After a morning of long and hard traveling, we had finally reached Wren and Leif, where my journey was rewarded with an earful about how I should have warned them of how awful the walk would be.

"I hope you had as miserable of a time as we did," Leif said.

"It isn't possible for theirs to have been as miserable." Wren furrowed her brows. "They didn't have to travel with you. If you complain one more time, I'm gagging you."

"Don't worry. We were miserable." My legs ached as stretched them by the exit.

"Very miserable," Nash said. "There wasn't even a single moment of relief."

With my back to Leif, I was able to cast a glare at Nash. To his credit, he didn't flash a hint of a teasing smile, but I knew exactly what he was doing, trying to vex me. Didn't he want to keep his windpipe intact?

"Good," Leif said, voice suspicious.

"Would you stop?" Wren rarely lost her patience.

I placed my hands against the stone to open the passageway. With all of us weary, but ready to face whatever came, we squeezed outside to a very different mountain than where we'd entered. Towering cliffs surrounded us. The air was cold and the ground moist where remnants of melting snow clung to the ledge we stood on. Soon we would reach heights where snow fell year round and terrible winds could whiteout the entire sky.

Dark clouds lingered low in the mountains that blocked our view below and limited how much we could see of our surroundings. Sprinkles of rain fell for a few minutes as we picked our way along the edge of the cliff. Around the curve, we would need to climb to another ledge, where sloping fields crawled up to more cliffs, and to the lowest peaks of the mountain. There we would face difficult climbs up steep cliffs to reach the next passageway.

We had to make it there, through another section of the mountain, and a final passage that led to the Sacred area the guards weren't permitted to patrol. A tram would carry us up to the school. That would be hard to explain to my friends, but not any harder than the train.

Things would only get more dangerous from here. The guards actively patrolled this area. Even though they knew we were trespassing, as long as I didn't use my power, they wouldn't be able to detect me on their radars. Ironic to hold myself back after I'd spent so long trying to regain my energy.

"Do I need to worry?" Leif asked quietly, his whiskers scratching my ear when he leaned in to whisper. I shook him off.

Yes, he should worry a great deal because I definitely had not heeded his advice. "No. Don't start a fight either," I whispered.

"I'm not trying to antagonize you. I'm trying to protect you."

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What would Leif do if he knew Nash was a spy? The worry I thought I had shut down churned in my stomach now. That did sound terrible. I softened my voice and looked back at him. "Trust me. Okay?"

Leif's shoulders sagged. "Okay."

It made me feel guilty to see Leif's concern and then mislead him, but he wouldn't listen to anything I had to say about the matter. We needed to keep our thoughts on the task at hand, anyway. We were entering dangerous territory.

I eyed the ledge above as we came to the end of the cliff, steadied myself, and felt for the best place to start climbing. The others followed after me as I dug my fingers into a crack and tested an indentation with the toe of my boots. Only five feet to go. This was a short cliff. I breathed in deeply and focused on the next foothold rather than looking back or ahead.

As I strained to reach an outcropping, a noise above the cliff caught my attention. I lowered back to hold steady as I listened. We couldn't wait long. We'd exhaust ourselves. As quietly as I could, I climbed another foot. I heard at least two guards walking overhead.

I neared the top when I braved a peek. Three guards walked along the short trees dotting the ledge. None of them spoke. They all scanned the area with knit brows and swords readied. Lowering, I looked over my shoulder at the others and mouthed to them. "Three… On alert…"

No point in wasting time. I dragged myself over the edge with burning muscles. There I crouched, easing behind the guards so they wouldn't see me. Nash followed, drawing his blades. Leif and Wren weren't far behind us.

I readied my bow and aimed at the guard farthest away while Nash tiptoed toward the closest. Wren took a dagger from her thigh and Leif grabbed his blade.

One of the guards turned. He opened his mouth. I switched my aim and shot my arrow through his teeth. Nash sprang forward, blades swinging like lightning to rip open a guard's back. Wren's dagger whizzed past me and thudded into the neck of the final guard. All three sank to the ground, two already dead, while Wren's wheezed his final breath.

Leif's eyes scanned our surroundings. "Clear," he mouthed.

"Hide them," I whispered. We had to cover our tracks. Wren and I searched the corpses for useful supplies. When we finished with one body, Leif and Nash hefted him up and carried him to an outcropping to hide the body. The guards checked in with each other frequently, so it wouldn't take long to realize that these three were missing and to narrow the search. Quickly, we hid the other two, and fell into a line as we traversed the mountain.

Slinking past another group, we managed to come upon the large field separating us from a cliff we would need to climb. Either we cut through the center, the fastest route, or hug the edge of the field in a tangle of trees. If guards were here, that was where they would likely be, but we would have cover at least. I nodded to the woods to the east. We had no other path to take and would need to fight whoever came for us. This was exactly why we had needed to make it through the first passageway undetected. They'd had all night to prepare for us.

Tightness squeezed my chest. I could only hope we would encounter significantly less before finding the next passageway.

An arrow whizzed past us and planted itself in the ground ahead of us. A man on a horse galloped out of the woods dead ahead. It was too late to take to the trees. We'd been spotted.

More guards appeared behind him. Wonderful.