As we were on the platform, it suddenly broke into smaller pieces. I screamed as the one we were on shook a little.
“We gotta jump!” Kaelric said, letting go of my hand, leaping to the next platform, then turning to face me.
“It’s too far!” I screamed, panic rising up inside of me.
“I’ll catch you! I think as time goes on, the path is going to get worse. We have to hurry to the next obstacle!” His voice was calm but stern.
Get worse?Creator help me.
I peered down into the darkness. Bad idea. I swayed, envisioning dropping into the blackness below and never hitting the bottom.
“Brynn!” Kaelric shouted, and that power that he carried slapped me out of my stupor.
I looked up at him.
“Jump!” It was a command, and although I could deny it, I knew he was right about it getting worse. I could hear my fellow initiates screaming and communicating to their wolfkin, barking orders.
Without pausing to overthink it, I sheathed Valkaryn and then backed up to the very edge of the little circle of stone I was on, getting one good step in before I leapt.
I couldn’t help the scream that flew from my lips; I knew immediately I wasn’t going to make it. I was a few inches short. I reached out in panic, and somehow Kaelric was there, grasping me with a strength I didn’t know he had and pulling me to him. My body slammed into his, and he held me steady.
He peered down at me with a fire in his gaze, eyes going yellow. “Just a few more. We've got this, but we need to hurry,” he told me.
I nodded. We leapt then, one platform to the next, always Kaelric first. The wind had torn my cloak off three jumps ago, the stone barely wide enough to land. Every step was a gamble, and every time, Kaelric was there to catch me.
We made the final leap together and landed hard on solid ground. Kaelric caught my elbow to steady me, and for just a second our eyes locked.
Then, the next challenge reared up.
A corridor rose up from the blackness, lined with stone faces that began spitting bursts of flame at certain intervals. The walls were close, making it a tight fit to run down the hallway and out the other side. The air was blistering.
“Speed matters,” Kaelric reminded me.
I nodded, and before I could lose my nerve, I sprinted first, ducking low and zigzagging betweenjets of fire. Heat seared my skin, and Kaelric followed behind me like a shadow, his breath even, his steps silent.
Behind us, a girl cried out. I spun just in time to see a jet of fire catch her thigh. Her wolf-bonded lunged to protect her, only to be seared from the side. They collapsed together, one flaming, the other howling but alive. No one stopped to help them. A sound boomed behind me, and I turned back to see that at the end of the corridor, a thick wall of enchanted frost blocked our way. Runes of some kind pulsed faintly across its surface.
Without even asking, I knew Valkaryn could cut through this. I pulled my blade and darted forward through a gap in the flames as Kaelric slipped in behind me, narrowly avoiding being cooked. It was so hot that beads of sweat rolled down my skin.
“Hurry!” Kaelric’s voice was panicked as a scream rent the air, and I knew without looking that another initiate had been burned. I brought Valkaryn across the rune in one swift motion. The frost cracked down the middle, then shattered with a high-pitched screech, revealing a narrow stairwell.
We bolted through just as another flame roared to life behind us.
The stairwell spiraled upward, and we took it two at a time. It ended at a narrow ledge lined with chainsthat hung from somewhere above. A deep pit yawned below. On the other side was a wide platform.
I hesitated. “You go first.”
He grabbed a chain and swung easily to the other side.
I followed, arms shaking, every muscle screaming. When I landed, Kaelric caught me by the waist to steady me.
“Still with me?” he asked.
“Barely.”
“Good,” he smirked. “Because I think it’s about to get worse.”
We stood on a platform, and looming above us was a sheer wall coated in frost and oil-slick vines, with only narrow footholds carved at jagged intervals.
