A Trial of the Heart (Valdor #2)

Chapter Eighteen

“I f you’re going to enter the Gauntlet, you’ll need to see the course run properly first,” Daxton said as we exited the library to find Gunnar.

Walking through the Summit, I admired the tasteful elegance crafted into the stronghold. Amazed at how the architectural designs utilized the surrounding mountains, the forest, and the meadows that the city itself was built upon. The vaulted high ceilings were framed by towering white columns along the hallways and an open grand staircase that connected the various levels. My favorite design of the Summit was the skylight and ceiling-to-floor arched windows that held a breathtaking northern view of the three towering peaks.

Nox was the second tallest to the left, Dagur was the widest to the right, and Meja was at the center, the tallest peak with a hanging valley just below its top.

As we rounded the grand staircase, I traced my hands over the stone-carved railing, admiring the intricate swirling wind designs with various flowers, vines, and trees carved in as well. I could easily lose myself in the details that I managed to find more of each time I looked at them. The artists who helped build this palace had a unique way of combining the strength of the mountains with the beautiful nature surrounding them.

“Today, a group of cadets are trying their hand at the course, and before they enter, I’ll run the Gauntlet and show all of you how it’s properly done.”Daxton’s hair was tied back, giving me a glimpse of his pointed ears and the strikingly handsome contours of his face.

“Did you have humble tea with breakfast today?” I asked, catching a glimmer of amusement in Daxton’s expression.

Castor and the others helped us research the second clue, and although I appreciated their aid, Daxton and I hadn’t had a second alone together. With the threat of Anjani lurking in Silver Meadows, we were forced to be discreet.

But honestly, I was too exhausted to even think of doing anything other than sleeping, with Daxton always nearby. Here, in this hallway, however, was the first time we had been alone together, not surrounded by others or the threat of wandering eyes.

“If you want something done right, more often than not, you must do it yourself. I don’t want you learning any improper techniques before you enter the course,” Daxton insisted, marching us down the marble-stoned hallway off to the side of the staircase.

“You do know … our elders say that we can learn from failure just as much, if not more, than when we succeed.”

“Failure in the Ice Gauntlet is a death sentence.” Daxton stopped and turned, giving me a firm look that held my steps in place. “I’ll never try to hold you back, Skylar. It’s not my place to do so, and I respect you too much to attempt to force your hand. But I do ask that you take caution with this task,” he said in an even tone. “I ask that you carefully watch me run the course today and take extra care in preparing for the Gauntlet. I can’t step in and save you if you fall. You must rely on yourself to reach the end.”

“I understand,” I said with blazing certainty shimmering behind my eyes. “I’m not scared of what I might fail at, Daxton … I’m terrified of what I might never try because I’m afraid to fail. I’m a shifter. We’re sturdy and annoyingly stubborn to a fault.”

Daxton nodded, with a sincere look of pride beaming in his eyes. “And that … along with many other qualities you possess, is why I know you’ll ultimately win the trials. The strength of your heart in all things defies the very fabric of logic.”

He glanced around us before moving over me and pressing my backside against the wall. His arms bracing the bulk of his weight on either side of my head. My core tensed, and my breathing became erratic as his gray eyes shined with an intense desire that I knew mirrored my own. The Gods be damned, I wanted this. I wanted him more than logic or common sense could control.

His fingers grasped my chin. His thumb delicately caressed my bottom lip as he shifted his weight, leaning his chest against mine. He was gentle with his touch, but I knew beneath the surface he was just as wild and unhinged as I felt. I watched his eyes scan my face, darkening with a hunger for something more than a stolen embrace in the hallway.

“Well,” I barely managed to breathe, “are you going to kiss me?”

A toe-curling grin pulled at his lip. “There’s only one problem with that, Spitfire.” I raised my brows, tilting my chin so our mouths were just breaths from touching. “If I kissed you here and now, I wouldn’t be able to stop. ”

“I don’t see a problem with that.”

This time, I took what I wanted. I wasn’t going to wait for him to make the move. Gripping Daxton’s hips, I aggressively coveted his delicious mouth with my own.

