All of them.
Whatever’s waiting for us at the end of this path — Seren, Lira, Alekir, whatever it is — I want to face it with them beside me. With all of them whole and alive andmine.
The ferocity of the feeling catches me off guard.
Bob materializes at my side, edges sharp. Like he felt that surge of protectiveness and approved.
Mine.
When did I start thinking of them like that?
When did it stop feeling like a question?
Kieran stops.
The sudden halt ripples through the group — Aspen nearly walking into Torric, Finn grabbing my arm to keep me from stumbling.
“What?” Torric asks. “What is it?”
Kieran doesn’t answer immediately. His golden eyes are fixed on the path ahead, narrowed against the mist.
Then I feel it.
A rumble. Low. Deep. The kind of sound you feel in your bones more than hear with your ears.
The stone beneath my feet vibrates.
“That normal?” Aspen asks quietly.
Kieran’s jaw tightens.
“…No.”
“Fantastic,” Torric says.
The rumble fades. The mountain settles. But the tension doesn’t leave Kieran’s shoulders, and I see his grip tighten on the rope attached to Callum’s sled.
“We keep moving,” he says. “Stay close. Stay quiet.”
My shadows cluster tight — Bob at point, Patricia and Linda flanking, the Eds swirling in a nervous orbit around Darian. Even Finnick has gone still.
Nobody argues.
We walk.
The mist swallows the path behind us.
And I want the hot spring back.
Chapter 31
Kieran
Four days.
Four days of climbing. Four days of wind that cuts through every layer. Four days of narrow ledges and loose stone and cold so deep it settles into bone.
We’re a little past halfway. I can feel it in the thinning air, the way the mountain’s magic presses against my skin. The sanctuary at the peak is close enough now that its pull is unmistakable.
