Thorne (Random Romance) Read Online Free PDF

hair and a lazy grin. He was watching the crowd of excited kids and occasionally murmuring something into the other person’s ear.
    And that was when my heartbeat jerked out of time. Because I saw the girl standing next to him, and it was the same girl from the square. My wild girl with the bright yellow hair and the matching yellow eyes. And Gods, if I’d thought her wild this afternoon then it was nothing to how she seemed now. Animated and powerful and utterly gorgeous, standing up there on the rock like the queen of the ferals. She grinned with lazy enjoyment, unfazed by the manic surge of kids all trying to gain her attention. She’d been born here in this cave, on that rock, with people swarming at her feet.
    As I watched she called out numbers and everyone would scream and shout their names until she chose someone and jotted his or her name down on a small piece of parchment. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but I knew I’d never seen so many people my own age before.
    Winn had gone to join the crowd, but I remained in the shadows, unwilling to ruin their fun with my presence.
    Once the process of picking names for numbers, or whatever they were doing, had been concluded, the kids all moved to stand around the edges of the ever-increasing tide. Each new wave was more violent and higher than the last. If they didn’t finish and head out soon they’d all get trapped. Onceeveryone was positioned, two boys moved to the edge of the rocks. That was when I noticed that there were ropes hanging from the sharp stalactites above. They hung at intervals leading out over the water, two rows of them, few and far in between.
    The boys readied themselves and then the Wild Girl shouted for them to start. They each leapt up to grab hold of the first ropes. Then they swung themselves back and forth, gaining momentum until they were flying high enough to launch themselves through the air and catch hold of the next rope in the line. My breath caught in my lungs, thinking the space too wide and assuming they’d fall into the churning death water below, but they didn’t – they caught the second rope, then the third, fourth, fifth and so on. Their hands had to be burning and their shoulders would be aching, but there were looks of such determination on their faces that I doubted they would feel anything until tomorrow. If they lived that long.
    The kids on the rocks were screaming and cheering and passing wagers between them, while the two boys swung and leapt, swung and leapt, coming nearer to where I stood at the mouth.
    ‘Crazy, right?’ a voice asked me and I looked down to realise Winn had returned.
    ‘What are they doing?’
    ‘Racing,’ he shrugged.
    ‘But … why ?’
    ‘Because it’s fun, sire.’
    ‘They could die.’
    Winn nodded.
    ‘Have people died?’
    His smile faded and he said, ‘Yes.’
    ‘Who thought of all this? And fastened the ropes?’ I didn’t know why I was asking – I knew the answer.
    ‘The twins.’
    I looked at them. They wore identical grins, watching the race with anticipation. He said something to her and she threw her head back and laughed with such glee that it hit me in the stomach – I didn’t think I’d ever seen anyone laugh like that before.
    ‘This is where it gets tricky,’ Winn informed me. The racers had reached the final two ropes at almost the same time, and were looking at each other as they steadily changed the direction of their swings.
    ‘Do they go back now?’
    ‘Yes, but they have to swap lines.’
    My heart lurched with alarm, and I started to prepare myself for a swim. If one of those boys fell into the water this far out, they’d be dashed against the rocks, or else they’d drown from the violence of the waves. And there was no way I could stand here and watch that happen.
    The boys had to time it perfectly, letting go of the ropes at the same time and twisting themselves through the air in such a way that they wouldn’t smash into each