“And you’re not afraid?” Ryder asked with just the smallest hint of amusement coloring his tone.
“Not even a little bit.”
He shot me a wide grin. “Atta-girl.”
“You’re so smug,” I scolded. “You probably take credit for all of this, don’t you? You think you had something to do with my transformation.”
When he gave me another smile it was sweeter than the last, sweeter, kinder and infinitely full of love. “IknowI had something to do with this transformation,” he teased. “Which makes me love it all the more.”
I smiled back this time and let the butterflies that had been caged and dehydrated for far too long free. They erupted through my blood like a frenzied swarm of happiness. Their big wings flapped ecstatically and created a tingling sensation that made me want to stretch and fidget.
We hiked the rest of the way with purpose. The road became steadily more treacherous. It narrowed until we could barely walk side by side without brushing against the ragged cliffs on either side. In some places, the path had been completely blocked off by rock slides and debris. We had to pick our way over the rubble and hope there was clearer road on the other side.
I was out of breath and cursing our difficulty when the road suddenly ended. The gravelly, debris-polluted path ran straight into the jagged side of a large cliff.
I pressed my hands against the cool rock face, shadowed from the sun. My frustration simmered until it became a raging boil. I beat my fist against the rock, wishing I was as strong as a Titan. I would rip this mountain to pieces with my bare hands.
Ryder’s hand landed on my shoulder and pulled me back against his chest. “Hey,” he soothed. “We’ll find another way.”
I stared at the cold granite. There wasn’t another way. This was the only one.
I couldn’t say how I knew that, but I did. I knew it with conviction.
We’d taken the only path out of the main city and followed it here. I felt like a mouse trapped in a maze. We’d made it this far. Where was my cheese?
My senses prickled with unease and I squared my shoulders, bracing for the attack. I could feel them watching us as we stood here helplessly.
If they were here, then there had to be a way to get to them.
If they could see me, then somehow I could see them.
I tipped my head back and craned my neck toward the sky. The rock wall in front of me went straight up for a long time, before jutting out with a long, narrow cliff. The mountaintop came to a sharp point above that, cresting with snow and ice.
How far up were we?
As if in answers to my thoughts, an ice cold gust of wind rushed down from on high and skittered over me. I shivered violently from the frigid air.
“What’s up there?” Ryder asked cautiously.
I followed his gaze and stared at that thin piece of mountain. It almost looked like a runway, it was so long and narrow. Towards the back side of the cliff, near the body of the mountain a large black smudge opened up like a mouth.
A cave, I realized.
A tuft of black hair flapped in the aggressive wind. A small face peered down at me.
“There,” I pointed up for Ryder to see. The child-Fate hurried out of our sightline, but I saw her first.
They were up there.
Waiting for us.
“Then let’s go,” Ryder suggested. His hand found my lower back and nudged me toward the wall.
“You want me to…”
“Climb,” he finished.
I blinked up at the impossible distance. “I think I quit instead.”
