“TORRIC!”
Aspen’s voice echoes down from above. “I NEED SOMEONE TALL!”
I sigh.
“Coming,” I call back, already moving faster up the stairs.
Some things never change.
Behind me, a low rumble trembles through the stone. Distant. Faint. The kind of sound you feel more than hear.
I pause. Look back.
Darian is frowning at the ceiling. “The mountain’s shifting.”
“Settling,” Kieran corrects. But there’s tension in his shoulders that wasn’t there before.
“We leave at dawn,” I say. “No later.”
No one argues.
I take the stairs two at a time, following my brother’s voice toward whatever ridiculous task requires my height.
The Eds watch me go, their small dark shapes tracking my movement like a silent audience.
“Stop staring,” I mutter at them.
They don’t stop.
Of course they don’t.
Chapter 30
Kaia
We leave at an ungodly hour.
And by “we leave,” I mean Aspen physically drags me out of a warm pile of blankets while Torric stands in the doorway nodding like a drill sergeant who’s been waiting for this moment his entire life.
“We have to go now,” Aspen says. Calm. Reasonable. Completely unsympathetic to the fact that I got approximately three hours of sleep.
Behind him, Kieran nods solemnly. Agreeing.
I stare at the three of them — the frost twin, the fire twin, and the ancient dragon shifter — standing in a unified front ofwe’re leaving right this second and you have no say in it.
“When the hell did all three of you start agreeing on anything?” I demand. “Is this a new form of magic? Did you practice this? Is there a secret meeting I wasn’t invited to?”
Nobody answers.
Because they know I’m stalling.
I groan, dragging myself upright. Every muscle in my body aches in ways that are entirely Finn and Malrik’s fault. Good ways.Excellentways. Ways that make me want to crawl back to that hot spring and refuse to leave for approximately a century.
Instead, I’m stumbling through Japti’s halls at whatever horrible hour this is, trying to remember how my legs work.
Finn falls into step beside me, disgustingly awake. “Morning, Trouble.”
“Don’t.”
