Page 69 of Veiled Fate
There was simply the pain, Kiel, and the climb. Nothing more. Up and up and up we went. His single-minded devotion to getting me to the peak was heartwarming and more than a little awe-inspiring.
“Jada,” Kiel panted, showing the first signs of tiring. “We’re here.”
We walked up onto the ledge, the same one I’d seen in my dreams. Ahead of us, deeper into the mountain, were the twin wolf statues. The Hunters, Kiel had called them. They were carved with a remarkable likeness, so real looking in the flow of their fur and the bunching of muscles underneath that I kept waiting for them to move.
“Into the temple?” Kiel asked, his eyes meeting mine, the pale blue circles searching my face for some sort of confirmation.
I managed to blink twice.
“Is that a yes?” he whispered hoarsely.
I again blinked twice, never moving my gaze away from him.
“Okay. I’ll get you there,” he assured me, stepping toward the wolves.
We passed underneath the mighty statues and through the hole in the side of the mountain. But no more than five steps in, he came to a halt.
“Shit.”
I squeezed his biceps in question. What was wrong?
“We’re not alone,” he said in a hushed voice, crouching low to show me the footprint in the dirty and dust-filled interior of the temple. “Someone else is here.”
Could it be the Nehringi? He’d thrown it down the slope, but moving unencumbered, in its wolf form, it would have had time to get there before us.
Or was someone else waiting for us in the dark depths of Fate’s temple?
Kiel barely hesitated after telling me what he saw. There was extra tension in his muscles, and my skin tickled from how his hair stood on end. But he walked into a potential trap with his spine straight and proud, his eyes prowling every nook and cranny for a possible ambush.
His only focus was me.
I longed to tell him how important he’d become to me. That Isawwhat he was doing, heard the unspoken words implicit in every action he took and what they meant to me. To us.
There was work to be done, a wound between us that would need addressing, but it wasn’t like I’d initially feared when he’d turned his back on me. We weren’t broken beyond repair. I had to grow up, face some things and make them right, things that would pull me way outside my comfort zone, but that was okay. Icoulddo them. I would. No more hiding. Not from him, not from the world, not from myself. It was time to accept the weight that had been thrust upon my shoulders and see where it led me.
All I had to do was live through a particular problem first.
Darkness closed in, completely sealing us in, robbing all light. Even our wolves would be blind in there. Kiel felt ahead with one hand and foot, doing his best to ensure he didn’t lead us into traps.
A wash of green came over me, sucking me deep into its embrace.
Jada. You’re nearly there. Hurry. I can’t hold it back for much longer. You must find my altar. You must find it!
The room swam into a vision of a circular room with a raised center circle, upon which a carved wolf sat before a plain stone laid flat.
Hurry!
“The altar,” I said, forcing the words out through my mangled throat. “Get me to … the altar. Hurry!”
Each word was a ball of spikes making its way up my throat. Tears ran down my cheeks, and I trembled, a layer of sweat breaking out from the simple effort of speaking.
“I’m going,” Kiel assured me, picking up the pace.
Light. We need light.
I extended my broken forearm away from me, revealing a mass of jagged flesh and skin and, deep down, a bit of bone as well.
If you want it. Make it so.
