"So that portal dumped us on the same damn mountain?" Gavriel asked, squinting up at the volcanic ridge they'd already been staring at for the last hour from the other side.
The sun burned white in a washed-out sky, bleaching everything colorless, cooking them slow like four idiots in a stone oven.
"Yes." Serena wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist. "I know we had to go through it, but I still don't understand why."
"Cool. Love a good 'fuck you' from the universe," Gavriel muttered.
Time blurred into effort. Hours bled together, measured only by aching muscles and scraped hands, raw skin rasping against jagged stone that seemed personally offended by their existence. Every handhold was a negotiation with gravity, every step a middle finger pointed straight at their knees.
