“Out in the open,” I said, remembering some of the wisdom Commander Thorne had shared during our training. “We’ve got distance between us and threats. Better than being ambushed at close range in the jungle.”
“Exactly.” Bryson shot me a pleased smile.
Maddox scowled. He toed a rock with the tip of his boot. “I still think?—”
“With the cliff behind us, we only need to guard three sides, not four.” I lifted my eyebrows, waiting to see what he’d say to that.
“Ignore him.” Jaxon grinned at his older brother. “He’s grumpy because he knows cliffs don’t have anything to hide behind when he starts sulking.”
Maddox tackled him, wrangling him to the ground, and they tussled like children in the deep grass.
“Enough,” Bryson barked with all the authority of a military commander. “Stop or I’ll make you.”
Maddox rolled off Jaxon, who sat up and straightened his clothing, smoothing his hair. He shot his brother a glare. “Fucking don’t do that again.”
“It was just a joke,” Maddox said in a mocking, high-pitched voice. “Thought you loved jokes.”
“I mean it.” Jaxon rose to his feet.
“Yeah, I heard you,” Maddox grumbled, getting up himself.
We hurried across the open area and stopped beside the cliff that stretched upward until it disappeared into low-hanging clouds, its surface scarred and weathered by countless years of wind and rain. I didn’t see any obvious handholds and no visible path leading upward. Only smooth, unforgiving stone that might as well have been a prison wall.
Thunder rumbled overhead, and fat raindrops began to fall. Within minutes, the drops turned into a torrent that drizzled down my leathers and soaked through those wearing simple tunics and pants. We started moving, slowly descending a long slope beside the cliff with the jungle still on our right.
“There,” Derren shouted over the noise of the rain smacking the ground, pointing to a dark opening in the stone not far ahead. “We need to get out of the storm.”
We stumbled toward it, slipping on wet rocks and clutching at each other to keep from falling, reaching the cave that was shallow but deep enough to shelter all eight of us. For now, the dirt floor was dry. We collapsed on the ground with the wall to our backs.
I shucked my pack and pulled out a small cloth bag of nuts I’d grabbed from the table, eating a few. We didn’t know how long the Rite of Bonds would last, and I suspected that what we’d grabbed from the table would not be enough.
Finished, I returned the bag to my pack and laid it on the ground beside me, tipping my head back to take in the jagged stones thrusting through the ceiling above. My legs shook, and my heart still thumped a furious beat. Commander Thorne’s training sessions had been grueling, but nothing could’ve prepared me for something like this.
Beside me, Derren pulled Lexie into his side. Fara had settled next to Kerralyn, and they were speaking quietly.
“You’re all too soft,” Bryson said, though with no malice. “I imagine this place will soon toughen you up.”
Or kill us. There was always that.
Breathing easily, Bryson approached the cave entrance, his branch in hand and his weathered face grim.
Maddox hefted a rock the size of his fist and brandished it our way. “Protection.”
“By the fates,” Jaxon said from where he’d sprawled on the dirt floor on the opposite side of Lexie, his voice dry with exhaustion. “Nothing says intimidating defense like my brother waving a rock around at a thunderstorm.”
Laughter burst out of us, the sound echoing off the cave walls.
Maddox’s face darkened, and his mouth twisted into a sneer, though he didn’t speak.
Now that the panic had faded, my arm throbbed where the assassin had cut me last night. I’d take a look at it later.
Rain drummed on the stone outside. Water dripped from cracks in the ceiling, hitting the dirt floor with soft plops. Even I had been soaked through from water that had gotten in around the neck of my tunic. My friends tugged at their saturated clothing. Shifted positions. Grumbled as they shoved back dripping hair.
The cave smelled like wet earth and the green scent of rain-soaked plants.
I pressed my back against the cave wall, trying to find a position that didn’t make my arm feel worse, but it pounded along with each beat of my heart. The pain in my back felt minimal in comparison.
“Your arm hurts, doesn’t it?” Lexie eased closer, watching the way I held my injured limb. “Let me see.”