Daxton’s lips were warm and soft, more decadent than a rich dessert or the finest wine. Drawing me into a lustful haze that I never wanted to leave. I sucked on his bottom lip, encouraging him to open his mouth so I could kiss him harder, deeper. Exactly how I knew he wanted it. How I knew we both needed it. This kiss felt like I was being swallowed and devoured by the raging sea, with Dax as my lifeline. The one thing anchoring me, preventing me from floating away. Nothing else outside this moment existed. Nothing.

His moan was a delicious sound that I could listen to again and again. I would forever strive to entice that sound from his lips for the rest of my mortal life if I could. It turned me on, knowing that he wanted me just as much as I wanted him. Daxton shifted to move against me, his hard, growing length seductively rubbing against the apex between my thighs. I reached my hand down between us and curled my fingers around him, stroking his erection through the fabric of his pants.

“Gods. Fuck, Skylar,” Daxton swore against my lips, feverishly kissing me as I opened my mouth to allow his tongue to enter. He grabbed my backside, hoisting me up so I could wrap my legs around his waist. “I have countless ill-mannered things I want to do with this,” he growled, gripping my ass tighter.

Our kiss turned wild and unhinged in less than a heartbeat, tasting like sweet insanity, mirroring the danger of what we were kindling in this hallway.

Once my lips parted and his tongue licked inside my mouth, I couldn’t resist releasing my own sigh of blissful pleasure. With my thighs spread around him, I could feel him hardening even more through the thin layers of fabric separating us. His kiss held a burning, ravishing need that left me hungry for more. More of him.

“I need you, Spitfire …” Daxton rasped. “I don’t know if I can wait any longer before I get to taste you again. You have no idea how unhinged I am when I’m around you. It’s utterly maddening.”

“No one’s stopping you,” I said breathlessly, pausing our kiss to cup his face between my hands before running my fingers through his hair, forcing his eyes to find mine. “Your move, Princey.”

The blazing storm of desire burned inside his hooded, lightning-gray eyes. He leaned forward, pressing my back harder into the wall to help hold me while his palms explored the curves of my body. Daxton kissed me with the passion and heat of a thousand blazing suns. Time stopped, becoming nothing more than a mere notion. One second, my lips belonged to me, and the next, they were his.

“Look at me,” he commanded, pulling back as I snapped my eyes open. His control was beginning to slip away, but I still, for the life of me, didn’t understand why he was even trying to hold back.

His grip on me tightened as his cock ground against my throbbing center, sending waves of pleasure through my entire body. He was winding me up like a top. The teasing feel of him was almost unbearable.

Daxton’s breath was heavy and ragged, matching my own maddening rhythm as we continued to stare at one another in complete silence. Daring the other to push past that invisible thread between us and lose all control.

Footsteps padded down the hallway to our right .

“Fucking timing,” Daxton cursed as he quickly bent to kiss the sensitive spot on my neck, my center aching with a need to be filled. “This is not over yet.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” I said, arching my back to press my breasts and hardened nipples into his chest. The faint sound of his sensual moan echoed once more as he reached up to fondle one of them, his lips still on the base of my neck. Again, I sank into the bliss of his touch, making me forget anything but him. Fuck… this was a dangerous game to play, but I was done being careful and cautious.

Daxton slowly released me and stepped away, physically bracing himself and trying to regain his composure. I reached up to smooth my hair as best I could, quickly tying a braid across my brow before pulling it into a long ponytail that draped over my shoulder. Daxton watched me with liquid fire burning in his penetrating stare, never once taking his gaze off me.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Dax whispered as he tucked a stray hair behind my ear, his hand cupping the back of my head. I smiled, my cheeks flushing. “Just one word from you … and I won’t be able to hold back. I’ll ruin you, Spitfire.”

“That’s exactly what I want,” I said with absolute clarity. “I need you to lose control with me. I want you to be wild.” I could feel my animal’s power surge to the surface, making my amber eyes glow like fire, challenging him. “Ruin me, so no other could dare try.”

His throat bobbed as he closed his eyes, the final threads of his self-control threatening to come undone. “Understood,” he said in a dark, rough tone, rushing in for one final kiss before leading us out the door of the Summit.

