Oh, her youthful enthusiasm and the current of s****l excitement under-running her words is so tantalizing that I sob aloud. Battling anew the mad appeal of my doom, I channel all my conflicted upset into one last wrenching heave against gravity. And this time the full stretch of my reach brings that blade to my ankle. Careless of the cost, I s***h at the vine that binds me. Skin parts and blood pours forth, but that snare is sliced through as well. With a bone-rattling crash I fall to the forest floor as abruptly as I was yanked above it.
Terror allows for no relief at this reprieve. Nor does it concede anything to the pain wracking my frame, the blood sheeting my ankle or even my mad wish to look upon Rooni’s beauty in the resplendent flesh again after the transcendent heaven of at leas
