“The only thing that limits you is yourself.”
Well, duh.
She points at the cliff face again. It’s maybe 500 feet high, iron-gray rock, run through with silver. Smooth. Though when I look closer, it’s notentirelysmooth; there are slight indents marring the surface here and there.
I sigh, then glance at Hecate. “Okay, but only if you tell me something first.”
She smiles. We do this bargaining a lot. And as long as I don’t ask anything directly relating to myself, she usually plays along. “Ask your question.”
I think about the thousands of things I want to know and select one. “The shadowguard. You said they’re immortal; does that mean they can’t be killed? When Khaosti attacked them the night Zayne was bitten, they sort of disappeared. And it was the same when they attacked us out on the plains.”
“Shadowguard is more than just a name. When they appear in the world, they are without substance; their corporeal bodies remain in Hell. So if you kill them in this world, they remanifest in Hell.”
“So they can’t be killed, just stopped for a while. And they’ll just come right back another time. That sucks."
“If you want them completely destroyed, then first you must draw them out of the shadow realm.”
“How?”
“Believe, and it shall be.”
“Grrr.”
She chuckles. “One day you will remember and understand. Now climb.”
I turn back to the cliff. Instead of looking for the handholds, I close my eyes and reach up, feeling my way, sliding my fingertips over the smooth rock, warmed by the sunshine, until I find a slight groove. I dig in my fingers and pull myself up. Then the next, feeling with my toes for a place to ram them into the almost sheer wall. Then repeat. It’s slow, but I’m rising, and I close my mind to everything but reaching, seeking, finding, climbing. I don’t know how long I climb; it could be minutes, hours, or days.
My mind clears. And there’s something hovering on the edge of my consciousness. Something deep inside my mind, closed away, but there. Real.
Come back.
The words flicker through my brain, like a memory.
And then it’s gone. I want to scream.
Instead, I open my eyes and look down, and my vision swirls. I grasp for my hold, but my fingers slip, and I’m plummeting. Arms outstretched. Time seems to slow, as though I’m floating rather than falling.
I’m going to die. It’s over. Then my brain kicks in.
Not freaking happening.
I force my body into a turn so I’m going down feet first, hurtling toward the ground. I hit the grass, bend my knees, somersault, and I’m up on my feet.
And alive.
I take a deep breath as I take stock. Then I look at Hecate. She’s watching me with a smile on her face. And I say the words that have been formulating in my mind since I arrived in this world.
“Shit. I’m not human, am I?”
Chapter 40
Zayne is Freaking Awesome
IstareatHecate,willingher to speak, to answer my—somewhat rhetorical—question. She just smiles and says, “Tomorrow you will make it to the top.”
I suppose while she hasn’t admitted that I’m not human, she isn’t denying it either.
And really, she doesn’t need to say anything. If I was human, I’d be dead. Which means—I’m not freaking human!