“Those of you who wish to advance into the ranks of Silver Meadows warriors must first successfully run the Ice Gauntlet,” Daxton announced as he stood at the base of the towering mountain that housed the obstacle. “The course is warded against magic, so you will only have your strength, stamina, and sheer willpower to progress you through. If you do not complete this course within the allotted time, you fail. If you fall from an obstacle, you fail. If you slip and grab onto one of the ropes at the higher tiers—”

“You fail?” a mocking cadet asked.

Daxton shook his head. “No, you have two minutes added to your time. But two minutes added is better than falling to your death.”

Silence broke out amongst the crowd, but the look of determination on their faces did not change.

“How long did it take you to finish?” I whispered to Gunnar.

“Twenty-seven minutes. Fucking close, but luckily, I didn’t grab onto a rope.”

“And you were how old?”

“Fifteen.”

My eyes widened. “Wow.”

“Not the fastest time… That record belongs to none other than the high prince himself, who accomplished that feat at only seventeen,” Gunnar replied, lowering his voice so he didn’t draw attention away from Daxton’s instructions. “And it only took him fifteen minutes. Half the time allotted for him to complete it.”

“I ran it when I was twenty-one,” Castor added, stepping to my other side. “I did have to grab one rope, but lucky for me, I was still fast enough to make it under your set time, Gunnar.”I didn’t miss the taunting look the silver prince gave his general .

Gunnar audibly rolled his eyes but managed to keep his comments to himself. Castor was still a prince, and he knew when and where he could push the boundaries. Here, in front of potential new warriors in their armies, was not one of them.

I took the opportunity to look around at the eager faces of those gathered as Daxton and the others called them forward, waiting for a chance to test themselves in the Ice Gauntlet. I envied them. I wanted to be standing with them to try my hand at the daunting obstacle course.

The Gauntlet held five different platforms of staggered obstacles, leading to the top of a cliff that overlooked the entrance and training fields below.

Daxton met each cadet’s gaze and gave them all a silent nod of luck before turning around and preparing for the course before him.

“Once I reach the top, the rest of you are expected to follow. General Gunnar will send you in waves of three at a time, and you will have thirty minutes to complete the task. Once the thirty minutes are up… or the three of you in the wave fall, give up, or miraculously achieve your goal,” he announced with a slight drop in his tone, “then the next three will enter. Questions?” Silence followed, and Daxton didn’t hesitate as he sprinted into the course.“Start the time.”

A small hourglass appeared in Castor’s hand and he turned it over and placed it on a natural shelf made of boulders from the surrounding mountains.

Daxton glided across quintuple steps using explosive lateral movements before leaping through the air and grasping a long horizontal bar. He clutched the bar in his hands and pressed his feet against the angled wall below, traversing sideways until the end of the wall. He pulled his knees close to his body and jumped 180 degrees in the air to the other side. He climbed until he came to a ledge that held stone steps leading up and onto the next obstacle.

“Not bad timing on that first one,” Castor complimented. “It’s not as easy as it looks.”

“The spinning logs are next,” Gunnar added. “Those get about half of ’em.”

Daxton emerged from the hidden stone staircase, at least fifty feet higher than when he had begun the course. From this height, I could see why this obstacle took out so many of them. Dangling ropes hung along the mountain rocks to his left, should he or anyone else slip and fall. Like he said earlier, adding time was better than dying.

Thick iced-over logs were lined up perpendicular to the mountain cliff face, and this obstacle required him to maintain balance while sprinting fifty feet across to reach the other side safely. There was a standing platform about halfway through to use as an aid, but I had little doubt Daxton would utilize it. Taking off at a steady run, Daxton’s feet barely touched the icy logs as he ran across.

“The trick is not to stop moving your feet. If you can manage that, then you’re safe,” Gunnar instructed. “Don’t worry, we’ll practice this.”

I wasn’t worried. This portion of the test seemed simple enough, and this obstacle had the ropes if needed. What worried me more was the inverted ladder and plank walk on the next level.

