Behind me, the bridge pulls away from the rock.
The entire world tilts.
“ASHA!” Ryder screams, voice breaking into something I’ve never heard from him before—pure, helpless fear.
The remaining rope on my right frays with rapid snaps, each one a countdown.
If I stop, I die.
If I fall, I die.
If I hesitate, even for a breath—
I throw myself forward, leaping over a shattered plank. My boot skids on the next, sliding across splinters, and for one horrifying moment I’m dangling over nothing—air roaring below me as the river thrashes against jagged stone far, far beneath.
I catch the rope with burning hands, swing, and lunge back onto the boards.
Ten more feet.
Five.
The last three planks are barely planks at all—just wood clinging to life.
I sprint, legs screaming, lungs on fire, heart beating loud enough to drown out the bridge’s death chants—
And then I hurl myself forward.
I hit the ground. Hard. Dirt and moss scrape my palms as I skid across solid earth on theMourn Peakside of the canyon.
The exact second my boots clear the edge—
The final support rope snaps.
The bridge collapses in a violent, deafening cascade of broken wood and whipping rope. It falls away beneath my heels, sucked into the canyon and swallowed whole by the roaring river below.
I scramble back from the edge, chest heaving, sweat cooling too fast on my skin.
On the opposite side—across a deadly, impossible gulf—Ryder and River stand frozen.
Ryder’s face is pale, eyes wide with terror and relief. “Asha!” His voice catches. “Thank the Gods—you—”
River steps forward, stopping just shy of the edge. “You made it.” But his voice is hollow. Because he can see what I see.
There is no bridge anymore.
No path.
Nothing but a canyon carved deep and merciless between us.
A distance too wide to cross.
Ryder shakes his head, panic tightening his jaw. “Asha, don’t—don’t go up that mountain alone. We’ll find another way. Just wait there—”
“Ryder.” My voice trembles, but I force it steady. “Thereisno way. Not from your side.”
Mourn Peak towers behind me—obsidian-dark, swallowing sunlight, a looming promise Oriah had warned me about.
And realisation dawns on all three of us at the same time.
