling his back with all her strength as real terror pushed past her indignation and anger. “I do not consent to this.”

He didn’t waver.

“Try not to fall, vicious one,” he murmured a second before he clicked once, and thefiileelunged forward.

Mer lifted her head and braced herself against his back, meeting the smug gaze of the dowager queen. The older woman smiled and mouthed,Have fun.

Dread churned in her belly, and Mer knotted her fingers in the king’s wet shirt as the meadow disappeared, a maze of trees whizzing past them. She lifted her body slightly higher and glanced over her shoulder.

Mer’s eyes rounded and her stomach dropped.

They were headed toward the cliff’s edge.

“No!”

The king yanked her down into his lap, pinned her legs with one muscled thigh, and secured her arms with his left hand.

“Shall we, my dear?” he crooned as they plunged over the edge.

A scream tore from her as they plummeted.

A moment of weightlessness and her heart flew to her throat as they fell toward the trees below. Her teeth cracked together as thefiilee’swings snapped out, stopping their descent. Quickly, they rose toward the black clouds, rain pelting them.

Her body shook as they climbed higher. Depths below, she hated heights.

“Why did you do it?” the king shouted.

She looked up at his face. Was he really asking her why she tried to kill him? Why was he playing dumb? “Because it was deserved!” she managed to get out, clinging to his arm with everything she had.

His silver eyes flashed to her face, and a grim smile curled his lips. “Well, then let me return the gesture.”

All at once, he shook her off, and then, much to her horror, he shoved Mer right off the back of thefiilee.

Chapter Twelve

MER

Mer grabbedfor the leather harness, but it slipped through her wet numb fingers.