He isn’t worth it.
He isn’t worth it.
I repeated the mantra in my mind.
“What happens if we don’t do this?” Rakkel asked.
“Technically nothing.” Ivren shrugged. “But they’ll mock you for it forever.”
I kept my gaze on my boots. I didn’t need more of that.
Geord still stood by the edge, his face ghostly white in themoonlight as he stared down toward the lake. Drops of water splashed him, staining the leather sitting over the shoulders he’d hiked up toward his ears. Half his face was shadowed by another ledge towering another thirty feet or so above him.
So the Palsjo heir was afraid of something.
I wasn’t usually affected by heights, but as I bent my neck and realized how tall the mountain towered over the ledge Geord had claimed, a burn began at the back of my throat. We were hundreds of feet up into the air, and beneath us the dark water swirled eerily around the glistening rocks peeking through the mirrored surface. Anything could be hiding in its depths.
“What are you waiting for?”
“How long can it take to jump?”
Cold sweat spread from my neck down my back when the karls beneath started shouting, taunting us with their cries. When Ottoh laughed in response to the mocking shouts, the sound wrapped itself around my bones.
Survive. I only need to survive.
But this was also an opportunity to show them I did more than hide in trees, refuse to fight, and nearly fall to my death in thunderstorms. After a shallow breath, I inched closer to the steep drop instead of backward.
Viljan followed, even if I could hear from his dragging steps he wanted nothing more than to tug me back. Thankfully he kept his large hands to himself as I started up the trail leading to the first ledge, where Geord still hovered.
“Get the fuck back,” the heir warned, waving his shaking hand for me to stop. “This one is mine.”
As I turned my head over my shoulder, understanding heated in my stomach, then spread through my limbs.
“We can’t jump from the same one?” Rakkel asked shakily.
“What’s the fun in that?” Ottoh asked as he passed her. None of us had time to react before Ottoh shoved Viljan to the side, gave me an infuriating wink, and then overtook me on the narrow path, sprinting to the ledge above Geord’s.
I had to move to stand in Viljan’s way when his eyes went black.
“Don’t test me right now, Vara,” Viljan snarled. “You’ve pissed me off enough today.”
“Don’t testme,” I hissed as Geord inched closer to the drop while Ottoh climbed onto the ledge above him. “You need to control yourself. It’s the final night. After the choosing tomorrow, I’ll listen to you all you want.”
Viljan’s face tightened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re such a bastard, Ottoh,” Ivren called from behind Rakkel.
He really was. A smug fucking bastard now making his way to the end of his platform.
Geord still hadn’t jumped, and based on how the trembling in his hands now racked his entire body, I wasn’t sure he would. There was no fear in Ottoh’s stride, though, as he stalked out on the ledge.
A groan escaped me when I craned my neck, the muscles jumping in protest as I took in the scale of the hill. I would have to jump from one of the ledges above the two heirs. Rakkel and Ivren had come to the same conclusion, because when I spun to face them, they stared nervously from me to each other and back again.
“Well, fuck,” I blurted out.
Ivren’s laugh echoed across the water until I had to fight my lips’ twitching.
“I—” Rakkel started, but she was interrupted by Ottoh’s call.