The narrow walkway was barely visible from this distance, but contenders had to meander across three twenty-five-foot peaked beams to reach the inverted staggered bars that they must climb to reach the next platform of stone steps. Daxton extended his arms to his sides as a gust of wind whipped upward, surrounding him. To my amazement, he didn’t even flinch. Daxton simply fixed his stare forward and walked across the beam with nothing below him. The drop was well over two hundred feet by now, and it would certainly kill anyone who wobbled and fell over. At the end of the beam, Daxton jumped to grasp the bars and effortlessly climbed the ladder to the stone steps that carried him higher up and to the second-last obstacle.

A metal ring dangled over… nothing but empty cold air above jagged rocks of death below. The task was simple, in theory: take a running leap, grab the large ring, and using his momentum, swing himself over onto the stable platform and scale the next fifty feet to the final obstacle of the Gauntlet. Daxton completed this without hesitation, executing it with astonishing perfection. I might have been in awe of his abilities before, but now, he was officially on an entirely different level.

The final obstacle, which the high prince was able to accomplish without missing a step, was a vertical wall. He needed to run up and jump to propel himself skyward to grab the top ledge before pulling himself to victory.

I glanced over at the sands on the hourglass. The remaining grainsindicated that Daxton finished the entire course in only half the time. He had tied the record he set when he first ran this course over five hundred years ago. And this … This was just a demonstration.

“That was unbelievable,” I stated with my jaw practically scraping the ground.

“Think you can beat him?” Gunnar countered with a teasing tone. “I would pay good coin to see that.”

“I believe not falling to your death would be a more appropriate wager… and focus,” Castor said with a furrowed brow. “I’m still not in favor of you doing this.”

“As you have said numerous times before,” I said with a stern glare. “I want to do this.”

“Glad to see you were able to tear yourself away from whomever you were with last night, Cas. You left the tavern before it started getting interesting,” Gunnar said, but Castor ignored him.

“It’s sad to see that logic has fallen on deaf ears. This is an unnecessary risk for you Sky.”

“Come on, Castor,” I sighed. “Where’s your faith?”

Lines creased between Castor’s brows, but he quickly morphed them back into the neutral expression I had seen him wear countless times in disagreements with Daxton and Gunnar over this very subject. “At least I won’t be around for your turn at the death wheel. Daxton is sending me to the Southern Sea Cliffs to investigate the potential lair we believe holds the beast and the entrance to the second trial.”

“And you need the key,” I said, untucking the golden trinket from the chain around my neck. I had fashioned the key into a necklace and worn it at all times since arriving in Silver Meadows.

“Obviously… and the sooner, the better. I can’t teleport, so I’ll be venturing south on horseback and then on foot. The pegasi are beautiful, but they attract too much attention.”

“Wise.” I sighed.

“Please don’t insult me by suggesting otherwise.” Castor reached out and accepted the key, tucking it around his neck and into the high collar of his shirt. “And with this, I’ll take my leave. Oh, and by the way,” he said with a pause, flashing me a cunning grin, “don’t die, Skylar.”I grinned at him with a firm nod .

“Stopping by the archives before you leave?” Gunnar asked in a taunting tone with an all too knowing smirk spreading wild across his face.

Without so much as a reply, Castor grunted and waved away Gunnar’s remark and turning on his heels to leave.

“Touchy,” Gunnar muttered under his breath. “All right,” he said, turning to the gathered cadets. “Ready?” He raised his hand. “And… go!”

My attention on Castor lasted only a second before cheers and echoes across the group of budding warriors drew me away.

Gunnar and I watched wave after wave of High Fae enter the course with only about half reaching the top under the allotted time. Those who were successful were granted the patch of a single mountain on their shoulders from Daxton. Wearing brightly beaming smiles as they descended the rocky pathway winding down the backside of the course. Thankfully, none had fallen to their deaths, but the looks on the faces of those who did not meet the time constraint indicated they almost wished they had.

“Are they able to try again?” I asked.

“In due time, they may train with us again and re-enter,” Gunnar answered, “but many don’t.”

“Why not?”

“Shame and embarrassment cling to us longer than they do to your kind, I’m afraid. Call it one of the downfalls of our immortality… but some refuse to give up and try again even though they fail. Daxton keeps a close watch over them and tries to help in any way he can. The strength of their will and determination is worth watching.”

