Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

ELIA

Clawing at the ladder, she remembered what he'd told her to do if she ever thought she'd fall, and she threw her elbow across the rung, locking and bracing it with her other hand and arm, so that even if she lost her feet completely, she would still have a grip on the ladder. But it changed the angle of the ladder again, and her other foot slipped to the corner of the rung, and caught there, awkwardly, her weight heavily on her bent ankle.

With Reth's scream still echoing in the chamber, Elia's heart pounded so loudly she couldn't hear anything but their twin terror.  She froze, the ladder swaying slowly back and forth from the jerking, and Reth panting so loudly she could hear him even over the waterfall below.

A moment later he blew out a breath. "Do you have your grip?" He sounded terrified.

"Yes." Her voice was too high, quavering a little, but she wasn't near tears. Just… tired, and afraid.

"You need to get some weight on your feet, equally spaced—use the sides if you need to—then use the bracing hand to get to the next rung before you unhook your elbow."

Nodding, swallowing, not thinking about the eighty-foot fall if she got it wrong, she carefully did as he said and focused on getting the foot that had slipped on the rung below. But the angle of the vine ladder was strange now with her weight was fully pressed into the corner of the rung, and even when she got her toes on it, her foot kept sliding before she could get her weight to brace it.

"The angle's too steep," she said, her voice shrill and tense. "My foot keeps slipping."

"Okay, Elia, look at me, just for a second."

She let her head tip back to find him leaning, just twenty feet above her, his brow furrowed in deep lines, and his eyes fixed on hers. His hands gripped the end of the ladder as if he could somehow stop it from swinging. His jaw was hard as rock and he swallowed before he spoke. "Listen to me carefully: You need to put all your weight on your arms, take that foot off the rung, then put them both back on together so you can distribute your weight more evenly. Do you understand what I mean?"

She nodded. His brows pinched together and the look on his face. She had to look away.  Understanding his instructions and doing it were two very different things, and the first spear of despair rocked through her. If she got this wrong…

Her neck was beginning to ache. So she looked back down at her arms on the ladder, clasped her hand carefully, testing it to make sure her elbow would take all of her weight without slipping, then said through clenched teeth. "I'm going to do it."

"You can do this, Elia," he said, but the tension in his voice made her heart ache. "You have the strength."

"I love you, Reth."

"I love you, too, Elia. Now, focus." His voice broke, and it almost broke her. But she gritted her teeth and slowly, slowly bent the leg that was still on the ladder until all her weight was on her locked arms.

The vine bit into her elbow and her hand immediately lost bloodflow, but she just bit down harder and concentrated on finding the ladder rung with her feet—when she couldn't see the ladder, or her toes.

"You're bending your knees too much, you're pulling the rung above it up. You need to let yourself relax a touch," he called carefully.

Elia blew out a breath and sucked back in, then let her legs straighten and hang, swaying with the ladder until she could feel it laying along her legs. Then she, very slowly, her arm aching, heart pounding in her ears, lifted both feet to find the rung.

It took several seconds and one of them slipped a touch, but she was finally able to get both feet on the same rung and push down so they put tension on the ladder and took some of her weight.

The ladder swayed more with her weight distributed like that, but at least her throbbing arm was able to relax slightly.

"I got it!" she said breathlessly.

Reth's head dropped for a moment. "Well done, love. Very well done. Now, the bracing arm… that's the one you reach with first. Do not unhook your elbow until your weight is held by the other hand."

She nodded, and very slowly, unwound her other hand, then stretched to reach the rung above the one she was hooked on. When she clasped it, she let out a victory breath. Until she tried to unhook her elbow and found her other arm didn't want to work very well.

It took another minute of hanging, letting the arm fall loose—which made the ladder swing more—until she had enough feeling in the hand to grasp the rung alongside the other hand.

Then slowly, slowly, one rung at a time, Reth's breathing a counterpoint to her own pulse, she pulled herself up until she was on the final rung and Reth's hands hooked under her armpits.

He didn't wait for her to haul herself up as he had every other time. He just pulled her off the ladder and stood with her in his arms, pulling her into his chest, his nose buried in her neck and sucking in, inhaling her scent, strange calls and grunts breaking in his throat.

She was trembling, but she threw her arms around his neck and clung.

"Oh love, my love. Don't ever do that again. Please. I'm sorry. I should never have—"

"No! Reth! You were right! She pulled her head back and gripped his, forcing him to pull back and meet her gaze. "I did it! I did it without the bracing on the ends!"

His eyes were bloodshot and shining. She cupped his face beaming. "I did it, Reth!"

"Yes," he said hoarsely. "You did. You magnificent woman."