Page 154 of Cursed Shadows 4

Part of me, clung onto the narrow face of the cliff, my body tilted forward at the slightest incline, doubts the decisions I have determined within me.

Part of me, however small and fleeting, wonders if I should push my weight against the rock—and propel myself backwards.

I wonder if I should fall.

There will be no saving me.

Not here, not on this cliff with all of us gripped to the rock, not a spare hand between us. No rope can be lassoed fast enough to catch me, no hand outstretched for my wrist, no shadow to unfurl that urgently.

Dare, Rune, Samick, Daxeel…

They will have nothing to do but watch me fall.

And if the dark means to threaten the light, if Dorcha even considers one day using the Cursed Shadows to invade and conquer Licht, Ishouldfall.

I have been selfish in my mind and in my acts.

The realisation of it, it chills me, a glacier sensation that trickles down my insides.

If there was ever a moment to be selfless…

And still, I do not fall.

My thigh burns with the echoes of the arrow that punctured into my flesh. A wound that has knitted and blended and melted into something hot and itchy. The more weight I put on it, the more my face twists, the deeper my grimace.

But it holds.

I climb, unwavering.

Determined.

Like the silence that grasps us all.

No one speaks in the climb. Grunts, harsh breaths, the occasional slip of a boot over a rock, but no one speaks in the tension sheathing us.

If we are to speak, what would any of us say?

Maybe that is the true reason for our silence.

No one quite knows the words for moments like this.

The only small talk I can think of right now is that I wish I still had my gloves, that the rock is too cold and too dewy for my bare hands, and that I’m down to just three nails on my fingers.

But I say nothing.

We climb, slow, steady.

At this rate, it will take less than an hour to reach the overhang. Less than an hour to clear the cliff, for my boots to flatten on firm, hard ground—but that is the moment I suspect it will flip.

Litalf strategy will be an obvious, but effective move.

An ambush.

I know it. I sense it.

We all do.

The anxieties trickle down my pebbled skin.

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