“What if—” My question was cut short when a deafening scream tore through the sky. “Oh no!” I gasped in horror as a silver-and-brown-haired male High Fae cadet dangled from the narrow beam walkway toward death waiting below.

Gunnar tensed and grasped my arm as he yelled out, “No! Fuck, Reece!”

Reece, my memory connected with the name, and I remembered where I had seen him before. This was the male who helped carry Daxton to Castor’s room at the Court of Aelius.

Daxton looked over the edge of the warped wall, unable to step in and help the dangling cadet. “Grab the ropes!” he screamed.

“No!” Reece yelled in reply, his dark eyes wide and full of terror. “If I do, then I fail. I said this was the last time. I reach the top or I die trying.”

“Grab the rope!” Daxton commanded this time.

Reece shook his head and tried to swing his leg up onto the beam, but he slipped. The ice on the wood made his grip give way, and he fell.

“Reece!” Gunnar yelled as he sprinted toward the bottom of the Gauntlet with me close on his heels. A fall from that height would surely kill him. If the jagged rocks hadn’t already torn through his flesh and caused him to bleed out from catastrophic injuries that even his High Fae healing couldn’t combat.

Reaching the bottom of the course outside the wards, I gasped at what I saw. Reece’s body was twisted and broken with his back arched at an unnatural angle, so his head lay next to his feet. Blood pooled underneath him from cuts and scrapes from the jagged rocks …No one could survive that. Then slowly, as if the Mother and Father themselves reached out their hands, his chest rose and fell.

“Move!” I yelled at Gunnar, shoving him aside and calling upon my healing magic the next second. I couldn’t believe his luck. The male was still somehow, by the grace of the Gods themselves, alive.

“You’re one lucky bastard,” Gunnar cursed.

“Keep him still or else he won’t be alive much longer despite my healing magic,” I grunted, not once allowing my gaze to leave the frail body.

I let my powers flow through me, mending what had been broken and trying to feel where the body experienced the most pain. “Slowly unbend his spine,” I instructed Gunnar. “Very slowly.”

My magic glowed, golden in my palms, as I felt it flow into the mangled body of Reece. The bones bent and snapped back into place with the guidance of Gunnar pulling his body straight. I moved to mend the open wounds next, closing the gaping holes in his flesh and stopping the bleeding before there was nothing left to bleed out. The color returned to his tanned face, and the ends of his hair once again shimmered with the vibrant silver color that matched the metal threading in the ground around him. His chest fully expanded, and his eyes flashed open once more to see the world anew.

“What… What?” he stammered, looking around to assess his surroundings before finding me. “I fell.”

“You fell,” I replied in a low tone, trying not to startle him, “and I healed you.”

“You saved me,” he answered with darkened, sorrowful eyes pooling with tears of gratitude.

“I’m still in shock that you were able to heal him like that!” Gunnar said from up ahead on the spine of the Nox mountain trail.

The thick pines of the surrounding forest and green grass of the meadows gave way to the rocky path leading up the spine of the second-tallest peak of Silver Meadows. Large boulders and slick gravel terrain guided our way, with an increasingly thick fog. My sweat-slickened hair at the nape of my neck began to freeze as we climbed higher and higher toward the peak.

“You and everyone else, apparently,” I mumbled. “I’m thankful Daxton suggested we take this training route to get away from everyone. It was beginning to be a bit much.”

“I’d heard about your healing magic,” Gunnar added as he gracefully leaped across a crevice, “but seeing it is entirely different. You worked a miracle today, Skylar!”

Reece was a high-ranking citizen of Silver Meadows, admired for utilizing his unique skills to influence trade and management of the local shops and ports. Despite his status within the city, he always envisioned himself on the front lines, serving his people from the battlefield. I admired his dedication, but we were not all born to be warriors. Some had to utilize different strengths to achieve their goals.

Everyone in my pack had become accustomed to my healing gifts, but apparently, it was an extremely rare talent in the Inner Kingdom. There were healers by trade and minor healing abilities like Daxton, but not magic like mine. I just hoped this news wouldn’t draw any extra unwanted attention our way.

