Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four.Exhale.
The fog swirled from the wind, giving me sporadic glimpses of the top and I told myself it was for the best. I didn’t want to know how much more I had to climb or how far I already had.
Just focus on the next movement, the next reach of my hand…
The boots helped. I was able to find purchase with my feet and hoist myself up. I kept the knife in my right hand, embedding it into the rock with each upward motion I took. I didn’t let myself dwell on the fact that it was completely ruining it, that if I made it to the top, I wouldn’t be able to use the blade anymore.
One problem at a time.
I went to push up with my leg, pulling myself upward, when a piece of the rock crumbled and my foot slipped out from under me. I barely caught the hilt of my knife with both hands before I was left dangling against the rock.
My scream echoed off the cliffs and died in the thick air. I was alone. If I fell, no one would witness it. No one would know.
Except Dahes would know…
Come on, Magnolia, pull yourself up.I let out a sob as my foot found a piece of rock that wasn’t loose and I started climbing again.
I wanted to give up. My arms throbbed and my hands were completely blistered that the idea of continuing to pull myself forward sounded worse than falling into the dead river.
At some point, I started sweating. The cold of Moriann was slowly shifting into a blistering heat the higher I climbed. Then the fog vanished and the wind lessened. I could feel the suns shining down on me, but I couldn’t risk the time to stop and be in awe of it.
I reached my hand higher and found nothing but air. I tilted my head, allowing myself to look up for the first time since I started the climb. There was a foot of rock left before I reached the top and it all turned to sand.
I pulled my body the rest of the way, collapsing as I fell onto the black grains. I wasn’t sure how long I stayed like that, too tired to care that I was inhaling it. At some point I started coughing. It wasn’t until my arms and legs stopped shaking that I could finally roll onto my back.
Then I laughed, and I was pretty sure it was hysteria.
I made it.
I climbed the Senith Cliffs.
Chapter Eight
Black Sands
MAGNOLIA
Ineeded water. I was used to surviving on little—used to the constant thirst, the dry mouth, the parched lips—but the burning was unbearable. Sand was stuck on my tongue and lodged down my throat, sending blistering pain of raw heat through me every time I swallowed.
I felt foolish for ever praying to the Suns for warmth. Back in Moriann, it was all I ever wanted. I’d been freezing for the past seven years, but now that I had it, my body couldn’t handle it.
Traveling across the Black Sands wasn’t supposed to take long—the trek was rumored to only take a few hours—but the scorching heat and chafing grains in my boots made it feel like an eternity had passed. The moment the suns reached their peak in the sky, everything became molten.
The wind was nonexistent. It stopped halfway up the Senith, adding to my overheating problem. The air was stagnant, making it feel like I was baking in my own sweat. My dress was sticking to my skin as I walked, and the only sound I could hear was my own labored panting, mixing with my feet shifting through the sand.
I thought about taking off my gown and abandoning it, but the rational part of my brain told me I couldn’t enter Viven naked. That,and the blistering heat of the suns would burn every inch of my skin within minutes.
I was happy for my boots. I would have had fourth-degree burns if I wasn’t wearing them. At one point, I tried sitting on the sand, needing a second to catch my breath, but I instantly hissed as the scorching grains singed past my clothes. I’d heard rumors about the heat—that the moment the suns touched the grains it became scalding—but I never imagined it’d be this intense.
For a moment, I swore I saw steam rising from the surface, but I wasn’t sure if my mind was playing tricks on me. My vision blurred, sweat dripping into my eyes that it burned every time I blinked.
I thought I’d be able to look up, that I’d bask in the suns beating down on me and admire what I’d been missing my entire life, but I couldn’t. It was too bright, too scalding.
The only thing that kept my feet moving was that I no longer felt Dahes inside my head. He told me he would be cut off, and it was better than I ever imagined—like a weight had lifted on my mind, like chains had wrapped around my skull and only just loosened.
It felt… freeing.
Not that I could stay here. No one would survive past a day on the Sands, but the thought was intoxicating.
