Sort of like I was feeling right now.
As I started to plummet into the cavern.
I had three choices here:
I could get eaten by Jekhipe.
I could smash into the side of the cavern.
I could fall all the way to the bottom.
None of those sounded like a good way to go. In fact, they all sounded terrible.
And just as I was sure I was about cross the veil, there came the most idiotic and wonderful thing I’d ever heard in my life bellowing out above me.
“Duh da da daaaaaaaaaaaaa! Kevin’s here to save the daaaaaaaaaay!”
I looked up.
Kevin was dive-bombing directly toward me.
Jekhipe curled in the air, eyes darting from me to Kevin, like it was trying to decide who to go after.
It decided on me.
So there I was, with a dragon the size of a large house with his wings tucked at his sides plunging toward me, and another dragon made of nightmares, jaws open, ready to force me down its considerable gullet, all while I was falling to my death in a cavern I’d made when I’d vaporized sand mermaids so they wouldn’t eat my boyfriend and my half-giant.
Yeah. I know.
Fuck my life.
It happened quicker than I expected.
Kevin twisted himself until he could stretch a clawed hand toward me.
Jekhipe’s tongue came out, and I could almost feel it on my skin.
Kevin pinched the pole holding up the sail between two claws, digging into the wood.
“You better hold on to something,” he shouted gleefully.
“Oh no,” I said.
His wings snapped open, catching an updraft.
Instead of falling, suddenly we were shooting upward, my gut immediately sinking to my feet as I fell flat on my stomach, stretching out along the board, holding on for dear life.
I looked down in time to see Jekhipe fly right under us with a snarl of outrage. If I were so inclined, I could have reached down and touched it since it was so close.
Kevin allowed the wind to fill the membranes of his wings, stretching them out and pulling us upward. He curled his arm, bringing me closer to his body.
“Who’s a badass?” he crowed.
I vomited over the side of the board.
“Oh gods. Why do you always do that when we fly?”
“My bad,” I said feebly, spitting out a gross something. “Maybe it has to do with the fact that I almost died.”