Unveil: A Dark Ballet Retelling, page 13
The ground drops away beneath my feet.
“Luna!” Orion’s guttural shout follows me as I fall, voice full of the same terror that lurches from my belly up to my throat and out into a scream.
“Orion!”
I scramble in the air, but there’s nothing to grab onto.
Orion’s horrified face appears over the ledge. He stretches out his arm, but there’s no use. A feather drifts off my bodice up to him in a cruel joke as I slam into the rushing waters below.
Frigid cold engulfs me. Shock makes me gasp, and water floods my throat, choking me. I thrash, but the rapids roll me under, smashing me against boulders. Branches catch my hair, tear my tutu, and whip me around. My lungs burn as I fight not to cough, but a rock twists my ankle and my muscles seize from agony, losing all the fight in me. Water roars in my ears, blinds me, and crushes the breath from my sternum.
Something grabs my arm, yanking me up, and it’s only then that I realize I’ve been screaming his name.
“O-ri-on,” I beg for relief.
“I’ve got you, baby. It’s okay, I’ve got you.” He clutches me to his chest. I cough and sputter as we bob in the current. “There you go, cough it out.”
My body racks with the effort as it obeys. I look up through burning eyes, my lashes heavy with water.
Orion’s face is hard with worry, before his focus shifts to the river violently rolling us. “Shit. Hold on.”
He grabs the back of my head, curling over me as I grip to his jacket. We sail through the water until we crash into something, making his body tense at the impact, then the current wrenches us from the boulder he protected me from.
I want to ask if he’s okay, help somehow, but I’m still fighting for breath and clinging to him like a life raft. Hell, he is my life raft.
“Fuck,” he mutters. “Alright, whatever you do, don’t let go, okay?”
I nod but can’t help looking over his shoulder. My eyes widen.
Just ahead, the water stops. There’s nothing on the horizon but dark, blue-gray clouds, sheets of rain, and surging brown and white waves.
“There’s a waterf—”
“I know,” he grits out, huddling over me. “Close your eyes, hold your breath, and make a wish. Pretend it’s like the tunnel, okay?”
The water crests. I suck in my last breath as he one-arm hugs me to the point of pain and wraps the other around me to cover my nose and mouth with his hand.
Keep us alive.
Then we fall.
Protect her. Protect her. Protect her.
The mantra fills my mind, my veins, every fiber of my being as we careen over the edge of the waterfall. My stomach lurches into my throat at the weightlessness.
I.
Am.
Her.
Shield.
I squeeze Luna flush to me so hard it must be painful, but I won’t—I can’t—let her go. My heart beats out of my chest harder the longer we’re mid-flight, until we plunge into churning water so unyielding it feels like breaking through concrete.
Water fills my ears, and Luna screams into my hand as we tumble around, but I don’t let her escape, keeping my palm against her mouth and nose so she doesn’t suck water into her lungs. We roll in the icy-cold depths, pinballing rocks along the way. I twist us to avoid impact, but I can’t see through the mud, silt, and debris displaced by the storm. Pointy, hard, objects of all shapes and sizes collide into me, but it’s when Luna flinches from getting hit that I wince.
All the while I kick, trying to right us. When Luna tries to do the same, she cries out into my palm.
Fuck, she’s in pain.
I did this to her. I hurt her. If it wasn’t for me, she’d be safe—
No. Can’t think about that now.
The water is equally violent the further up we go, but we finally break the surface with a heave, and I let go of her mouth. We both suck in huge breaths, our lungs desperate for air.
We sail in the rapids, and I grab every branch I can, cursing when they rip from their trees, until my shoulder smashes into a boulder. Air bursts from my lungs, but I claw for a crevice and keep Luna in the vise of my other arm.
Something tugs on the crossbow that’s still miraculously strapped to my back. The water pulls at Luna’s tulle skirt, trying to take her away from me. I squeeze harder around her waist and slingshot us from one boulder to the next, pushing off at an angle to use the water’s momentum to hurl us through a pitch-black fissure.
