Zayan and Fabien glance up, eyes narrowing, measuring the distance and risk without a word. And just like that, we scramble forward, fingers and boots digging into the rock as we start to climb. The wall is rough, covered in razor-sharp edges that bite into my palms, but I grit my teeth and keep going, feeling each jagged cut open with every inch I gain. Behind us, the roar of the wave grows louder, an all-consuming growl that makes the stone tremble under our grip.
“Keep going!” I shout, voice lost under its thunder.
The tests are bound to make us curse our lives. Shewantsthat.
Zayan’s ahead, moving with relentless speed, every flex of muscle finding footholds I barely see before he’s passed them. Fabien follows behind, breathing heavy but steady, his gaze locked on the top, while Vinicola, sweating and panting, pushes himself upward with a tenacity that surprises me. He’s barely hanging on, yet he’s still there.
The wave’s roar builds, vibrating through the stone, and my muscles scream, but I force myself to climb faster, fingers raw and stinging as I grip narrow ledges.
Zayan’s first to reach the top, swinging himself into the narrow passageway, vanishing inside. I glance back, seeing Fabien gesturing to Vinicola to go next, and then it’s just me and him, clinging to the wall.
“Come on, Captain!” Fabien shouts, reaching his hand toward me. His grip is unshakable as stone itself. He waits for me like he’s not the one racing against the clock here.
I look at him, then up at the hole. It’s too damn tight for someone built like Fabien. So that’s why he’s waiting…
“Get your arse in there, Rancour,” I bark, hoping it sounds like an order. The trouble is, I know damn well he’s Fabien Rancour. Man like him doesn’t take orders—not from anyone in a crisis, not even me.
“We’re out of time,” he bites back, his jaw clenched.
Damn it.
I shove past him, hauling myself up and wedging into the opening. It’s narrow, painfully so, the stone scraping my shoulders and hips, pressing close from every angle. I grit my teeth and drag myself forward, inch by inch, scraping myself raw.
Finally, I break through, tumbling out onto smooth stone sloping down like a slick, hard slide. Below, Vinicola and Zayan are pacing, scanning for a way out.
It’s not the end of this goddamned cave.
“Where’s Rancour?” Zayan asks, glancing up. I say nothing, just staring back at the narrow passage. My gut knots as I wait.
A tense second drags into two, three, and then—finally—a rough hand grabs the edge, followed by Fabien’s fierce, determined face. He hauls himself through, landing beside me, his breathing ragged, a flush of irritation mixed with relief on his face.
“Tighter than a dead man’s arsehole in there,” he mutters, wiping his brow before shooting us all a glare. “What’re you all staring at? Move, for fuck’s sake!”
Right. Moving. Except… move where?
I glance around, pulse still hammering in my ears. This damn tunnel’s led us here—into a hollow stone chamber that dead-ends at a wall so smooth, it might as well be polished glass. Not a foothold, not a rope, not even a crack. Nothing to get us out.
We’re trapped. Completely, royally, fucking trapped.
The four of us stand there, chests heaving as the reality hits. The only way up is through that towering, merciless passage, and it offers no handholds, no ledges. Just the promise of a slow, agonizing death if we wait around.
Fabien’s eyes are darting over the walls, desperate to spot some hidden way out that I already know doesn’t exist. Beside me, Vinicola sways, pale as the moon itself, his breaths shallow and ragged. “Could we, I don’t know… try climbing this?” he stammers.
“Climb it?” Zayan cuts in dryly. “Maybe if you had wings. Got any?”
There’s a beat of silence, thick enough to choke on, and then I can hear the wave crashing.Feelit more like. The whole ground quakes. Moments later, a thin line of water trickles into the room from the narrow passage we’d just come through. My heart stops, then thuds painfully back to life.
“We need to do something. Now,” I snap. “This place is going to flood, fast.”
Zayan’s eyes flicker with mine. “Oh, fuck.”
“Everyone, get as high up as you can. Move!”
But there’s nowhere to go. The water trickle becomes a stream, then a cold surge rising past our ankles, icy enough to cut through my fears and dreams. I grit my teeth, feeling the bite of it as it climbs.
“We don’t have a choice,” Fabien mutters, his voice forced and low. “We wait until the chamber fills, then hope it carries us high enough to get air.”
Hope? It’s a bitter joke, but right now, it’s all we’ve got.
