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“I say we go up in pairs of two, buddy-spotting each other, with the strongest people at the bottom to, uh…”

She trailed off, not wanting to explain, but D.C. finished quietly for her, “To try and catch anyone who slips?”

Alex winced, even if thathadbeen what she’d been about to say. She sent an apologetic look to her friend, knowing the last thing D.C. wanted to consider was the idea of slipping.

“Better safe than sorry,” D.C. whispered, her pale face turning an alarming shade of grey. “Excuse me a moment.”

When she ran off into the nearby desert bushes, Alex felt her own stomach churn with sympathetic nausea. But when D.C. returned, it was with a determined expression on her otherwise waxy features.

“I’m fine,” she told Jordan who moved immediately to her side. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Alex thought her friend had already passed her own strength test just by mounting the courage to take on one of her deepest fears, but apparently the Gates didn’t agree, since nothing about their situation changed.

“You and me, gorgeous,” Jordan said to D.C., taking her hand and guiding her forward. “We’ll lead the troops.”

The two of them began their slow, careful ascent up the gradually inclining slope, leaving Alex, Bear, Kaiden and Declan to decide who was pairing with whom.

“Alex is obviously bringing up the rear,” Bear said, knowing all about her Meyarin blood. “I’m not ashamed to say I shouldn’t be anyone’s last line of defence, so I’ll go in the middle.” His eyes moved between Kaiden and Declan. “It’s up to you two to fight over who’s pairing with us.”

The two best friends sized each other up, knowing their skills better than anyone else.

“You should be with Alex,” Kaiden said to Declan.

Declan shook his head. “We’re about even, mate. I may be bulkier, but I’ve never been able to match you in a fight.”

“This is a different kind of fight than we’re used to,” Kaiden said, glancing up the mountain again. “We need to play to our strengths, and this one is more in your favour.”

Declan hesitated, his eyes flicking briefly to Bear, but then he nodded solemnly. His expression then quickly morphed into a cheeky grin as he said, “Don’t worry, Kaid. I’ll watch out for your girl.”

Alex’s face flushed but her eyes narrowed, causing Declan to chuckle and wrap a meaty arm around her shoulders while Bear and Kaiden both tried to hide their smiles.

“Careful, Declan,” Alex warned in a low voice. “I’m meant to be spotting you, remember?”

Her threat wasn’t taken at all seriously—if anything, he just chuckled louder.

“Noted,” he said, releasing his arm from her neck. “Now let’s get started on this monster.”

At first, their trek was nothing more than navigating the desert terrain in an uphill slope, making their way across the rocky path. But soon enough the incline increased until Alex was scrambling along on all fours more often than not, using her legs to push her way over boulders and heaving herself up by her arms when there were no footholds. A few times she and Declan switched positions with the others so that they were leading the group, helping their friends conquer some of the larger obstacles. Other times she needed help from those ahead of her, with either Kaiden or Bear reaching down to haul her over whatever was in her path.

It was exhausting work and the hours flew by, yet the real challenge remained ahead, for they had yet to reach the vertical climb. But whoever—or whatever—was monitoring them wasn’t without compassion. At regular intervals, Alex and her friends stumbled upon rest stops complete with survival kits containing water, food and basic first-aid supplies. As their aches and pains began to grow and they developed blisters on top of blisters, Alex knew they all would have given anything for somelaendra, but the kits only provided bandages and gauze for their scraped and raw skin, nothing to actually mend their wounds.

Soon enough, the incline became so great that they had to create their own rest stops more frequently than The Powers That Be offered supplies, their fatigue increasing exponentially with their relentless uphill battle. Even Alex was feeling the struggle, enough that she again wondered if she was battling some illness, for there were times when only her Meyarin blood coupled with Niyx’s ruthless training kept her on her feet.

When they finally reached the vertical cliff face, the expressions worn by all those around her ranged from grim to horrified.

“Let’s take another break before, uh…” Alex just pointed upwards, rather than finishing her sentence.

No one argued with her. And thankfully, they’d come to a place where there was a pack of supplies waiting, so Alex quickly handed out canteens of water and what she presumed were the Tia Auran equivalent to energy bars. Whatever they were, they tasted good, not that Alex and her friends cared. They needed the fuel, no matter what form it came in.

Unbeknownst to everyone else, Alex had been quietly hoping that when they reached the cliff, there would have been climbing gear left for them. But there was nothing other than the supplies they’d received at every other stop.

Seeing the dispirited faces all around her as they each kept throwing glances up the sheer rock face, Alex sought to try and distract them from the coming journey.

“You guys know Athora? The man in the Library who brought you here?” she asked. Kaiden, of course, already knew what she was about to say, so her question was more directed to the others. When they nodded, she continued, “I don’t know how much he shared with you, but he’s been training me for a while now, preparing me for the trip here. Or so he claimed.”

Alex wasn’t sureanythingcould have prepared her, even if she’d had more time with Athora before venturing to his world.

“Before he agreed to take me on as a student, I had to do three tasks,” she went on. “Three tests.”