We’re shot out the other side on another waterfall, quickly plunging into a pool below. My feet touch the bottom this time, and I propel off, shooting us through the calmer water with my arm out to keep us from hitting anything else.
We splash through the surface, sucking in oxygen, but hearing her alive is the sweetest sound. Catching my breath, I swim one-armed to the rocky riverbed and drag us into shallow water.
Luna slides out of my arms onto all fours, coughing and sputtering. Pain radiates over every inch of my body, but I’m behind her, gently pushing her forward to help her up as she crawls over pebbles and sharp stones.
Finally, the soft, silty bank dips under my hands. I grab a thick exposed root and wrap my arm around her waist to pull us both onto land, collapsing beside her on my back, not caring that my crossbow jams into my spine as I quickly check for paint on the trees. I don’t know where we are, my crossbow might be wrecked, and depending on the paint color, we’re either safe or we’re fucked.
I squint through the rain dripping from the canopy. A lightning bolt flashes, revealing a beat-up shack beyond and a splotch of paint on the closest oak.
Red.
Relief sags from my bones until lightning flashes and thunder claps a mere second later, the electricity in the air raising the hair on my arms. We need shelter now.
I shake out the water from my ears, and the first thing I register in the cacophony of the cascading waterfall, the rumbling storm, the roaring rain, is Luna hyperventilating.
“Luna?”
She tugs her bodice, trying to get it off, and I curse, sitting up and grabbing the fabric at her back to rip the shit in half. But the water’s shrunk it so tightly I can’t even get my fingers down the back. Her arm stretches behind her, trying to reach the clasps, and my heart pounds painfully as I wave her hand away.
“Fuck, I’m getting it. Just hold on for me.”
I tremble as I undo one impossible clasp after another until the whole thing falls off her chest and onto the ground. She sucks in a ragged breath that shreds me in two, and I roll her onto her back so her lungs can fill, keeping her arms splayed out with my hands on each wrist so she doesn’t curl around herself.
“You’re okay, Luna. You’re okay. Breathe, alright?”
At a loss of how to help, I wait for her breaths to finally slow, then exhale the terror gripping my chest and let her go.
“Jesus, you scared me.” One of those strange, stressed, manic laughs bursts out of me, and I sit back, raking my hands through my hair. “Thank fuck you’re safe.”
Even in the dark, I can see her eyes shine with rage.
“I’m safe?” she growls, her voice a ragged rasp. “No thanks to you.”
“No thanks to me? You would’ve died if I hadn’t jumped in. Those were damn near Class VI rapids. Some Olympians don’t even attempt those.”
“And I wouldn’t have had to if you hadn’t forced me to run and fall in!”
“Ah hell no. I gave you the choice.” I throw my arm up. “You’re the little bird who decided to go swan diving off a cliff to your death.”
She sneers, sitting up on her forearms. “And I’d do it again to get away from you.”
“Be my guest.” I gesture tiredly with my arm. “River’s right there.”
Her only response is crossing her arms and scowling.
I scoff. “You’re a piece of work, you know that?” I lean over her, resting one hand beside her head to block the rain from dripping into her eyes. “I saved your life, yet you think you’re the one that gets to have the attitude?”
Anger thins her lips… until she suddenly melts underneath me. Her brows furrow in something I’d swear was guilt, and I’m immediately on high alert.
But then she touches me.
Her hands slide over my shoulders and cup my neck, fingers brushing through my hair. Entranced, I climb over her more to slip my knee between her legs, caught in this tenderness so freely given that I’m not sure I trust it. But… what if it’s real?
My mind goes hazy. I’ve starved for her softness.
“You’re right,” she whispers.
“I… am?”
She nods slowly, then squeezes her legs around my knee. “I haven’t been grateful, and after that? I don’t want to think about what could’ve happened. God, just thank you.”
Holy shit. I was afraid I’d never hear those words, at least not until I’d convinced her to love me.
I swallow as she bites her lip. For the first time, I truly register that she’s naked from the waist up, and like the dog I am, my eyes drop to her breasts. I want to lick them, flick my tongue over the small buds, peaked from the cold rain and icy spring water.
