She and Val had insisted on getting involved when they’d discovered my weekly trips to the Great Rift. Even Nellie, who was afraid of heights. She wouldn’t scale the cliff with us, but she wouldn’t let me out of her sight, either. Until we were back on solid ground, she hunkered there at the top, ready to drag me up if she had to.
A shrill call echoed through the winding chasm, tickling the hairs on the back of my neck. A lump clogged my throat. Whipping my head toward Val, a dozen unspoken words passed between us all at once. She felt it, too—a shadowfiend was coming, and it was on the hunt.
Heart rattling in my chest, I shoved the tool between my teeth and hauled myself up the cliff, hand over hand, twisting the rope between my feet to help the climb. My back muscles groaned from the effort. When I’d first started mining these gemstones, I hadn’t had the strength to go far down the cliff before my arms and back gave out. Over the months, I’d gotten stronger, even practicing at home when I thought no one was looking. I’d pulled myself up and onto the roof, over and over again, until I could do it without any trouble.
I just hoped it would be enough now.
Dust sprayed off the cliffside as Val kicked her boots against it. Her hands began to slip. Heart in my throat, I paused my climb and held out one hand toward her, grasping my rope with the other.
“You’ve got this,” I whispered, not daring to speak any louder for fear my voice would carry to the monster hunting us. “Take my hand.”
She stared up at me with defiant eyes and clung onto her own rope. “You’re as strong as light now, Tessa, but you can’t carry both of us back up that rope. You’re not fae.”
“You’re right. I’m not. And thank the light for that,” I replied. “But if you fall, I fall.”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard and cast a nervous glance at the yawning chasm beneath us. We couldn’t see the end of it. It was one of the only things inside the Kingdom of Light to hold darkness inside it. Most of the time, the monsters never climbed up from the shadows.
I’d seen them only a handful of times. Every time they hunted me, I heard them long before I saw them. I could be fast up the rope. But Val had never done this until now.
Val’s hands faltered, and she slid an inch down the rope. Her legs flailing beneath her, she bounced against the rock and spun around.
Gritting my teeth, I strained to grab her, but she’d fallen too far out of my reach. Sudden tears burned my eyes, just as the entire chasm seemed to rumble.
“Val, come on,” I hissed, my heart pattering. “Hold on.”
She peered up at me with clear terror in the depths of her bottomless blue eyes. “I can’t.”
“Yes. Youcan.”
Val was a year older than me. Twenty-six to my twenty-five. But it had never felt that way. Our souls were inexplicably entwined, as if we’d come into this world together. Seeing her struggle to hold on felt like my soul was starting to unravel.
She couldn’t fall.
“You need to climb, Tessa. Save yourself. I’m not going to let you fall because of me.”
We didn’t say die. We never did. The word felt too alien in our mouths. The mortals of the Kingdom of Light did not know death, not until our hundredth year when old age finally took us away in our beds. To die here like this, barely over a quarter-century, was unthinkable.
Slowly, I inched down the rope and wound my hand around her wrist. My shoulder screamed from the extra weight, but I would never let her go.
“If you fall, I fall.”
“Tessa! Val!” Nellie screamed from above. The rope jolted. “Find a cave! Let go of the rope! I’ll get someone to—”
Her voice suddenly cut off.
I risked a glance up at the lip of the chasm. Nellie was nowhere to be seen. Dread sliced down my spine. That wasn’t like her, especially at a time like this. She would never just leave us here dangling like bait above a monster.
A wail echoed through the chasm. Animalistic and full of vicious anger. A tremor went through me. It was the first time I’d felt blinding terror in a very long time.
“We need to climb,” I whispered to Val, clutching her hand tighter. “I know it’s hard, but we’re just going to have to do it, okay? Ignore the pain. Ignore your body telling you it’s impossible. All we have to do is get up the cliff, and we’ll be safe. They can’t follow us there.” Because for whatever reason, the shadowfiends weren’t able to cross into the Kingdom of Light, either.
Her hand slipped on the rope. It was only a little, but it was enough to jolt me. I winced against the sudden flash of pain. My hand trembled to keep its grip. If she couldn’t hold on, I’d have her entire weight in my hands, as well as mine.
Another dose of fear spiked my heart.
The rope suddenly shifted. We hurtled upward just an inch. A fistful of hope punched me square in the gut. Together, with our bodies trembling from effort, Val and I gazed up.
Had Nellie somehow managed to find someone that quickly?