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But she didn’t. I squinted into the glare. Watched as her leg pushed her up. She reached an arm over the ledge. Hoisted herself higher. She froze.
And then Acari Kate screamed. A terrified, shrieking scream, like she’d looked over the ledge only to be faced with a nightmare. A large chunk of rock broke free and bounced down, and we had to jump back not to get hit. Tiny rocks dislodged, crumbling down around us like hail. She screamed again, and this time it seemed she barely stopped for breath. It was one long, uninterrupted cry.
Everyone gasped when her foot slipped. But then her arm slipped, too, and she began to fall, the image surreal as both her arms spun in the air like a slow-motion windmill.
I clapped a hand over my mouth, aghast, as she tumbled down, bounced once against a jut in the cliff wall, and landed with a chuff in the sand.
Her body was still.
After her screams, our silence was deafening. There was only the breathing of the girls around me, heavy like we’d just run laps. Waves crashed behind us, a loud, rhythmic thrumming reminding us that we were minuscule and meaningless and that life went on without us.
Finally Carden broke the silence. “This is enough. ” He gazed out toward the sea, and what I saw in his expression was unexpected. Beneath the anger, I imagined I saw sadness, too. Had he really wanted to help us? Did he want us to succeed? To live?
Watcher Priti told him quietly, “Perhaps it is time for your demonstration. ” Her tone was that of one adult giving another a hint.
And then she turned and stepped away.
But as she did, I spied her sliding a small device from her belt. She keyed something in. Was she texting?
I darted my eyes away so she wouldn’t catch me staring. It was a shocker, that was for sure. Her device seemed too small for a phone, but who could guess? For all I knew, the vampires were more wired than Silicon Valley.
I heard her speak to Carden behind my back. She’d pitched her voice low, but the wind carried it to me. “They’re coming. ”
It was a long, slow walk back to where we’d begun. What had Kate seen? What would Carden have done to her if she’d made it back down alive? Or had he known she wouldn’t? There was still more than an hour left in class. I wondered just what this demonstration of his would entail.
He walked us all the way down to the surf. Foamy water rushed up to us, then back again, leaving the sand glassy in its wake. I hated swimming, but for once I wanted to slip off my shoes and feel the frigid water roll over my feet. Maybe the cold would shock my body out of this numbness.
“Acari Kate’s foolishness teaches a valuable lesson. ” Carden’s voice was hard. Whatever sentiment I thought I’d seen earlier was gone. He was pure Vampire once more. “Only when you master your emotions, will you master your surroundings. Today I will prove this by climbing”—he pointed to the sea stack far offshore—“that. ”
“Will we need to climb that?” Some panicked Acari had spoken without thinking. Had she learned nothing from watching Kate plunge to her death?
“No,” he told her. “Not today. But perhaps someday. Someday you’ll face your biggest fear. ”
I chafed my arms. I had a feeling there were fears that would dwarf even that giant chimney rock.
Carden stepped into the water. It swirled around his calves, the deadly riptide sucking at his feet already. He looked blasé about the whole thing. “The average temperature of the North Sea in winter is six degrees Celsius. That’s forty-three degrees Fahrenheit. ” He paused. “It is not yet winter. ”
Easy for him to say—he was a vampire. Surely he didn’t feel a thing. An Acari I recognized from my dorm put words to my thoughts. “But we’re human. We’d freeze in that. ”
He crossed his arms at his chest. “A normal human can survive this temperature for thirty to sixty minutes before reaching exhaustion or unconsciousness. You are not normal humans. A normal human could stay alive up to three hours in this water. You have been consuming vampire blood since your arrival. You are not normal. So stop thinking you are. ”
He stepped deeper. “In a real situation, you won’t have a wet suit. You’ll be wearing clothing, and it will be heavy and cold. You must learn to manage the pain. The panic. ” The water soaked his jeans, the denim dark and clinging to his thighs. It mesmerized me.
“Situations have a way of taking us by surprise. There will come a day when you’ll need to climb and you won’t have gear. You won’t have a climbing kit or rope. You won’t be able to hook in or rappel back down. I’m here to show you that it’s possible. Because until you believe it, you won’t be able to do it. ”
And then Carden simply turned and dove into an oncoming wave.
Priti chattered at us, droning on about the sea cliffs and stacks. About climbing kits. Free climbing. Bouldering. But I tuned her out, unable to do anything but watch his powerful strokes cutting through the water.
He disappeared under the surface, and concern nagged at me. I sent feelers out into the universe, trying to sense if he was safe. Somehow I knew he was. Somehow I knew I’d be able to tell if he were in danger.
“They call it the Needle,” Priti said. Water churned violently at its base, and Carden burst from the surface, riding the crest of a swell. It tossed him a few feet above the water, and he found his grip with ease. He began to climb at once. “McCloud is a local. It’s a particular favorite of his. ”
I detected the hint of a smile on her face, and I wanted to smack her. I chafed my arms, trying to get a handle on these crazy thoughts. Was this jealousy? That she’d known something about him that I hadn’t? I was getting cold just standing there, and I hunched into myself, making myself watch instead of think.
The Needle dwarfed Carden, but his small figure clambered up until he reached a point where the rock forked into two. He swung like a monkey to the center and slipped between the cracks. The space was much larger than it seemed from afar, and he wedged himself in and began to hobble up, one foot braced on either side.
Near the top, he edged onto an outcropping. The glare off the water had a way of distorting scale and distance, and I hadn’t seen it before. He stood, and I saw that, sure enough, a table of rock protruded from the side.
