Page 103 of The Lands Defying
No, not yet. Not yet.
“Kade?” I cough out, gasping for air as Runa whines within me. I walk forward on shaky legs, scanning the area for him as I wheeze.
I tilt my head and hear nothing out of the ordinary, only the silent breeze as it brushes past me. A rock tumbles down the cliffside in front of me, the sound barely heard over the rushing water, but my head snaps to it, regardless.
I follow its journey down, watching as it bounces on the floor, bits of stone splintering off of it before I lift my gaze to the top of the cliff.
I blow out a breath, my body locking up as I gaze upon the one I have called my own for eleven years.
“Carzan,” I whisper as we lock eyes with each other.
His blue to my blue, just slightly different.
He stands on top of the cliff, his body tense, head tilted down.
His hair is longer, grazing his eyes and he’s dressed in a t-shirt and cargo pants. I have to wonder if he has gotten more control over Axis since we have been apart if he’s wearing clothes, but that doesn’t matter much right now.
He’s skinnier, his face more drawn with a little stubble, and though he is eighteen, I want nothing more than to hold him to me and tell him everything will be alright.
To remove that look in his eyes.
When he says nothing, I gulp over my nervousness and take a step forward, craning my neck further back to keep my eyes on him. He still doesn’t say a word, just continues to look down at me.
Why won’t he say anything?
I go to open my mouth when he suddenly steps back, leaving me unable to see him and I move in a rush of panic.
At the rocky cliffside next to the female statue, I place my foot in an indent in the stone, then moving my hands up and gripping onto the jagged rock. With a deep breath, I start to move myself up on shaky arms.
Rocks dig into my skin and slice my arms as I push forward, creating a path of red behind me as I continue my ascent. My whole body trembles, and exhaustion threatens to take me under— but my sole focus is on reaching the top, which makes me too careless to rest.
A particularly sharp rock scrapes down the side of my already wounded arm, as I lift it to find the next grip. Then a burning sensation pulses through my leg, and my foot slips on the next groove. I cry out in alarm through gritted teeth as the rock slices into my hands as I hold on. Kicking my leg up to have my foot catch on something, I manage to find a place where my foot grips and I breathe heavily, leaning my forehead to the cliffside and squeezing my eyes shut just to rest for a moment.
It’s a long fucking way down.
Steeling myself, I lift my head and open my eyes, blinking the sweat away as I scan for my next move. Come on Rhea, look, look! You have done this hundreds of times.
There!
I lift my hand and grip the rock sticking out, double checking my foothold as a crumbling stone falls below me. I swallow roughly, my mouth dry. My arms shake as I pull myself up to the next one, and my thighs scream at me to stop, to rest and take a breather, but I can’t.
I won’t.
My fingers eventually find flat, dirt ground as I reach the top, my blood dripping from all sorts of scratches and wounds from my body, as I grunt and pull myself up. Crying out as I heave myself over, I collapse on my front, coughing as I can’t take in enough air.
My fingers digging into the earth as I calm my racing heart and wait until the dizziness subsides, forcing myself to take slow, deep breaths.
A scuffle of feet has my heavy head lifting, and I spot Kade at the pointed edge of the cliff, looking down onto the waterfall that leads into the Unforgivable Sea. The sound of the crashing water hits me, and some birds chirp in the distance, but all I see is him.
Whimpering, I get my knees under me, and then I push myself off the floor, rising to my feet. I stagger forward toward him, always toward him as I wipe my cheek, cleaning off some of the grainy dirt there.
“Kade,” I pant softly as I watch his back. His body tenses at the sound of my voice, but he doesn’t reply.
Noises come from below as I move closer toward him, and where the cliff becomes thinner into the point where he’s at.
My eyes move down as I spot Josh coming into view on my side of the river, his eyes wide as he sees us.
“You found him,”he whispers down the link.
