No one but the goddess should be this close to the sky. The birds scarcely dared to fly this far beyond the lines of trees. In the dark of the night, they were more daring than the bats and as lofted as clouds that scraped the mountain’s granite peaks.

Whenever she dared a glance over the sheer drop-off, it was to note that the trees and homes dotting the countryside below were smudges no bigger than her thumb. The mountain had curved in such ways that the village of Stone would have had to be miles and miles wide for anyone this high up to spot it.

Amaris had lost track of the night, but her flair for the dramatic tended to count the passage of time a little differently. It had probably only been a few hours, though it felt like days. At one point, she knew in her soul that she had been climbing this cliff for her entire life. She had been born on this trail, and it was on this very trail that she’d grow old and die.

If she wasn’t mistaken, the moon had moved low enough on the horizon to let her know it wouldn’t be night much longer. Given the lateness of autumn, she was rather confident the sun had been down for at least twelve hours.

They walked and walked and walked and then, they didn’t.

Odrin stopped in his tracks. He took Cobb’s reins from Amaris, urging her alongside him, as there was now space on the trail for two.

“Is this it?” she whispered.

“Few more steps, unless you’d rather stay on the mountain.”

The cliff had finally come to an end. They’d reached a stone bridge connecting the gap between two, terribly steep mountains of otherworldly sharpness and height. The singular stone bridge united the adjoining cliffs over the dramatic plummet of the valley below with what seemed to be little more than wishes and prayers. She squinted her eyes to the dizzying depths of the valley where the moonlight caught a tiny silver thread. The ribbon was that of a river—presumably the very one that had cut its path between these mountains many lifetimes ago.

“Is it safe?”

“The bridge? Probably not.”

“But–”

“Like I said, you can stay on the mountain.”

Her fear of heights had been a gnawing throb. The potent stab of arrival was a new, sharp terror. Odrin began to move forward, Cobb in tow, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready to follow. It wasn’t just the crossing of some bridge of nightmares that daunted her but the strange, obscure gloomy shape that awaited them once they crossed.

Amaris remained glued to the far end of the bridge as she squinted at the shape ahead.