Movement.
Not the small movement of people or machines. The walls of the shaft weremoving.
"The mountain," I whispered.
The rock face opposite us shifted, grinding upward with a sound that made my bones ache. A hand, a hand made of bedrock and granite, five fingers each the size of a cathedral, punched through the wall of the shaft lower down. It grasped the edge of the chasm, fingers digging in, crumbling entire city blocks of stone into dust.
"It's climbing," Kaelen realized, staring at the Titan's hand. "It's pulling itself out of the earth."
"We need to be somewhere else when he breathes," Flynn said, backing away from the edge. "Where is the exit?"
"Up," Kaelen pointed. Even through the smoke, I could see a circle of grey, swirling nothingness far above. "The mouth of the volcano."
"It's a mile climb!" Elias despaired, looking at the rickety metal stairs winding up the walls. "The structure won't hold!"
As if on cue, the gantry beneath us groaned. The bolts popped, pinging off the stone wall like bullets. The section of walkway we were standing on tilted forty-five degrees.
I grabbed the railing with my metal hand, squeezing until the iron collapsed like putty. Thane grabbed Flynn. Kaelen grabbed Elias.
"We don't climb," Kaelen decided, his gaze locking onto the distant circle of light. "We fly."
He released Elias and stepped back, unfurling his wings. In the cramped tunnel, they had been a liability, but here, in the vast open throat of the mountain, they were magnificent. Membranes of smoke and ember stretched wide, spanning twenty feet.
"Grab on," Kaelen commanded. "Thane, to my left. Flynn, right. Aria... hold my waist. Elias, you steer."
"Steer?" Elias squeaked as Kaelen hauled him up.
"Use the gravity," Kaelen grunted, digging his claws into the stone to anchor himself as we struggled to find purchase on him. "Make us lighter. Maneuver the falling rocks."
I wrapped my arms around Kaelen’s torso. His skin was burning hot, slick with sweat and ash, but he felt solid as a tree trunk. I buried my face in his back, right between the wings.
"Ready?" Kaelen asked.
"No!" Elias shouted.
"Go!" Thane roared.
Kaelen launched us.
The sensation was stomach-turning. We dropped for a second, plummeting toward the Titan's grasping hand below,before Kaelen’s wings caught the updraft of the hot air rising from the Forge. We snapped upward, accelerating with a force that tried to rip my grip loose.
We shot up the chimney, threading the needle between falling boulders and plumes of superheated gas.
"Right! Bank right!" Elias screamed, his hands waving frantically as a chunk of the palace fell past us.
Kaelen banked, the force pressing me into his spine. We dodged the debris by inches.
"Thermal pocket!" Flynn yelled, his Wolf senses reading the air.
We hit the pocket of hot air and surged upward, racing the smoke. The opening grew larger, a circle of grey nothingness rapidly expanding.
"Brace!" Kaelen shouted.
We burst out of the mountain.
The transition from the enclosed shaft to the open air was violent. The wind was a hurricane, screaming as it was sucked into the void vortex above.
We were high. Impossibly high. Olympus was spread out below us, but it wasn't the city I remembered even from a short while ago when we'd arrived. It was a ruin. The white marble was cracked and blackened. Entire districts had simply fallen into the sea as the island fractured.
