“Well, look at that. Those were pretty good directions, after all. You really must have been paying attention to my physique.”
“Just shut up while I try to think,” I said, my head spinning at the height.
“I thought you’d enjoy me distracting you.”
“Well, you thought wrong.”
“Noted. Heights are not a turn-on. I’ll remember that for when we’re wed.”
I blocked him out and searched for the nearest log. Unfortunately, the nearest log was thin, and would probably only support one of the prince’s feet. In fact, as I looked around, all the nearest footholds seemed to be too small to bear the entire weight of both of us.
Great.
There was one pole, an extra row down, that looked like it was large enough for two feet. But we’d have to traverse the small logs to get to it.
“Okay, listen—”
“What else am I going to do? I’m blindfolded, remember?”
“All the poles surrounding us are too small for both your feet. You’re going to have to step on one of them with one foot and use it to launch off to the next log.”
That wiped the smug look off his face.
“Are you sure?”
“No, Prince Evander. I’m just trying to trick you into misplacing your foot so that we can both fall, and so I can die a romantic death in your arms.”
“For the record, if you’re going to use my name to be snarky with me, it sounds better if you just call me Evander.”
I grunted and decided to ignore him. “The first log is pretty close, probably about three cubits away.”
“The fae don’t use that method of measurement. It’s not precise enough for our tastes. After all, isn’t there variation in the length of a human forearm?”
“Agh!”
“My apologies, Lady Ellie. I’m just kidding. I know how long a cubit is.”
“Anyway, it’s to your right, on a forty-five-degree diagonal. You’ll have to launch off of it with your right foot to get to the log to your left diagonal, which you’ll probably have to jump for.”
“How far?”
“Far.”
“You do know that far for a human is not the same as far for a fae.”
I gritted my teeth. “Like I said, far.”
“Oh.”
“Oh, indeed.”
“Very well then.”
I closed my eyes. Evander jumped, and my mind desperately grasped for signals that we wouldn’t be falling to our deaths. Our momentary weightlessness. The sensation of my belly compressing. The pressure of his foot landing on the first log. The burst of speed when he jumped again.
I couldn’t bear to open my eyes to see if he had judged correctly. Our collective weight collided with the log, and I opened my eyes and sighed. My relief was short-lived, however, as his other foot mis-stepped and met the air rather than a solid foothold.
We toppled, and try as I might to grab onto his neck, I slipped.
My hands traced his forearm.
When I fell, my scream curdled in my throat.
CHAPTER 19
ELLIE
It seemed as though whatever magic had bound the lying curse upon the fae had taken a liberal interpretation of what it meant to drop me, because Evander could still breathe well enough to yell.
“El!”
Evander’s knees buckled, sending his chest colliding with the top of the log as he reached for me.
For half a moment, staring up into his blindfolded face, his mouth screwed up in panic, I was certain this would be the moment I died.
Elynore Payne, may she rest in pieces.
May her spirit remain whole, though her bones did not.
