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Eyes on the eagle gliding in front of her, Evalle bent her knees and leaped into the air. She opened her arms, waiting for her gryphon to break free with its huge beautiful wings.
No wings.
She couldn’t hear Haloke speaking to her.
A wild roar blasted behind her.
She twisted to look over her shoulder. A black jaguar lunged off the cliff. Falling.
Storm’s jaguar!
Her mind broke free of her mental fog. She realized everything at once and flipped over, screaming, “Noooo!”
Time turned into tiny microseconds that stretched with each drawn-out heartbeat.
Her heart thumped once. She and Storm would die unbound. She’d never find him in the afterlife.
Her heart thumped again. Red eyes glowing, Storm shifted into his human body. He yelled, “We’re bonding!”
They were too far apart for his words or majik to reach her.
Another thump. No. No. No. She would not let him die.
Furious at the universe, Evalle bellowed, “No more! I want my gryphon back. It is mine! Storm is mine!” She reached deep insider her to the core where energy began to spin. The Belador power she possessed boiled.
Yes! The power that belonged to her.
Garwyli said to believe.
She called her gryphon, refusing to be told no.
Energy exploded inside her ... but no beast.
Storm turned his body into a knife shape, slicing the air faster.
She shoved her hands up to slow him with kinetics until she hit the ground. She hoped his jaguar could heal anything he broke.
Her arms twisted and yanked away in two directions.
Pain ripped through her. Her head warped and grew.
Two strong thumps. Her heart felt ten times its size. Pain stabbed her head and body.
Lights flashed through her eyes.
She moved her arms.
Her fall slowed.
A blue-green wing flapped into view.
Her gryphon! Yes!
Storm yelled, “Save yourself!”
Flapping her giant wings hard, she lurched over to look down. Ground coming too fast.
She opened her wings wide, begging for an updraft. Twisting her gryphon head, seconds stretched. Storm barreled toward her.
Wind caught her wings, shoving her upright.
That took her out from under Storm. Damn.
She wouldn’t catch him.
His body would smash against the rocks below.
With one last chance, she lunged her gryphon hard. Please let Storm’s body slam into her.
Either she could take the hit and save them or they’d both die.
Brown eyes now wide with realization, he yelled, “Nooo!”
Sorry, sweetheart. You have no vote in this. But Storm couldn’t hear her thoughts.
Flipping like an out-of-control kite in a wind, her gryphon slammed against Storm before he passed her. That knocked him further out where the jagged slope dropped deeper.
She dove after his spiraling body.
Had him and the canyon floor in sight.
Extending her claws, Evalle’s gryphon shuddered with strain to reach Storm.
She wouldn’t make it.
Calling up all the power her gryphon could give, she tucked her wings tight. Her gryphon blasted forward.
Claws extended, she latched onto Storm’s thick shoulder and opened her wings fast.
Her body yanked brutally.
Ow, ow, ow. That hurt like hell. But she forced her gryphon to keep flapping to slow their descent.
Her heart pounded. Still falling fast. Not enough time to recover.
Suddenly, majik flowed around her.
She caught the sound of Storm’s chanting.
New energy surged through her. Her beast banked hard to the right twenty feet from slamming into the ground. So close dust blew up. Then her gryphon launched toward the sky.
They lifted above the cliffs.
Sunlight burst over the horizon.
Storm couldn’t have cloaked them while flooding her with his majik.
Her gryphon screamed a victorious sound.
Evalle had her mate, her gryphon, her life, and a new gift. Her beast could fly in sunlight.
After gliding back and forth, her gryphon headed for the cliff Evalle had been standing on. Had she really jumped from there thinking she could fly?
So many mistakes.
Descending in a slow approach, her gryphon gently released Storm barely above the ground where her mate dropped into a roll, then came up on his feet.
Her gryphon continued flying, taking its time returning to the cliff.
She didn’t care. If someone saw her, she doubted anyone would believe the story. It might make for a great photo on the cover of the rumor rags.
Flying back to Storm, her gryphon executed a graceful landing.
Storm stood with blood running down his shoulders.
The overwhelming need to feel him hit her in her middle. Her mate lived. Evalle asked for her human body again.
Running toward her, Storm shouted, “Don’t! No! Stop shifting until ... ”
It took a split second for his panic to make sense. The sun would fry her human body!
She didn’t have his control when it came to changing. Adrenaline flooding her body dulled the ferocious pain of shifting so quickly.