“You sure you don’t need a cloak?” Gunnar asked me for possibly the tenth time since we began our trek up the mountain. “I have a spare in my bag in case you change your mind. The winter hits harder and faster on the mountain trails up here.”

I slouched my shoulders with a loud sigh. My face turned downward. Annoyance could not properly express the frustration I was feeling. “Shifter…” I repeated slowly, emphasizing each letter. “We run wa rmer than all other species. The cold does not bother us like it does you.”

“Fine then.” Gunnar huffed, shouldering his bag. “Sorry for caring.”

“If you cared, you would’ve listened the ten other times you asked me.”

“If I didn’t care,” Gunnar countered with an annoying grin, “then I would cut through your rope and make you walk this trail without a safety line.”

“All right, you two,” Daxton said from behind, “don’t start this again.”

Through the three weeks spent training together, Gunnar quickly caught onto the fact that I had a strong stubborn streak and thrived on the thrill of tackling a challenge head-on instead of slowly working my way through it. He noted on several occasions how odd it was for someone who took the time to read as much as I did and asked every question under the sun to find herself in the middle of so much chaos.

Some might think you’re smarter than that.

The first time Gunnar told me this, I promptly flipped him off and stuck out my tongue. He rolled on the grass laughing, apparently proving his point exactly.

I glared up ahead of him. “I’m not happy about this either.” I tugged at the rope attached to my waist, glancing behind my shoulder at the other half of the line that was attached to Daxton. “It feels like a leash,” I grumbled.

“You do tend to wander.” Daxton chuckled.

“High prince’s orders,” Gunnar said with a wide grin, laughing alongside his friend.

“The fog is expected to drift in from the north, making it easy to fall from these cliffs. We guide all our cadets through this pathway linked in this exact formation, and I’m not taking any chances on either of you getting lost,” Daxton said, probably for the fifth time.

This was the final piece of the training I needed to master before being allowed to enter the Ice Gauntlet. Even though Castor didn’t agree with me taking this risk, I refused to budge on this decision. I knew it was one of the reasons why Daxton had sent him on his mission to the Southern Sea Cliffs with the key.

“Hurry up,” Daxton said ahead to Gunnar. “It’ll be dark by the time we reach the top if you keep this slow pace.”

“Just being cautious for Skylar’s sake.” Gunnar scoffed in response.

“If you think babying her will help ensure her success, perhaps I should be rethinking your rank and station as my general.”

“You can always lead the way yourself,” Gunnar said, swinging his arms around with his brows arching.

Daxton huffed a laugh paired with a mischievous smirk as he reached my side. “I’m fine here.” He then bent to whisper in my ear so only I could hear him, “I wouldn’t dream of giving up this view.”

I blushed red and playfully smacked his arm while biting my lower lip. His smile curled around his chiseled jawline, revealing the dimple on his cheek that softened his cold exterior in a unique way that always seemed to melt my heart.

Gods, I could look at him all day, and somehow, I knew it would never be enough.

Gunnar grunted and mumbled something to himself, looking unimpressed, but did not say anything about Daxton’s comment or our obvious flirtations.

“Come on then,” the general announced, quickening his pace and leading up along the rocky spine to the top of Mount Nox .

After beginning this grueling trek, all the obstacles in the Ice Gauntlet made perfect sense. We scaled boulders, leaped from jagged cliffs, and then ran along beaten trails to reach the endpoint. Silver Meadows was surrounded by mountains on all sides but one. Warriors not only had to meander over these routes to reach their outposts, but they were also expected to fight on this terrain if needed.

My legs ached, and my feet had blisters that housed more blisters, but I didn’t complain or ask for Gunnar to slow his pace. This was my chance to prove myself. If I was going to defeat the trial of the body, I damn sure better be ready for it.

The beast I had to defeat would not stop or give me grace if I was tired or injured. So, I didn’t expect it here either. The Ice Gauntlet had become my own personal scale of self-worth, and conquering it would give me the boost of confidence I needed in order to bravely enter the second trial.

The clouds became thick, and visibility dropped to only a few feet in front or behind where you stood. I had to admit, the ropes were a good idea.

