The Bastard Queen (Viciously Yours #2)

Chapter Forty-Four: Tense Situations

The wind tore at my clothing and hair as I cut through its currents at an incredible speed. Raising my arms like the cartoon superheroes, I squinted up at the sun while breathlessly laughing. I'd never launched myself this far into the sky before, it was always just a few feet for dramatic effect. But this? I was practically flying and I felt completely weightless inside and out. Grinning, I stopped laughing as the air got thinner and my speed began to decrease.

For one glorious moment, my hair fell back around my shoulders and I was hovering above the realm. The camp was a small dot surrounded by miles and miles of forest before it gave way to scattered cities. Greens and browns of all shades colored the realm below me with splatterings of blue from the natural lakes and oceans. From this height, I couldn't see the Fae walking around but I could see the separate kingdoms of the Unseelie and Seelie. It reminded me in a passing thought about how I still needed to meet with Oberon. Breathtaking was the only way to describe the view and soon I'd be Queen of it all.

As gravity once again took hold of my body, fear sliced through my chest at the feeling of something sliding off my neck. My right hand shot up and snatched the pedant in my fist tightly just as I started to free fall. Smiling, I crossed my ankles and folded my hands behind my head with a sigh of total bliss. The emotion felt right and it brought tears to my eyes as my body started to spin in its descent to the ground. After a few beats, I tightened my core and threw myself to the right.

Facing the ground now, I watched how quickly the distance between me and the ground was disappearing. Straightening my legs, I pressed my arms to my sides and smiled wider as Cillian began to take shape. His hand was arched over his brows, trying to catch a glimpse of me from when I had left his field of sight. My smile grew the closer I got until I flipped right side up and braced myself for the landing. Widening my stance, I bent my knees and tightened my hand around the pedant.

With a sound similar to a thunderclap, my feet hit the earth creating a ten foot deep crater that encompassed the surrounding five feet. Panting in exhilaration, I took a minute to soak in the feeling before looking up. Standing on the edge of the crater, Cillian looked down at me with something between a smile and a grimace.

"What? Don't tell me that wasn't incredible!" I chuckled.

He shook his head, "How'd you know you could do that?"

Giving him a guilty smile, I rocked back on my bare feet, "I had a feeling."

The smile he had been trying to deny split his face, "That's what I was afraid of."

"Want to go again with me?"

Stepping off the edge, he slid down the side of the crater until he stopped beside me, "No."

"Why?"

"What, I can't just say no?" He asked, raising his hands to smooth my hair down.

Looping my arms around him, I pressed our chest together, "You cannnnn...unless you're afraid of heights."

He scoffed, looking down into my eyes, "I'm a double agent against Mab and you think, I'm afraid of heights?"

"That wasn't a denial." I laughed, pushing up on my toes to give him a quick kiss. "It's okay, Lilly. Everyone's afraid of something, even me."

"Yea, what are you afraid of?"

"I'm-" I'm afraid of being in a cell, of being captured by Mab, of failing again. Is what I meant to say but it just didn't ring true. Making a face, I thought about all the things that I had been so afraid of before and it was...different. The thought of being tossed back in a cell still brought a chill of unease down my spine but the other things...