A shy look crosses her face. I wipe her hair off her forehead to better see that sweet expression, tugging free a feather that clings to her hair for dear life, the crown itself long gone. When she slowly pulls me down, I close the gap, my heart pounding faster with every inch. My hand shifts from caging her in to holding her waist.
Our lips brush tentatively until she teases my mouth open. I’m lost in her touch as her nails scratch my scalp, and my hands glide up her slick torso to cradle her head.
“You’re mine, Luna. No one else has had you, and no one ever will.”
“Orion,” she whispers, shivering. From cold, rain, or from us, I’m not sure, but I press my body heat into her anyway. I sink my tongue into her open mouth again, mimicking what I want to do when we finally have the time. This will have to tide us over until I can get us safe.
But my cock is rock-hard right now, and it’s taking everything in me not to give in. I’ve waited this long for her, hopefully a few more days won’t kill me.
“Say it for me, baby,” I beg. “Say you’re mine.”
“Orion, I’m… I’m your…” She swallows, gathering her courage, then whispers, “I’m your worst fucking nightmare.”
My jaw drops, and she brutally bites my lip and slams her knee into my dick. Blinding agony shoots from my crushed balls to my dumbass brain, nausea rolling through me.
“Fuuuuckkkkkk,” I groan.
“I am not yours,” she sneers with a cruel, satisfied smile, then shoves me off.
I collapse onto my back and crossbow, curling into a fetal position and clutching my junk, fighting the urge to throw up.
“Don’t chase me this time, asshole. I’m escaping you whether you like it or not.”
She breaks into a jog, but two steps in she cries out and stumbles over a root.
I can’t even check on her, because, Christ, did her bony-ass knee hurt. When I finally turn my head, she’s already climbing rocks and exposed roots onto drier land, favoring one leg.
She’s hurt.
I suspected as much, but seeing it sends a pang of guilt through my chest. Why I have guilt while doubled over from her kneeing me in the balls, I have no earthly idea. I’m fighting delirium.
She finally hobbles onto raised land, half-naked, feather bodice in one hand, and catching herself on tree trunks with the other. There’s no way she’ll get far, and now I’m even more pissed because she’s made it impossible for me to go after her and stop my reckless little bird from getting lost—and who knows what else—in the forest.
Breathing through the throbbing ache, I crawl to my knees and unhook my crossbow from my back. How it survived those boulders slamming into me, I don’t know, but the attached quiver’s still full with a mix of real bolts and darts. The one already locked and loaded seems unaffected too. Hopefully I don’t have to use it, but if I do, it should work like a charm.
With her in my sights, I call out, my voice rough.
“Stop.”
“No!”
“Alright, but you’re forcing me to do it for you. You already proved once that you’d get yourself killed in these woods, you don’t gotta prove it again.”
“Go… fuck… yourself!” she yells, limping around a tree.
I sigh. “How about the other way around? As soon as you wake up, that is.”
“As soon as I… wait, what?”
I brace the crossbow on a root and pull the trigger.
The bolt is so fast I can’t see it, but Luna jolts with a yelp as the dart finds its target. She plucks it out and turns unsteadily on her feet to glare at me, holding it up.
“You shot me… in the… ass?” she yells.
She stumbles, catching herself on a tree trunk. Angry eyes bore a hole into me as she slides down, all the fight leaving her slower than it should with a full dose. But that’s just a testament to how strong she is.
As her eyes flutter closed, I can’t resist one more parting shot.
“Looks like I was right. Your wish won’t come true after all, birdie. There’s no flying away from me.”
My eyes snap open, finding a wood-beamed ceiling. The clap of thunder that woke me still rattles the warped window beside me.
Where am I?
A fire crackles and pops, splashing yellow and gold figures that dance across the stacked log walls. The most delicious smell tickles my nose, and I breathe deeply. My fingers twitch on a rough sheet, my head rests on a lumpy pillow, and my leg is inexplicably raised on a pile of blankets. The one on top of me is much softer, the lining of a leather jacket that smells like maple, bourbon, and pine. I almost curl into it, but the memories roll in faster than the river that got me here.
