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My predominant wish was to go home. And I could. Some people got killed for impersonating Élite. I was going to get the ultimate consolation prize.
When the light tremors and spasms in my muscles turned to outright shakes, I fought to keep climbing. It wasn’t until I was nearing the top that I realized how far I’d come.
I let out an incredulous laugh and cheered inwardly. My reward was a soaring adrenaline rush, and the sweat pouring down my brow.
It took little time to climb and make it to the top of the wall, and the toll on my body was enormous. Dancing was hard, but I couldn’t remember the last time I’d carried my body weight up nearly ten meters.
There were large metal hooks lining the top, right around the same place where my cord was deeply embedded into the stone like material. I latched onto one of them with my hands and turned around to speak with Antonio.
It was tricky to balance on the small stones, but the cord completely secured me to the solid metal hook. Even if I lost my footing, I would be fine. My sweat felt like sparkling water with gentle bubbles popping all along my skin. It felt like I was flying.
It was hard to tell if I was seeing things, but it looked like Antonio was full on smiling. Smiling at me. Another warm, soft, salt-water wave rolled over me from the tips of my toes to my face, where my ears turned scalding hot. The headiness of the moment made me fist my hand and thrust it up into the air.
“I did it!” I called down.
Antonio, my stone-faced house mate nodded his head deeply in his own bastardized version of a bow. Or perhaps congratulations.
“Now you need to come back down!” He called up.
Chapter25
Hands that Burn and Hearts that Glow
The warmth of victory evaporated. Sweat collected in my palms, and it had nothing to do with exercise--and a throbbing pain in my side flared up accompanied a light nausea. This heaviness wasn’t being hungover. I was going to be sick. I swallowed hard. “Exactly how do I do that?” I called down.
“You need to face the wall. Squat as if you were going to sit down, and then tap the release button. Only press it once. That setting will keep tension on the cord under your weight so you don’t have to worry about it dropping you too fast,” Antonio yelled.
I took another deep breath and followed his instructions.
After positioning myself correctly, I found the button with relative ease. It was the only one visible. My hands and thighs were shaking from being up so high.
A long sigh pushed out of my lungs. Everything was going to be fine. I would be back on solid ground soon enough.
I leaned back, and fell as soon as I tapped it. The sudden drop made my body seize up. I squeezed my eyes shut and my hands flung out to either side of my body.
“Watch your hands!” Antonio yelled.
Tightening my muscles, I whipped around and made the mistake of looking down. Instinct made me clutch the knob that connected me to the wire, and it clicked again.
I took off like a gadarene meteor flying across the ink-black sky. The world blurred around me and I screamed. The whirlwind of speed caused my body to turn. Artificial rocks scraped against my clothes and skin.
Someone shouted. It might have been Antonio.
I desperately needed to stop. My only thought was to slow myself down, so I reached out and grabbed the cord.
“Damn it, Carmen,take your hands off!”
The bitter payment presented itself almost instantly as the pain lit my hands on fire. The sturdy black cord cut through my flesh like butter. I screamed again and yanked my injured hands into my chest. I knew I was much closer to the ground, and I braced for impact.
Before I touched the ground, the freakish magical change flooded my body. It rippled out from my hands in waves and monetarily intensified the burning before taking it away all together. The sickness brewing inside of me evaporated.
Then I hit hard, but it wasn’t the mats on the ground my body had connected with.
It was a person.
I was still golden, and I looked up, fully expecting to see Antonio’s arms wrapped around me. I felt the world go sideways as we fell, and I instinctively curled closer into the physical contact. Some part of me leaned into what I hadn’t realized myself—that I wanted to be close to Antonio.
“San Volcán, Renata. You’ve literally taken my breath away,” a familiar voice said.
