She nodded toward the ground, and this time when she spoke, I could hear the faintest edges of a wheeze. “If we fall, I’ll die; you’ll live, and you’ll be free of me. I’m not stupid. This is just your and your father’s way of bailing you out of your bargain with me without the shame of having to annul the agreement.”

I glanced down at the ground, then back at the woman before me. She was right. If she fell, my life would go back to normal. Blaise and I would find Cinderella, and this…this would just be a blip in my unending existence, a dog-eared page in an epic.

But then Ellie would be dead.

Why, why couldn’t I just be okay with that?

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. “I won’t drop you.”

“I don’t believe you.” Her voice was raspy now, breathless.

“By Alondria, Ellie, you don’t have another choice.” I reached out, my fingers grazing her throat, and I could feel the breath leaving her body, as it had yesterday.

“You say that a lot, you know. Perhaps you could come up with a more creative phrase to communicate your frustration.”

I cocked my head in question.

“By Alondria,” she explained, a warble in her voice even as she teased.

“You’re stalling.”

A hushed whimper rippled through the crowd. The attendees were wondering why we hadn’t started the challenge yet.

She shook her head and winced. Fates, her throat was closing up.

“Ellie, please. I won’t drop you.”

“How do I know?”

“I can’t lie, remember?” Which was exactly why it had been a stupid move to vow something like that. Now, if I did drop her, even on accident…

Well, she’d be dead, and I wouldn’t be far behind her.

Then we’d be stuck together in the afterlife, too.

Either that was good enough for her, or her human instinct had decided it had had enough of Ellie’s masochistic behavior, because she practically launched herself into me as she grasped for my hands.

Our fingers intertwined, and I ignored how much better I liked it this way.

“Good. Glad we’re on the same page,” I said, squeezing her hands and trying to offer a reassuring smile.

“Okay,” she said, and she followed my lead as I stepped a foot onto the slope. Beads of sweat broke out across her forehead. Her right foot was shaking, still glued to the stable platform.

But those soft hands of hers were still in mine.

When she looked up at me from underneath those thick, dark eyelashes, my foot almost faltered. “Just don’t let go, okay?”

As if any sane male would have wanted to.

CHAPTER 18

ELLIE

We stepped off together, and there was one terrible moment when I felt like my stomach was going to fall through my body. My weight lurched, and I knew I was falling. But then the tension between our crossed, interlocked arms went taut, and I found my body stable.

“See? Not falling,” Evander said. “Now, don’t you dare look down. Just look at me instead.”

I did as he asked, grateful for somewhere to set my gaze other than the ground. I figured it probably wouldn’t help our chances of making it through this obstacle alive if I lost the contents of my stomach on the already slick slope.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, there were worse places to look than Evander Thornwall’s face. Where I’d only ever witnessed a pompous smirk, his expression had gone soft, confident, encouraging. “Now let’s take another step. Together. Three, two, one.” We stepped, and again, I felt as if I were falling for a fraction of a second, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as when we’d initially stepped off the platform.

An annoyingly stunning grin broke across his face. “You’re getting the hang of this.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

He snorted. “Careful. I’m getting the urge to lift my hands up in my defense.”

That didn’t exactly serve to make me feel any better.

Still, he talked me through the next few steps, and I tried to focus on his eyes rather than how tired my hands were, how they were trembling and clammy enough to slip at any second.

His eyes. Just focus on his eyes, Ellie.

They were green, technically, but not green like the forest or the grass. It was a green that belonged to the ocean in the middle of a storm, the edge of the sea, where water met sand.

I could almost bet there had been women who had drowned in those eyes.

“See, one more step, and it’s over,” Evander said, and I felt my breath catch, which I told myself was due to the fear of losing my footing with only one step to go. My left foot landed on the second platform, and the steadiness of it washed me in relief, providing me with the confidence to move my right foot over.

“You don’t have to keep staring, you know. The task is over,” Evander said, a twinkle of amusement glinting in those gorgeous eyes. I ripped my gaze away from his in horror, to which he only smirked. “Though I don’t mind if you wish to continue.”

For the first time since the King of Dwellen turned down my request, I was actually thankful to hear the vile being’s voice as it boomed through the stadium. “The prince and his betrothed have completed the first task. Now for the second. Guards.”

Well, he had to go and ruin it, didn’t he?

Two guards appeared, one behind Evander and one behind me. The former wrapped a piece of black linen over Evander’s eyes. The latter leaned down and swatted at the hem of my skirt. I might have jolted or turned to kick him if my feet hadn’t rooted themselves on the platform for my fear of heights. Thick rope scratched my ankles as the guard tied my feet together with a knot. The forced narrowing of my stance made me feel like I might topple over the edge at any moment now, and I reached out toward Evander to steady myself.

“That feels good.” Evander purred at my touch, and even that stupid blindfold couldn’t obscure the smugness that must have been flickering in his gaze. “And unexpected.”

“Don’t humor yourself,” I hissed, and I could have sworn that Evander flexed his bicep under my grasp in response.

I didn’t like this. Not one bit.

The king’s voice boomed again. “Now that the prince and his betrothed have been sufficiently handicapped, the couple must traverse the logs before them, a task which symbolizes how, in a true match, one should be capable of offsetting the other’s weakness with their own strengths.”

I examined what lay ahead, where at least four dozen logs had been staked into the earth, forming a large rectangle. Their tops were bare, which I figured was a bad sign.

“Looks like you’re my eyes now, El. What do we have ahead of us?”