Kidnapping, murder, car chase, almost drowning…
Orion…
I turn my head enough to find him leaning against the wooden cot I’m on, his hands tugging his hair. Only his profile is lit by the glow from the cabin’s potbelly stove. He stares into the flames, unseeing, deep bags under his eyes, sunken cheeks, and a five o’clock shadow that’s at least a day long.
When was the last time he slept?
Actually, screw that. I do not care.
Determined to keep hating him, I shift to get up. The wood groans beneath me, and my muscles protest with it, dragging a whimper from my throat.
Orion lurches up, scrambling to face me.
“Luna?” His deep voice is a hoarse rasp. “You’re… you’re awake. Baby, you’re awake. Thank fuck.”
What looks like relief has him sinking back with a thud, raking both hands through his hair and pulling at the roots. If the spiky, haphazard mop is any indication, he’s done it at least a million times.
Annnddd he’s shirtless.
Jesus, like I need that.
I blink, forcing my eyes not to drag over the dark ink on his chest, the birthmark that matches the skull on my leg… and the trail of hair disappearing beneath the band of his boxer briefs.
“Where are your clothes?” I groan, slowly sitting up on my elbows, minding every throbbing bruise.
But the leather jacket slips down, wafting warm air over my chest. My bare chest.
I peek under the jacket, finding I’m only in panties.
“Where the hell are my clothes?” I gasp, snatching the jacket up to cover myself.
He doesn’t seem to notice my crisis, his hand pressed over his chest and breath unsteady, like he’s seen a ghost.
“Dadgum, woman. Don’t do that to me again.”
“Do what?” I quirk my brow. “Wake up?”
He huffs, holding up his heavy-duty watch. “You were out for twenty-one hours and forty-six minutes.”
“A day?” I jolt up, and groan at the aches in my bones, catching the leather jacket before it falls again.
He nods, then winces. “The tranquilizer dart… it was meant for a man. I’ve never tranq’d a woman before.”
“Gee,” I grumble. “So happy to be your first.”
His shoulders droop, features ragged. Is that worry and guilt I see? Good. He deserves it.
“I didn’t think about how you’d already been drugged. Then you got a full tranq dose.” His eyes drag over my body, and his voice cracks. “And you’re so small.”
I try to ignore the devastated remorse on his face and look away. “It’s funny how you wanna marry me so bad that you’re willing to kill me.”
“Fuck, I’m so goddamn sorry,” he rasps, bringing an unwelcome twinge in my chest.
“Apology not accepted.” I cross my arms over the jacket and refuse to look at him, scanning my surroundings. Priority one? Clothes.
My outfit hangs from hooks in the rafters above the toasty cast-iron stove squatting at the back wall. Its rounded belly glows faint orange, filling the cabin with the comforting scent of wood smoke. My bodice and tutu look crisp and dry, but brown from the river. The ballet flats’ satin is frayed and stained beside my garter.
“How do you feel?” Orion rumbles, and I relent, meeting his gaze again.
Those multicolored eyes shine in the light, and that voice—God, his voice. I try not to think about the way he taunted me when I ran away from him. The fact that I was turned on and scared will be all kinds of fucked-up fodder for my therapist. Maria’s been through a lot with me, but she might cut me loose after that little confession.
Yeah right, she loves me.
“Let’s see… how do I feel,” I say sarcastically. Trying to focus. I shake my head, but pain screams back, making me grimace and press my fingers to my temples. “Oh, like someone who survived a maniac, falling off a cliff, and nearly drowning through two waterfalls. How do you feel, Orion?”
“Walked into that one.” He sighs. “I feel like shit, Luna. None of this is going how I wanted.”
“And how did you expect your kidnapping to go, exactly?” A whiff of stale dust hits my nostrils, distracting me from my rhetorical question, and my nose wrinkles. “Ew, is this mattress sanitary?”
