Page 313 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

“To the caves? You’re insane.”

“This is well-established. Loser deals with Reyna when she finds out Blaz gave us restricted access.”

“That’s all you. I wouldn’t survive it.”

“Probably not,” she agreed, scampering upward like it was nothing.

“You make this look easy. You sure your dad didn’t fuck a mountain goat?”

“Jesus Christ,” Ansel muttered behind me.

I didn’t dare glance back to gauge humor vs. disapproval—but Freya’s laugh echoed off the rugged stone walls.

Insanity. This approach was absolute insanity. But brilliant. It was the least monitored access point, timed perfectly after their last sweep.

The downside? A fall meant death. And my shadows catching us all—in broad daylight—wasn’t exactly probable.

Aren waited on the far side, ready to spark a distraction. Lana covered three angles of the building. We were as covered as anyone could hope for.

Then the howls began.

I froze.

Blood wolves.

I broke my number one rule, and looked down.

Three of them stalked the ravine below.

And we weren’t even halfway to the tunnels.

FIFTY-NINE

THE VAULT

FREYA

“Uh, Freya?”

Cyrus’s concern quickened my pulse, but I didn’t dare look down. My head was already spinning, and I needed to steady it. In every fucking life, a fear of heights had followed me. Moving through it was the only option. So I kept my eyes on the next handhold.

“I hear them.”

“Move,” Ansel ordered, climbing faster. “Where blood wolves go⁠—”

“Crawlers follow,” I finished.

Right on cue, high-pitched chittering pierced the air. When I glanced down, a dozen black, taloned creatures were scaling the cliffs beneath us. I flexed my fingers on the rock and breathed through the panic. So much for the least monitored entrance.

“Shields,” Ansel said, though mine was already up. If Cyrus was half the soldier I believed he was, it would be rhetorical for him, too.

We climbed faster. My heart pounded, vision tunneling as adrenaline surged, my arms trembling and fingers screaming. Still, the chittering crept closer, that venom-laced promise of pain tightening around my thoughts.

Only thirty feet to the first tunnel.

But thirty feet on slick rock was a long fucking way for a kid from the flatlands of Louisiana. All of my lives had involved climbing to survive. In this one, I had two older brothers who did it for fun—and who initiated me when I was still in elementary school. I could make it in thirty seconds. Maybe. But that would mean leaving Cyrus behind. The thought made my stomach rebel.

I glanced down. They were climbing side by side, the crawlers gaining fast.