Page 79 of The Savage Vow
Ten feet down, Orlena somehow clung desperately to a thick tree root jutting from the rock face. Her fingers were slipping. Nargol flattened to her stomach and reached.
“Take my hand!” she shouted.
“I-I can’t,” Orlena sobbed.
“You can. Please. You have to do it.” Nargol stretched down farther.
Their fingers brushed.
Then slipped away.
Orlena screeched, but Nargol caught her. Her muscles screamed as she hauled Orlena upward. Her boots dug into stone and dirt for leverage.
“Look at me,” Nargol demanded.
Orlena’s tear-streaked face lifted.
“Do you trust me?”
Silence.
Her heart thrummed so violently she thought it might break her ribs.
“Yes,” Orlena whispered.
It was enough. With a final surge, Nargol pulled her over the edge. They collapsed together on solid ground. Orlena clung to her, sobbing uncontrollably. Nargol wrapped her arms around her mate and held her tight. She breathed in the scent of her hair and relished the warmth of her skin.
“You came for me,” Orlena whispered.
“I will always come for you.” Nargol meant this. There would never be a day that she wouldn’t be there to protect her mate. She pressed her forehead to Orlena’s.
“We will never be apart again.”
Orlena shook against her. She looked away.
“I didn’t know what to think,” Orlena said.
“We will speak. I will tell you everything. But not here,” Nargol murmured. She gently reached out and gripped Orlena’s chin. She forced her mate to meet her eyes. “I’ll ask you again. Do you trust me?”
The question shivered between them. This was something she had to know for certain. Now that Orlena wasn’t hanging off a cliff, she wanted to ask her one last time. Nargol would die before she allowed anything to happen to this woman. It pained her so that she’d had to lie to her, but she would spend every waking day making it up to Orlena.
Orlena studied her face. Nargol ensured that all of her feelings were present. She needed Orlena to see the truth, the fear she’d felt at almost losing her and the devotion in her heart.
Orlena nodded.
“Yes.”
“Good.” Nargol helped Orlena to her feet. “We need to go.”
“Wait!” Orlena stiffened.
Nargol wrapped an arm around her waist and guided her away from the cliff.
“The other women. We have to go and help them.”
“We will, but we need to hurry. All of this is no way near done.” Nargol glanced back toward the cliff. She was only slightly satisfied in the way Yambul had died, but it would have to do.
Grat was still out there somewhere, and he had been the ringleader of these rebels. He was the one they needed to find.
