Chapter 28

My eyes close, the force of the wind pushing my lashes flat against my skin.

I am breathless, my limbs flailing in the freefall that has enveloped me like a scorned lover.

In the fraction of a second I have to think, I know this will end badly. No one falls head first off a sixty foot cliff into a solid pool of glassy water and survives. If I had jumped myself, I could have angled my body to enter with my feet, breaking the surface tension and thus protecting my fragile body.

But I was not given that choice. I was pushed, left grappling for traction, slipping before I could even utter a cry of alarm.

A rough and throaty howl startles me, and I open my eyes in time to see a dark form looming above me, coming closer and closer as they have thrown themselves off the cliff after me.

Malachi!

His black hair is rushing back with the speed at which he reaches for me, his determined eyes riveted on me.

Time seems to disintegrate. I don't know how long I have been falling, all I am aware of is