Chapter 37
I’m tired. So very tired.
Sun bleeds over the jagged horizon as we wait for Dreth to release us to begin the trial. Below, past the cliff’s edge, is a plummeting haze of nothingness. The ground is imperceptible.
Three more sunrises.
Find the antidote. Reach the ground with Caelus.
Only I’m not on any Heartfillers. But he is. He needs that antidote before he falls to his death and I die stranded out here. First, we’ll reach the summit. Then, we’ll climb down.
“When they say go, run. We need to get as far as we can to the other side of this peak,” Caelus says. “Shorter climb on that side.”
“What about Rhythe?” I ask between my teeth. We can’t play this game like there is no one after us. We have to deal with Rhythe or we won’t have a chance to make it to the end. The Benevolent wants Caelus dead in this trial! And we know Rhythe and Kade are plotting.
“We focus on the antidote.”
I don’t agree. We should disrupt his alliance, peel off whoever we can. That will help us figure out what he’s planning and how to stay alive.
One of the Mercyenforcers raises a hand.
The air is sharp enough to cut. Contestants stand in a semicircle on the rocky cliff edge.
Beside me, Mae breathes clouds in the frigid air, her hand clasped tightly on Dorian.
Talia grips her hand axe, and Jace has their survival bag strapped on his back.
Their eyes are locked together, waiting for the horn.
The others are too far for me to make out the fear on their faces.
A heartbeat.
Two.
“Go!” The Mercyenforcer drags his fist down as a siren wails.
Caelus is a blur passing me. Dorian lunges, yanking Mae with him, and her boots slip on wet rock. I throw myself toward the tree line. But a hand grabs me from behind, pulling me back.
It’s Kade.
I shove him off me. He growls and charges, but I sidestep and he staggers past me into Jace, who is swinging a hand axe. Kade grabs his curved sword. They circle.
“What’s your issue with me, Kade?” I spit.
But Kade growls, fully focused on Jace now, and I stand there wanting to scream at Talia—who is hovering nearby—to see that Rhythe has put Kade up to this.
He wants her loyalty, whatever it takes, even if it means taking Jace from her.
He wants to use her somehow. That’s why he was so interested in recruiting me.
Whatever he is after, she shouldn’t trust him.
“Axira!” It’s Caelus.
Talia glances at Kade warily on her way to the grove of trees behind us, begging Jace to come with her.
Jace steps back toward her, keeping his eyes locked on Kade.
When they’re out of sight, Kade spins and flings a throwing blade straight at Dorian, who’s ducking into the forest on the other side of the clearing.
It catches him in the leg, slicing into his flesh. He howls.
Warm hands wrap around my arm. “We need to get far away from everyone,” Caelus says.
We take off, past Dorian limping with Mae, and disappear into the trees as well.
A pop cracks once. Someone screams. Horrific sounds of death.
I don’t look back.
I run as hard as I can. I run until my legs feel like they may give out. I run with the sound of Caelus panting behind me, urging me to go faster. I run until the shadows of the forest are thick enough to hide in. Then I collapse against a tree stump to catch my breath, and instantly stiffen.
I hear Rhythe’s voice.
Caelus crouches beside me behind a cluster of frosted boulders.
We cover our mouths to hide the clouds of frigid breath our exhales make.
The wind cuts through the pass, sharp enough to rattle the pines overhead.
We huddle closer, just close enough to catch the sharp edge of Rhythe’s voice as he gestures to his alliance. Jace lingers nearby.
“Talia, Ivy, you two stay together, keep each other safe,” Rhythe says, tone cool but commanding. “I’ll get the antidotes for us. I’ll get there first and take as many as we need. Hide, down here. That’s the safest move.” His eyes flick briefly to Ivy—so brief the others might not notice.
“I’m not hiding,” Jace says.
“You are if you’re with us,” Rhythe says.
“Forget that. Talia, let’s go.”
“She’s with us,” Rhythe says.
Talia’s gaze darts between them. It’s either betray her alliance or her love.
Finally, she crosses her arms. “And if you can’t get enough, who are you going to give the antidotes to?” she asks Rhythe.
He doesn’t flinch. “That won’t happen. If it does, the antidotes I do get will go to whoever proves most loyal to me,” he says, like it’s a currency he controls, sounding like the Benevolent. Ivy doesn’t look at him. She doesn’t have to. He’s lying. He’s going to give an antidote to Ivy.
“I don’t trust him,” Jace says.
“Then climb with me,” Rhythe says. “Don’t go at it alone. Maybe we can grab more antidotes if we’re together. We can get them by tomorrow’s sunrise, then spend the next two days on our descent.”
