Chapter 52
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
“Are you really giving up now? You’re so close! Come on, move!” Callum was running backward in front of her as her chest heaved, lungs expanding at a rapid pace.
“We can try . . . again . . . tomorrow,” she huffed in between breaths.
“Not tomorrow, today!”
“You’re . . . annoying.”
“And you’re slow. Come on, we’re almost to the top.”
She pushed her legs as the burn continued to creep up toward her ass.
“Stabbing you . . . tonight.”
“Have to catch me first,” he quipped back.
That made her pick up her pace. She tried to grab Callum when she got close enough, but he teleported a good distance away from her up the peak.
“Cheater!”
She hurled her body forward. Callum had disappeared among the trees. She ran and ran until she made it to the clearing. She had trained longer with the fae mates this morning. They had started their daily ascent a bit late.
“If you complained less, you’d be able to keep up!” She rummaged through the leaves, following Callum’s voice. She found him, arms stretched out, at a cliff’s edge.
“About time.”
“I made it.” She almost couldn’t believe it. She had to say it out loud to make it true.
“You made it.”
Helaina plopped down next to him on the ground, pushing her legs out in front of her, bracing her hands behind her back.
“No, no. We have to start back down. We shouldn’t be out this far past nightfall,” Callum warned as he went to push up off the grass.
She grabbed for his hand, pulling him back down.
“I know. Believe me, everyone has made that very clear. But . . . for just one evening, can we stop and look? Just for a second? The only sunsets I’ve ever seen were from my bedroom window.
I always dreamed of seeing one from a different view.
And the view . . . is much better here.”
He reluctantly returned to his seat beside her. “Truthfully . . . I don’t think I’ve noticed the beauty in a very long time. You spend countless years in the same place, even the most stunning scenery becomes dull and repetitive.”
“That’s depressing.” She let her nostrils take in the cool air.
That golden sphere sank in the sky, surrounded by saffron and salmon hues, a sea of embers across the peaks. “How can you not just stare at it every single night?”
“Well, the way you look at it, I just might.”
“Everyone in Lynor thinks this place is cursed. All my life I was told to fear Ash Cliff. But every day I find something new, something fascinating. I think I like it here, Callum.”
She curled her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them as they watched the amber sun dip between the mountains.
“When you’ve lived as long as we have, you forget to stop and look sometimes.
It’s like you’re frozen in time after your trial.
The threat of a natural death isn’t there anymore; you take things for granted.
But everything is new and exciting to you.
It makes me take a second look. I like that about you.
Don’t lose that when you come back, okay? ”
“What do you mean?”
“We all come back a little different. Your memories will be there, but the power changes all of us. I just like this mortal part of you. I want you to keep it.”
“I’ll try,” she replied. Although she had no clue how to hold on to a piece of her while traveling to another realm.
He joined her in gazing at the beautiful view, one more like a painting than real colors.
The scenery was so peaceful, it took Helaina a moment to register the sound of footsteps from behind.
But Callum shot up, drawing his daggers.
Something heavy fell to the ground with a terrible clunk as Helaina turned.
The first thing she saw was the pair of mutilated animal carcasses lying before her.
Golden deer thrashed to bits, without a drop of blood escaping the fibrous exposed muscle.
Behind their mangled bodies, a pair of boots.
“After all this time,” a cold voice mused, “I’ve finally found you.”