May Death Do Us Part

94 Chapter 94 : Scarlet wings

The horse carrying the elven prince and his blue eyed lover halted at the foot of a narrow rope bridge that connected two cliffs. Gareth dismounted and walked towards the bridge that was swaying side to side with the blowing wind.

“Careful..” Melissa muttered

The elf nodded at her with a smile and set a foot on the old bridge, trying to gauge how much weight it could hold. Very carefully he placed his other foot and rested his weight on viaduct.

“Gareth...”

The man turned to Melissa and gave her a reassuring smile, “it’s a little old, but I think we can get across.”

The redhead swung her legs over the horse to one side and the prince walked to her to help her down. “You’ll go first with the horse,” he instructed her, “then I’ll follow.”

Mel looked at the old corroded structure and gulped. The distance from the bridge to the rocky gorge below was alarming to say the least, a fall from there would mean all their plans of having a happily ever after would come to an end, no one could survive that drop.

Gateth cupped the woman’s cheek with his hand and gave Melissa a kiss on her forehead, “just don’t look down okay.”

She took a deep breath before nodding in agreement. The man gave her the reins of the horse in her hand and walked her to the foot of the swinging bridge, Melissa said a silent prayer to herself as her foot made contact with the first plank of the bridge.

.....

‘Slow and steady’ was the mantra she kept chanting in her head as she moved, trying her hardest not to look down to what must have been a grave to many unfortunate people who had slipped or lost their balance. Her one hand held on tightly to the lead rope anchored on the horse, and with the other she held the worn out cords of rope that were the only barriers caging her in the center of this dreadful contraption of a bridge.

When she reached halfway across, her nerves lightened, soon she would be on the other side safe and sound. But as of jinxing it, a gash of wind blew violently making the bridge swing from side to side. Acting on instinct, Melissa crouched down and held on to the planks beneath her, awaiting the wind to calm. Unfortunately for her, the horse did not share her thoughts. The animal rose its front legs into the air and neighed in fear before breaking into a run towards the other end dragging Melissa along with it.

As the animal moved, the woman’s leg wound up being caught between two planks making her lose grip of the reins. She watched in horror as the worn out ropes that were latching the bridge onto two wooden poles began to shrivel at the weight of the galloping horse.

When the horse took its last leap off the bridge, the last thread holding the bridge in place cut, and as if the world around was now in slow motion, Melissa began to feel herself fall. She was about to scream when two arms roughly scooped her up and flung her through the air to the other side. The blue eyed woman landed on the hard ground with a thud but pain was the least of her worries at this point.

She quickly crawled to the edge of the clif and looked down into the gorge. She saw Gareth holding onto a severed rope with one hand dangling helplessly in mid air.

“Gareth!” She screamed.

The man tried to pull himself up and grasp the rope with both arms but the additional weight caused one of the ropes still hooked to the other poles on the other side to snap. The elven prince looked up at Melissa and gave her a smile.

“No!” She screamed. She knew that smile, it was the same one he had back in Mirine when he had an arrow lodged in his back. “Gareth!”

“It will be alright!” The man called out to her, “it seems I’m always destined to die protecting you!” He gave her a mischievous grin and blew her a kiss, “and honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way!”

“Shut up you’re not going to die!” Melissa screamed, her tears were flowing down her face uncontrollably at this point. “I’m going to get you out of this! Just hold on okay!”

“Mel.. my love, I can’t hold on much longer!”

“Shut up Gareth yes you can!” She yelled as she frantically picked up sticks and tossed them aside trying to find something she could use to reach him. “Don’t you dare let go of that rope! If you do I’ll kill you!”

“Mel.. I love you!”

“Shut up!” Melissa dropped to her knees, hunched over the cliff and stretched her hand out to him. The man was at least 5 meters away from her, there was no way in hell her hand would reach him, but what could she do, she was desperate. “Gareth!” The ground beneath her chiped and small chunks of dirt fell into the deep gorge.

“Melissa get away!” Gareth yelled. For a second there he thought she was going to fall and he had literally felt his soul leave his body. “If you let yourself get hurt I’ll never forgive you!”

“But..”

“Get back!” He yelled, his voice was firm and panicked making the blue eyed woman inch back. “Listen to me, I will find you again. I always do! Just... just don’t let that silver haired bastard get to you first okay!”

“Gary...” Melissa clenched her chest tightly. As she reached out to him the last rope holding him let out and she saw him fall. “Noooo!!”

Without thinking, Melissa dived into the gorge after him. In free fall, she reached out to him again. The man who had fear painted all over his handsome face, more because Melissa had jumped after him than his own demise, reached for her hand, grabbed it and pulled her into his embrace, shielding her from whatever doom awaited them below.

The elven prince was squeezing his eyes shut bracing for impact when he felt his body jerk upwards as if pulled by something. When he opened his eyes they almost fell out his sockets when he saw a large pair of scarlet wings flapping powerfully. The princess groaned and gnashed her teeth as she struggled to pull the man’s weight.

Gateth couldn’t stop staring, with the beautiful wings that matched her waving hair, Melissa looked like a goddess. She flapped the wings as much as she could using them as a makeshift parachute to prevent them from going ‘splat’ when they reached the ground. She would have preferred to return them to the top but Gareth was too heavy for the wings that she barely knew how to control.

When the pair were a few feet from the ground, Melissa gave out and they both crushed to the dusty ground. When the dust clouds settled and Gareth coughed up the dirt particles that had lodged into his nostrils, he looked down and saw Melissa laying on top of him, her wings covering both of them.

“Mel!..” the man pushed himself up and pulled the woman with him, brushing off the dirt that had tainted her beautiful face and hair. “Mel are you okay?!”

The woman batted her eyes open and immediately went into a coughing fit. The prince heaved a sigh of relief and hugged her tightly. “Thank the gods!”

When Melissa stopped coughing and Gareth was sure she was fine, he pulled away and held her shoulders firmly with a frown on his face. “Why the hell did you do that?! Do you realize you could have gotten yourself killed?!”

“I wanted to help..”

“By risking your life?!” The prince was fuming with anger, fear and immense worry. When he had seen her jump off that cliff towards him, he had given up the ghost and his mind had gone into auto pilot. The only thing he could think of was any way he could get her out of that situation alive, his own life didn’t matter in that moment, all he thought of was her, the woman he loved.

“You’re not allowed to that anymore do you hear me?!” Gareth scolded the woman in his arms. “Promise me you’ll never risk your life to save mine ever again!”

“Gareth I..”

“Promise me!”

The princess furrowed her brows and looked to the ground, “I promise,” she mumbled.

Gareth pulled her into his embrace again and kissed her dusty head repeatedly, he could feel that she was alive and well in his arms but the adrenaline that had shot through his veins during the fall was still at its peak, he didn’t want to let her go.

Ducked away behind some rocks a few meters away from the pair, Theodora bit down on her lip in amusement as she watched the pair snuggle. “Well would you look at that..” she whispered giddily to herself, “his highness will be oh so happy to know that the little princess isn’t as timid as she looks.” The woman gazed at Melissa’s scarlet wings before turning to walk towards a portal, “Scarlet.. the rarest pair of wings in existence, how absolutely delightful!”