Page 54 of Unveil

Orion stuffs one hand into his pocket and gives me a little two finger salute off his forehead before calling playfully, “Watch where you’re going, fiancée. Stay safe! Don’t want you to get hurt!”

“Well, I’m certainly not safe with you!” I shout back, turning around anyway.

He laughs nervously. “Just… give me a challenge, not a concussion, yeah?”

Run. Run. Run.

My heart races as I navigate the woods in ballet flats, slipping and tripping on mud and dirt, and trees, and roots, and?—

Athwickthrough the trees has me stopping like a big dummy, and a dart lands in a trunk a foot away from me.

My eyes widen at the sight of the arrow embedded in the tree, the plunger depressed inside.

I hear him rack and reload the crossbow as he whistles.

“You have three more minutes, and this next dart goes into that sexy ass cheek.”

“Keep dreaming!” I shout, but my adrenaline kicks up as I start running again and snap at myself. “No excuses, Bordeaux.”

It’s the mantra every ballet instructor has drilled into me my whole life, and it helps me focus on my flight.

I have no idea where I’m going, but all I know is it’s downhill and it’s away from him, so I push on, boomeranging from one tree to another, holding onto trunks to keep from falling.

“Just keep thinking about how I’m gonna find you, then fuck you,” he calls behind me. “Fill you with my cock and give us both what we need, because we’ve waited long enough. It’s time I claim my bride, little bird, and fuck you how we need it.”

An embarrassing, needy whimper rushes out of me. Is it wrong that I feel more alive than ever at the mere thought of him catching me? My adrenaline pumps all to one place, and I don’t think about how my nipples peak behind my bodice, how desire pools in my lower belly, or what it’ll feel like once he finds me.

“Be careful!” Orion growls way behind me, but I ignore it, trying to see through the plummeting, torrential rainfall. Visibility’s so difficult that I can’t even see the ground a few feet in front of?—

The ground drops away beneath my feet.

“Luna!” Orion’s guttural shout follows me as I fall, voice full of the same terror that lurches from my belly up to my throat and out into a scream.

“Orion!”

I scramble in the air, but there’s nothing to grab onto.

Orion’s horrified face appears over the ledge. He stretches out his arm, but there’s no use. A feather drifts off my bodice up to him in a cruel joke as I slam into the rushing waters below.

Frigid cold engulfs me. Shock makes me gasp, and water floods my throat, choking me. I thrash, but the rapids roll me under, smashing me against boulders. Branches catch my hair, tear my tutu, and whip me around. My lungs burn as I fight not to cough, but a rock twists my ankle and my muscles seize from agony, losing all the fight in me. Water roars in my ears, blinds me, and crushes the breath from my sternum.

Something grabs my arm, yanking me up, and it’s only then that I realize I’ve been screaming his name.

“O-ri-on,” I beg for relief.

“I’ve got you, baby. It’s okay, I’ve got you.” He clutches me to his chest. I cough and sputter as we bob in the current. “There you go, cough it out.”

My body racks with the effort as it obeys. I look up through burning eyes, my lashes heavy with water.

Orion’s face is hard with worry, before his focus shifts to the river violently rolling us. “Shit. Hold on.”

He grabs the back of my head, curling over me as I grip to his jacket. We sail through the water until we crash into something, making his body tense at the impact, then the current wrenches us from the boulder he protected me from.

I want to ask if he’s okay, help somehow, but I’m still fighting for breath and clinging to him like a life raft. Hell, heismy life raft.

“Fuck,” he mutters. “Alright, whatever you do, don’t let go, okay?”

I nod but can’t help looking over his shoulder. My eyes widen.