Despite the roughness cutting into my palms, my hands remain steady on the ropes holding the swaying planks. This isn’t so bad. A little eerie, sure, but the more I walk, the easier it is to take the next step.

I swipe my hands down my skirts, thankful for the cool silk against the soreness. Surely, I must be almost to the other side by now. This must be the longest bridge in the⁠—

My foot meets nothing but air.

I’m too far gone to pull back, and my body tips forward. My arms cartwheel, missing the rope on my way down. No! No! “No!” I flail for something to keep me from plummeting to my death, somehow managing to catch the brace where the board should have been attached. The rusted metal bites into my hands as I dangle, nothing but air and terror beneath me.

A scream rips from my throat as I beg for help. If I cannot pull myself up, I’m going to plummet to my death, my bones broken and entrails splattered over whatever waits at the bottom of the abyss.

Stupid, bloomin’ weak arms.

My life flashes before my eyes.

My mother’s laugh.

My father’s smile.

My brother’s teasing.

My fingers cramp, and I screw my eyes closed, praying to whatever deity is listening.

Nia will be devastated. My poor father and brother will never know the truth of my demise. My sudden disappearance will break their hearts.

Why didn’t I stay home? Why didn’t I listen to Nia when she told me to put the Unseelie out of my head? Why did I venture into this terrible place of darkness and shadows and death and⁠—

Something clamps around my hand. My eyes flash open, meeting a pair of dark eyes set in a face I recognize.

The Unseelie leader, the one who took my biscuits.

I wait for him to peel away my fingers and let me fall to nothing, to be the monster everyone says he is.

Instead, he offers me a second hand. I cling to him like a lifeline while he lifts me as if I weigh nothing, right over the missing planks to where he stands. I collapse against his damp chest, gasping for breath, willing my thundering pulse to slow.

My palms and fingers ache and burn, but I don’t even care because I’m alive.

I screw my eyes closed to stem my tears, but still they find their way through my lashes.

If he hadn’t been nearby⁠—

Brilliant. Now I’m sobbing.

Peering through watery lashes, I find myself face-to-face with a very bare gray-green chest.

I jump away to give him space and would’ve fallen back into that damn canyon if he didn’t catch me again. This time, he spins me around and places me so that he’s the one with his back to the hole.