She couldn’t understand Storm’s words.
She finished in a hunched form and lifted up as Storm caught her to him, still chanting wildly. He stopped, panted for air, and said, “Shit. The cloaking worked. I didn’t know if I had enough majik left.”
Good thing or she’d have died, burned to a crisp by the sun climbing higher. She’d been so caught up in the moment, so happy to feel alive after flying beneath the hot sun, she’d wanted to share that moment with her mate.
He held her so tight her bones might break.
Her gryphon would heal her.
“Thought I’d lost you forever,” he breathed out in a hoarse voice.
Hugging him just as hard, she rambled through her tears. “I thought I’d watch you smash into the rocks. I never want to feel that desperate again.” Desperate enough to believe? Garwyli had been right. Pulling back, she looked at Storm. She once thought there would be no joy like flying again, but seeing her mate’s beautiful teak-colored face, shiny brown eyes, and black hair flying around defined true joy as nothing else could.
He pulled her close and touched her lips with his in a kiss born of fear and incredible love that would withstand all forces in this world and the next.
When his lips softened, he dropped his forehead against hers. “I don’t want you out of my sight for a while. Yell at me all you want, but I’m not ready to be the bigger person and give you space any time soon.”
She smiled at her man, happy for a million reasons, but mostly because she’d have more time with him. He could go caveman for a while. She could handle it. Shoot, they might have some role-playing fun back home where it would end in bed.
“Thank you,” he murmured so heartfelt it brought more tears to her eyes.
“For what? I jumped off a damn cliff,” she groused.
“For believing in yourself again, sweetheart. That’s how you saved us. Seeing you alive and smiling ... there’s no greater gift.” His chest expanded with shuddering breaths.
“Are my eyes bright green again?”
“Yes, beautiful as ever.”
Relieved, her hand slipped off his shoulder and slid through his blood. He still needed to heal. “I’m sorry I stabbed you with my claws, Storm.”
“I’m not. My skin is already healing, and you know I can do it super fast in my jaguar form.” Then he grinned. “Just like you can. Your gryphon is back, sweetheart.”
“I know.” She thought back to teetering on the cliff. “I remember standing there for a long time, clearing my mind of all that bothered me and waiting for an inner calm. Then I felt my body relax and thought I’d reached that peaceful moment. Haloke said I would see the eagle then I had to follow it in flight, which I thought meant my gryphon would return. I don’t think that was her plan, though, was it?”
“No.”
“I couldn’t clear my mind of whatever she’d done with her stupid smoke, but I recall feeling as if I was in control.” She frowned at him. “I jumped because I was under a spell, but why did you? Your jaguar can’t fly. Wait, where is Haloke?”
“Dead. My jaguar stopped her when she tried to kill you before you jumped. At least that’s how it looked to my animal and he held the control.” He lowered Evalle until her feet touched the ground.
“Was she really a seer?” Evalle doubted it.
“Originally, yes, but Haloke was the person behind the supernatural killings. After her son died, she lost her mind. She left the reservation under the guise of training with a powerful seer, but evidently went somewhere and trained to become a dark witch.”
“Son? Would that be a guy named Roy?”
“Yes. Did she mention him?”
“Adsila brought him up first and called the seer Mother Haloke.” Evalle ran mentally over all that transpired. “Adsila brought me to Haloke. She has to know what’s going on.”
Storm couldn’t stop touching Evalle, brushing his hand over her face and hair. “She does. Bidziil had security hunting her. They would’ve grabbed her as soon as they saw her on the highway, or she returned to the casino.”
Evalle’s head spun with that information. Furious at realizing what must have happened, she said, “Did that bitch send you off the cliff, too?”
His smile dimmed and he turned serious. Lifting a hand to catch hair flying around and push it off her face, he said, “As we fell, my jaguar and I were in agreement to reach you and see if I could save you with majik. If not, then I’d have tried to bind us any way possible so we would go together.”
Tears ran down her face. She didn’t care.
Now that she had no fear of killing Storm, she’d bond with him. She put to bed any other question of him dying if she did after bonding. She understood Storm’s urgent need to be joined forever and felt just as strongly to stay with him.
They were partners in this life and the next.
Catching Storm’s hand, she brought it to her lips and kissed his knuckles. “Bond with me.”
His arm wrapped her up tighter. He whispered, “Anything for you, sweetheart.”
