The thought vanishes from my head, along with any other rational one that might have been residing there. I whirl on Ace even as I cling to a rock, not trusting my shaking body.
His smile is cold. “Careful. I wouldn’t want my teammate to get hurt.”
“You,” I spit. I’m about to slide down the slope and strangle him with my bare hands—
“Don’t,” Jax says quietly. “Not yet.”
I hesitate, slowly returning my eyes to his dark ones. After a long pause and a deep breath, I nod. Jax is not only right for reminding me I can’t kill our teammate, but he’s clearly far better at reigning in his rage than I am. So, I stiffly turn back towards the mountain, focusing all my attention on scaling it.
We climb in silence for a moment before I clear my dry throat and say softly, “Thank you, Jax. You didn’t have to help me, but you did.”
“Of course I helped you,” he says with a shrug. “Besides, I’m not sure my brothers would forgive me if I hadn’t.”
His brothers.
That night Kai and I danced during the first Trial—the night we spoke so openly about our lives—was when I had first learned of just how close the princes truly are with Jax. Kai briefly told me of the advisers’ shipwreck on the Shallows, and how they took their son in when he was barely six.
I force out a quiet laugh. “I don’t know, I’m sure Kai wouldn’t mind having less competition.”
He gives me an odd look, clearly trying not to laugh. “Not if that competition is you.” I huff in response, but Jax carries on cheerfully. “Speaking of Kai, I wonder how he is handling this.”
“Handling what?”
Jax pulls himself over a jagged rock with a grunt before breathlessly saying, “The mountain.” When my expression remains confused, Jax adds, “He hates heights.”
“What?” I choke out. “But I watched him climb up one of the pines in the Whispers during the first Trial. He seemed—”
“Fine?” Jax finishes for me with a laugh. “Calm even? Yeah, he’s pretty good at hiding what he feels.”
“Just another mask he slips on,” I mutter under my breath.
Jax nods, causing a bead of sweat to roll down his face. “He’s gotten a lot better with heights though, but only because of all the training the king put him through.”
I knew enough about the king’s twisted training, but Kai had never mentioned anything about his fear of heights. “What did the king do?”
“He…he made him climb the highest trees in the Whispers, over and over again until he was convinced Kai had gotten over his fear.”
“What?” My voice is as shaky as the legs carrying me up this mountain.
His own father forced him to relive his worst fear over and over again.
It seems that the torture Kai spoke of enduring was not all physical.
“I was little when Kai was going through most of his training to be the future Enforcer, but I’ll never forget the nights he would come home covered in blood and tears.” Jax looks down at his feet, suddenly more serious than I’ve ever seen him before. “I think he was afraid that I’d be scared of him, so he’d sneak back into his room every night. But I still caught glimpses of him, heard him hacking at his bedposts with a sword.”
We climb in silence for a moment, and I ignore my screaming thoughts just as I ignore the tightness in my throat and the pressure behind my eyes. Then a weary smile spreads across Jax’s lips as he says, “But I couldn’t ask for better brothers.”
“I’d hate to interrupt your cute conversation,” Ace drawls, “but am I the only one who feels that?”
I’m about to dismiss what is likely another attempt to trick me with an illusion when I start to feel it. A slight tremor runs through me, coming from the mountain. The small rocks are rattling around us, and I bend closer to the ground, clutching at anything to hold on to.
“Rockslide,” I breathe.
Dread floods me, followed quickly be determination.
I will not die today. Least of all, from rocks.
I swallow down my panic at the sound of heavy boulders tumbling towards us, crashing against one another as they race to crush us. “So,” Jax pants beside me, “what’s the plan?”
“Don’t die,” I say simply.
“How incredibly helpful,” Ace mutters, far too casually for our current situation.
The rumble of rocks grows louder as I watch the boulders come tumbling towards us. Dodging them is far easier said than done. The mountainside is steep, making it hard to jump around without fear of falling to our deaths. I’m grasping at plants and divots in the rocks beneath me as I scramble out of the way of the rolling boulders.
Jax is Blinking out of the path of falling rocks, flickering in and out of my vision. Ace is somewhere behind me, and if I’m lucky, a boulder has already sent him tumbling down the mountain.
I scramble to the right, barely saving my arm from being crushed. Then I jump to the left and—
Something collides with the side of my head.
Spots dance in my vision. I’m dizzy, dazed, only vaguely comprehending that my name is being shouted. I look up just in time to see that I’m about to be flattened by a boulder. I dive out of the way, landing hard as I claw at anything to grab hold of. And as quickly as it happened, the mountain seems to still beneath me as the rocks slowly stop their slide.
I struggle to my feet, blinking away the hot, heavy liquid that is threatening to spill into my eyes. I can feel the blood oozing down the side of my face, can feel the pounding pain of the wound there. I’m almost certain I have a concussion, just like I’m almost certain I’m going to puke.
“Jax? Are you alright?” I call, taking a step forward and reaching out to steady myself against the rocks. Yes, I think I’m going to be sick.
“I’m okay,” he calls, Blinking in front of me. We are both covered in scrapes and bruises already beginning to bloom across our skin.
“Thank you for asking, Paedyn. I am quite alright,” Ace says, his voice lacking any tone or tenderness.
I wipe the back of my hand over my eye, clearing it of the blood that is dripping from my wound. “How unfortunate.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Kai
Everything aches. My feet. My back. My body.
I’m achingly tired, achingly hungry, and achingly aware of how annoyed I am with myself because of it. I’ve endured torture, faced my worst fears, led armies into battle, and yet, climbing a mountain with a hangover may just be the death of me.
Andy clinging to my back isn’t helping either. It’s not her weight that’s the problem, especially since I’m borrowing Braxton’s strength. No, it’s the fact that she is so damn lanky that her long limps are hindering my climbing.
“It’s absurd how bony you are,” I mumble, earning a weak punch in the shoulder.
Good. At least she has the strength to hit me.
“When we make it out of here,” I continue casually, “I’ll make sticky buns myself to fatten you up.”
She grunts her approval of that idea, her voice weak. She is fading fast. Her skin is sickly pale, only emphasized by the moonlight, and her breathing is quick and shallow.