“Last jump is up ahead!” Gunnar shouted from behind a veil of clouds. “That’s the summit.”

Daxton quickened his strides to meet me at my side. “It replicates the final obstacle atop the Ice Gauntlet.”

“That giant twenty-foot inverted wall?” He nodded, and my stomach churned a little. “I’ll need a running start, I imagine.”

“It helps.” He chuckled.

The rope on my waist slackened, indicating Gunnar had cut through his own end and began his assent up the face of the massive wall of stone and rock. “Your turn,” he called out .

“Fantastic.” I scoffed. “The added layer of fog makes this so much more fun…”

“It wouldn’t be fun if it were easy, Spitfire. Easy is for simple people. You and I are far from simple.” Daxton leaned against a nearby rock face, giving me a taunting look. “Are you saying you’re unable to do this? Are you admitting to failure before even attempting to try your hand?”

“Well played, Princey.”

A victorious grin spanned across his face. He knew exactly what to say to get me sprinting along the rocks and up the wall.

Ignoring his gloating, I untied my rope and pushed it firmly into his chest with a harder-than-necessary shove. The fog lifted just enough to see the edges of the boulders stacked on top of each other, with the final rock stretching out into a smooth, flat surface that I had to jump and reach in order to pull myself up. Gunnar stood at the top, waving hello, helping seal in the taunting, enough to encourage me to stop thinking and just… run.

I propelled my aching feet forward, keeping my balance centered as I ran across the rock faces to the base of the stone cliff. Pumping my arms, I willed myself to sprint faster, turning my horizontal momentum into a vertical leap and reaching my arm out for the ledge at the very top. My hand found the stone corner, and I latched on. My other hand joined the first, and using my legs, I was able to climb up to the top of the wall.

Daxton ran the same route and joined us at the top.

“I did it!” I said with a bright, beaming smile, catching my breath.

“Why was that even a question?” Daxton asked, pride swelling in his eyes. “You’re ready for— ”

Daxton’s entire body tensed and his sword, Valencia, materialized in his hand. Gunnar unsheathed his blade strapped to his waist, with a dagger in his other hand. Not good … Something was very, very wrong.

The two males silently scanned our surroundings, searching for any sign of danger they both could feel but not yet see. Daxton’s jaw flexed with unease as he signed for Gunnar to stay with me while he investigated the rocks below.

“Take this,” Gunnar whispered, slipping a long dagger into my hand.

I didn’t know what was out there, but if Dax and Gunnar were this worried, I knew I should be, too. The whole area surrounding us seemed to settle into an unnatural silence. A loud thump was followed by rocks tumbling along the opposite side, where Daxton jumped down to investigate.

“Wait here,” Gunnar commanded in a low voice. His humor and carefree personality had flipped, and I was now with the commanding general of the Silver Meadows armies.

I nodded, moving to place a section of rocks at my backside.

He crept silently toward the mountain’s edge, peering off into the fog but failing to find anything below. My heart thundered rapidly in my chest, and my animal’s awareness fueled my body with her power and heightened abilities. I was in fight or flight mode, all my senses kicking into high gear.

A faint scraping caught my attention, followed by a slither that reminded me of a long snake hiding in the tall grass. Gunnar didn’t seem to notice anything, so I turned away and decided to investigate it myself. Leaning over the edge, I crept forward, trying to pinpoint the odd sounds coming from the array of tangled boulders just off the trail. I needed to get closer to figure it out.

Sheathing my dagger at my hip, I rose to my feet and scouted a pathway down from the top. A stable, solid platform just ten feet below me looked like the perfect place to land, so I squatted down and jumped, but the platform vanished .

I screamed as I plummeted through the fog, helplessly falling and colliding into the jagged mountain rocks. My vision blurred. My body bounced off the cliffs like a child’s ball dribbling across the ground. My right arm bent sideways as it smacked into a sharp rock, slicing it open to the bone as I continued to fall. I desperately tried to stop my momentum, but I couldn’t manage to grab onto the cliffs.

I fought to keep my consciousness, but I somersaulted once more and hit my head hard against the mountainside. My world turning black.