Page 62 of Flameborne: Chosen

But there was no room in my head to consider the question. No time to measure them, or me.

I reached the final feet of the net, and suddenly a new challenge emerged.

While the edge of the netting was a thick rope that shone in a way the woven strands didn’t, and it pulled tighter between the dragons than the netting I walked upon, it also offered less give.

So, the little comfort I’d had that my feet sank into the net as my weight shifted, giving me more purchase and a smaller likelihood ofsimply tumbling off, as my steps took me closer to its edge the more precariously perched I became.

Those final two paces—less than the length of my body—were steep and far less secure because of the tension on the netting. I tried to take the first of them and wobbled back a third step, instead.

Instinctively, I leaned down to grab for the edge, but immediately, Ronen barked.

“Hands only to reach for the strap!”

I blinked—I’d completely forgotten about the strap. But there it was, a thick, wide strap several feet long and dangling from the edge, waving in the windbelowthe net.

Not only would I have to lean over the edge to get a grip on it, but given the thickness and weight of it, I imagined it would take both arms and most of my body weight to pull it up.

How the hell—

“Continue, Flameborne!”

The clapping and encouragement rose again, the men urging me on.

Almost there.

You can do it.

Grab it! Just grab it!

I took the step I’d lost, wobbled and had to wait to find my balance again, leaning forward, my fingers brushing the netting more than once. But I didn’t grab on.

‘Well done, Bren!’

‘Akhane, I’m not just being scared. I don’t know if I can do this.’

‘We’ll find out together,’she said simply.‘If you fall, I’ll catch you. But you won’t. Feel the wind as you lower yourself. Let it catch you.’

‘I don’t know if I can pull that strap up without falling forward!’

She didn’t answer, and I thought I was being urged to stop complaining. But a few moments later, as I struggled to get my foot up the next step, Akhane’s sleek, silver-gray form appeared under and ahead of the net. She flapped faster than the males that were all larger than her, though apparently much older as well. But her flight was effortless. She edged ahead of the net about twenty feet below where I stood.

‘I’m here, Little Flame. I won’t let you fall. Be brave.’

I shook my head, and a rush of exhaustion coursed through me. My body trembled with it. But there I was, just one step from that taut edge, my dragon below to bolster my courage, and seven men and their dragons watching.

“Flameborne Kearney, no man has stood for the vow of Furyknight without risking the fall more times than he can count. This is your life now. Take it.”

Nerves prickled my skin, but suddenly, Iwantedto be seen. By all of them—including Akhane.Iwanted to believe that I could be as effortless in flight as they were. Fuck them,Iwanted to believe that I could become a Furyknight.

Still trembling, my pulse so heavy in my skull that it throbbed, I took that final step, pointing the toe of my boot into the netting to catch it intentionally. And though it meant I couldn’t have both feet level, the strength of that push against my foot steadied me.

The men clapped and called as I wobbled down into a squat, but then I was stumped.

I wasn’t allowed to hold onto the net to steady myself, or brace. But I had to reachoverthe edge to grasp the thick, heavy strap that probably weighed almost as much as I did. I couldn’t lift that with one hand, but neither could I lean head and shoulders over the edge. The weight of the strap would just pull me straight over.

I bit my lip, scanning where the strap was attached and wondering if there was a way to lift it through the netting, but of course there wasn’t.

“Balance in flight is weight and counterweight. Get your center of gravity over your heels. Grasp it with one hand, but keep the other back for balance and lean back. Use your knees to lift,” Ronen instructed, his voice slightly muffled by the wind now that he was behind me.