CHAPTER SIX #4
Kieran paused for a moment under the wall’s massive shadow. Ahead, Nya slowed to a halt as well. She lifted her arms in the air in exasperation, questioning what we were doing.
“This is going to get rough,” Kieran whispered.
Even in the shadows, I must have looked terrible, because he gently brushed a few loose strands of hair from my face, tucking them behind my ears.
“The Springing Spell is really going to kick in here to help us achieve the jumps onto and down from the wall. I’m not going to lie, if the other jumps were hard on you, these two are going to feel brutal.
But just try to focus on the fact that this is the last hurdle—literally and figuratively—and then we’re going to be over the wall. Alive.”
“Okay.” I could hear how pitiful my voice sounded.
Kieran seemed to be considering something.
“Also,” he said after a moment. Before I knew what was happening, he had moved me off his back and around to his front.
Like a rag doll, he adjusted me into the same position I had been in before—arms draped over his shoulders, legs wrapped around his waist. “I want you facing this way so you’re not fighting against the drag on the way up. And…you know…in case you pass out.”
“This is a great pep talk,” I mumbled against his chest, my words almost inaudible.
Through the clenching of my sour stomach and the rising of bile in my throat, I couldn’t help but notice how hard his chest and abdomen were against me.
My body had gotten used to the sensation of being on his back, but the adjustment made me feel the heat that radiated from him, and that his neck and arms were slick with sweat.
I swallowed against a wave of nausea, and… something else.
What an uncomfortable and confusing experience.
Nya’s anxious hiss carried across the grass.
“Ready?” Now that I was hugging Kieran’s chest, his voice resonated through my whole body.
I opened my mouth to respond, but we were off again.
The rustling thud of Kieran’s footfalls grew louder, and the flexing of his muscles against me became more rapid.
We were accelerating. Fast.
I closed my eyes, clenching my hands and legs and every muscle in my body until I was a solid, unmoving thing.
Then we were airborne.
The wind we were creating, rushing past us, was deafening.
I tried to suck in a breath and instantly had it knocked out of me.
Instead of rocketing toward the sky on Kieran’s momentum alone, it now felt like we were being jerked up by a giant’s hand.
Although I was beyond forming an actual thought, some part of me understood that this was the Springing Spell kicking in.
We slammed down on top of the wall, and Kieran stumbled a few steps before righting us. I hadn’t even processed until we landed that his arms, rather than being outstretched to steady us, were wrapped tightly across my back and hips.
In the distance, I heard the smacking of the soles of shoes against concrete. Nya. When the sound disappeared, I knew she had jumped.
Forty feet. Less than that, at this point. Under forty feet, and we were going to be following Nya down the other side.
“Almost there!”
Kieran’s enthusiasm did nothing to soothe me. A deep, primal kind of terror formed in my gut. It had me unintentionally loosening my grip around his neck as my vision swam. I flailed desperately for a handhold, my palms connecting with his deltoids and grabbing on for dear life.
“Careful,” he barked. He jerked my hands from his arms and wrapped them around his neck again.
The rebuke in his tone was so sharp that it snapped me out of my suffering for a moment. “What—”
The words fell away as he tightened his grip around me, bracing us.
I tilted my nose upward slightly, just enough that I could look over Kieran’s shoulder and see Cyllene receding in the distance. Then the ground went out from under us.
It felt like we were falling to our deaths.
All my senses went dark.
At some point, I had the vague awareness of something pushing against us, slowing us.
Then everything went dark again.
I couldn’t say how much time had passed when I became aware of an itchy, burning sensation against my cheek.
I lifted my head. Dark, twisting shapes came into focus. Grass. Tall grass, smashed down by my weight. And Kieran’s.
Kieran was flat on his back, and I was draped over him, my head hanging over his shoulder. I pushed up on tremoring arms to look at him.
Other than tousled hair, he appeared perfectly normal. His expression must have mirrored my own. Wide eyes searched my face to confirm that everything was as it should be.
“Feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I turned my head and vomited.
Kieran maneuvered me off him just in time.
“There it is,” he said sympathetically, barely hiding his amusement.
I would have said something witty back if I wasn’t busy emptying my stomach.
My ponytail disappeared behind me with a gentle tug. A large hand rubbed circles across my back. “There, there.” Kieran’s voice held a barely stifled laugh.
Crunching footfalls sounded behind us.
“Damn.” Nya’s voice. I heard the shuffling of her sifting through her backpack, then the sound of liquid splashing on the grass. Wet fabric pressed against the back of my neck. “The water’s not cold, but hopefully this helps.”
Tears were streaming down my face, but I was dry heaving now at least.
“I wonder,” Nya began. “Would we have convinced her not to come if we had just told her what leaving the city actually entailed?”
“No,” I croaked, but I wasn’t sure that was true.
I wiped my watery eyes and mouth on the back of my arm. Then I willed myself to stand, to prove to them that bringing me along was not a mistake. When I stood, finally taking in my surroundings, everything I had just endured was worth it.
I was Outside.