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“Like the Gates?” D.C. asked, wiping sweat from her brow. She was doing remarkably well, making sure not to look out at the impossibly high view of what they’d already climbed and keeping her attention focused solely on Alex.

“Not exactly, but I’m guessing he drew his inspiration from these tests,” Alex said, Athora’s odd tasks beginning to make asmall amount of sense. “One of the first things I had to do was walk across an unending lake, jumping from one floating rock to another until I reached the end.”

“Of the lake?” Jordan frowned slightly, swigging more water. “Didn’t you say it was unending?”

“I did.”

Alex went on to explain the test in its entirety, including how she’d been suffering from a stab wound in her leg and had also plunged into the icy water upon arrival, thus wasn’t in the best physical condition to face the challenge. But she also shared that she’d refused to give up despite her pain and exhaustion, and how it was only once she had reached the end of herself, not the lake, that she’d passed the test.

“Ten hours, fifty-four minutes and thirty-two seconds,” she told them quietly. “That’s how long I was out there jumping over those two floating rocks across that water, feeling like every painful step was getting me nowhere.”

Alex fiddled with her canteen, swirling the contents within and taking another drink before continuing, “Athora told me afterwards that the point was to test the strength of my character in the face of what appeared to be an impossible, unending quest.” She looked up at the mountain still rising too high for her to see its end. “I have to believe this task is similar in nature. That from the outside, it may seem impossible and unending. But we have to remember that nothing is ever as it seems—not when it comes to things like this. And together, we’ll get through it.” She looked at Kaiden and finished by repeating his earlier words, “One step at a time.”

Her story had the effect she’d been hoping for. She hadn’t been seeking their pity, nor had she been wanting to highlight her own strength or tenacity. What she’d wanted was to encourage them, to let them know that if she could make it through that, they could all make it through this.

“Right,” D.C. said, standing to her feet. “Today seems like a great day to do something I’ve never,everwanted to do.”

“You’ve never wanted to go free climbing up an endless cliff on the side of a mountain?” Jordan asked her, a grin on his face as he stood as well. “I’ll have to take it off our list of future date options.”

D.C. grinned back until her eyes flickered past him to the scenery far,farbelow, before she shut them tightly and took a visibly steadying breath.

“It’s just like crawling across the ground, Dix,” Alex said softly. “Only vertical.”

D.C.’s eyes snapped back open and she hissed out, “Not helping, Alex.”

“Vertical crawling,” Bear mused as he wrapped some fresh gauze around a cut on the palm of his hand, making sure to keep his fingers bare for gripping purposes. “Put like that, it almost sounds fun.”

With a garbled sound in the back of her throat, D.C. let Jordan lead her to the flat face of the cliff, and they slowly— ever so slowly—began the arduous climb upwards. The stone was jagged, with plenty of places for them to put their feet and hands, but there was no denying the danger of what they were doing. They had nothing securing them to the mountain, nothing securing them to each other. And if any of them fell…

Alex refused to let her fears fester, instead waiting her turn while Kaiden and Bear set off, before she and Declan began their ascent.

For the most part, what they were doing required all of their concentration, allowing little chance to speak other than to encourage each other onwards, offer warnings about loose sections in the rock, or suggest better hand and foot placements. Every so often they would arrive at a flatter overhanging section where they could guzzle down food and water as they restedtheir aching bodies. But no matter how far they continued upwards, still Alex could see no sign of any summit, even as the air around them began to thin and the temperature cooled. The others didn’t notice the change, but her heightened senses were able to note the difference, and she was growing more and more concerned the higher they climbed.

During their third tackle at the cliff after having just left another rest stop, Declan decided it was the perfect time to strike up a conversation with Alex around his panting efforts upwards.

“So,” he puffed, hoisting himself over a sizable boulder jutting out from the rock, “is this the part where I ask about your intentions?”

Alex’s grip almost slipped. Her gaze snapped across in time to see Declan’s mischievous grin as his chin jerked up to indicate Kaiden, just in case she’d failed to miss his meaning.

“Do that, and I’ll push you off this cliff myself.”

Declan barked out a laugh. “Still a touchy subject, huh?”

“Seriously,” Alex growled. “Stop talking, or I’ll make it so the only sound anyone hears is you screaming as you fall.”

“So melodramatic,” he said, still grinning.

Of course, she would never hurt him, so her threatwasempty. But she also didn’t want to risk him continuing his line of conversation. Mostly because it would distract him from the dangerous climb, but also because she feared his voice would carry up to Kaiden. He and Bear were only a few body lengths ahead, after all.

“Remind me again why you’re here?” Alex ground out. “Why you came through to Tia Auras with the others?” She paused as a thought came to her. “Why did Athora let any of you through, for that matter? Kaiden and I are one thing; we trained with him for stuff like this.” She nodded towards the mountain, even if she’d never faced anything like it withAthora. “I find it hard to believe he just let you guys step across worlds.”

“We never said he did it willingly.”

Alex frowned as she heaved herself up higher with a quiet grunt, ignoring her protesting muscles and the fatigue she felt throughout her whole body. “What do you mean?”

Declan didn’t respond straight away since he was busy navigating a challenging stretch between handholds. Once he was secure again, he admitted, “After he explained who he was and how he’d been training you both, we figured there was a reason no one else knew about him, and why you and Kaid kept quiet about his existence, even to your closest friends—who, by the way, all knew something was going on, even if neither of you ever said anything.” There was no reprimand in his voice, just a statement of facts. “It became clear that Athora was the type of guy who’d want his secrets kept secret.”

Alex read between the lines of what he was saying and an astonished laugh wheezed out of her with what little breath she had in her lungs. “You threatened to out him?”