Jace folds his beefy arms across himself. Talia’s arms fold too, loosely, but not relaxed. Her brow furrows in deep thought, but her stillness is unsettling.
Jace waits for her to object. She doesn’t, so he finally says, “Fine.”
“We have to do something,” I whisper, and Caelus’s hand gently covers my mouth.
His breath is warm on my ear when he says, “We have to get far away from them, get that antidote, and get to the ground.”
I shake my head but can’t tear my eyes away from the alliance a stone’s throw away. If Rhythe is leaving them here, this is our chance to ensure he’s disqualified. If he’s gone, he’s no longer a threat. Rhythe shoulders his bag with his gear. When his back is turned, Talia eyes Ivy narrowly.
“Tent here?” Ivy asks, missing it completely.
“No, deeper into the woods,” Rhythe says. “South, it isn’t as steep.”
The four trek deeper into the forest, and I don’t move until the earth stops crunching under their feet.
Caelus’s body is still tense beside me. “Are you alright?” he asks, and I realize my hands are trembling.
“I’ll be fine. Talia and Ivy are going to camp out here and let Rhythe do the search?”
“Jace is not coming back,” Caelus says darkly. “Kade will intercept him somewhere and kill him, I’m sure. Or Rhythe will do it himself.”
An icy shiver fingerwalks up my spine. Dorian. Mae. I hope they’re okay. “I should have pulled Ivy aside when it was obvious she wanted to talk to me,” I say. “I don’t believe she’s as diabolical as Rhythe is. There’s something else there.”
“Even if that’s true, when could you have? You can’t be sure she’d even believe you. She’s been stuck to Rhythe since the beginning.”
“Mmm, maybe.” Ivy’s been curious about me compared to the absolute silence she gives everyone else. And there’s something in the intense way she stares, like there’s a puzzle piecing itself together in her mind. “She doesn’t say much, but when she looks at me it feels like she wants to talk to me.”
“Axira, you have to be in this for yourself. You have to be Saltblood, through and through.” His hand touches mine, as if trying to anchor me with his words.
“Says a Skyborn who knows nothing about where I’m from.” I shift back on my heels, away from him slightly.
“I know enough to know that you’re starting to care too much.”
“About them?”
“About everything.” For a heartbeat his expression unravels, all the polish giving way to worry and fear.
An awkward silence blows between us.
“It’s not just about them, Caelus,” I finally say.
“Rhythe is after you and me. He said he was going to ‘deal with me himself,’ whatever that means. Any way you look at this, breaking up his alliance and weakening him actually helps us. If we can pull Ivy away from him, he won’t have a match.
He would be disqualified. That makes everyone, including us, safer. ”
His mouth pulls taut. “Feels like you’re carrying their problems. And I expected—”
“You expected what?”
“I thought you would be more heartless.”
“You what?”
“I meant…that didn’t come out right. You’re not what I expected, in a good way.
When Lucent and I decided to hire you…” He sighs.
“This is not the time for this. We have a long day. We have to start climbing.” He touches his chest where the Heartfiller disappeared.
“I’ll be stronger today than tomorrow and the next day. These are more intense for Skyborn.”
He’s right. I’d almost forgotten. His sedative will take effect sooner.
We don’t have the same time the others do.
He brings a hand to my cheek, his thumb gently stroking my jaw, fanning feelings I’ve decided to bury.
“I want you to have your ship, Axira.” He whispers it like a regret.
“If that’s what you want, I want you to have it.
And sometimes I worry you’re losing sight of that. ”
My ship.
He’s trying to protect me. Again. It’s endearing.
“I want many things,” I say. “Most I can’t have. But what if we could convince Ivy to not trust Rhythe? She doesn’t seem calculating and cold like him. She’s distant, but do you think she’s vicious? Do you think she knows about the people he’s been plotting to have killed?”
Caelus shifts his weight. “It would surprise me, I suppose. She seems smart, but docile.”
“She’s our best bet to get Rhythe disqualified,” I say.
“This feels like a waste of time we don’t have.” His eyes plead with me. “Trust that I can get us through this without them.”
I glance away. I have to be smart. I can’t lose myself in the way he looks at me. I can’t trust only in this power we have. “It’s not a waste,” I say. “I’ll convince Ivy to come with us.”
He doesn’t fight me, reshouldering our bag. And I’m grateful. It’ll be good to have someone else around for him to look out for and to look out for him.
We follow Rhythe and his group at a distance until late afternoon when they stop to pitch a tent.
Jace says a long goodbye to Talia, assuring her that everything will be alright, and it kills me that I know she’s never going to see him again. But I can’t blow my cover. I’m not a help to anyone dead.