Cat forgets her injuries and hurries to my side. "Hurry! Get this crap off him!" She shoves at a big hunk of cement. Her hand slips and slices on the rubble. She cries out, pulling her hand into her chest.

I tremble as I pick up a piece of cement where his head should be. I throw it as wolves advance down the tunnel towards us. I keep my eyes on them until I hear Danny gasp for air under me.

I look down, scrambling to grab his face. "Can you breathe?"

He wheezes and nods.

My heart finally starts beating again.

"Are you okay?" Cat asks, nursing her hand to her chest.

"We're going to get you out," I interject.

Panic that I haven't felt since after Izzy and Alex... it fills me again. From head to toe.

I welcome it and the wind outside starts to howl louder than the wolves.

A wolf snarls behind us and Cat whips around, drawing one of her daggers.

I glance back.

Three wolves pace at the entrance, watching Cat's dagger.

They could take her easy, so I don't know why they hesitate. The wind rips at their fur and my silver glow lights up their faces.

"Raven," Danny wheezes.

I turn my attention back to him, trying to leverage a large piece of rubble off his chest.

"You have to leave me here," he chokes out.

Blood drips from his nose. I think it's broken. It's got a little notch in it now, right at the very top.

I shake my head, tears welling in my eyes as I struggle with the cement. Even with my adrenaline and the magic swirling around me, I don't have the strength to lift this much cement off him.

I'm not strong enough. "They're not attacking," I whimper. "I have time."

His hand I'd managed to free flails towards me and grabs my hand. "You knew you'd have to leave me," he pants. "I'm going to be fine."

Cat screams as one of the wolves lunge. She slams her dagger towards its head and it yowls as the blade catches its face.

My personal tornado swirls harder, but it just mingles with the blizzard outside and does nothing but drop the temperature.

I sob, pushing on the rubble until my hands bleed. "No!" I shout. "I know what I said, but I can't leave you here! I can't!"

Danny's hand darts towards my boot and he draws one of my daggers. He slashes the rope connecting him to Cat. He meets my gaze, offering the dagger back. "You need to leave me here."

"No," I sob. "No. There's still something-. I can still get you out!"

"My leg," he pants, "is broken."

The wolves behind me snarl. They've begun to pace closer to Cat.

She yelps and shuffles back towards us. She swings her dagger, but they don't seem as afraid as before.

Shay blazes to life in my mind. The black skin of her face, blotched with white. The multi-colored eyes, set in a tough expression. Kestrel wings spread out behind her.

The gold cord snaps between us as I look back over my shoulder at the wolves again, then down at Danny.

I need Carter.

I close my eyes and a tear drips onto Danny. "I reached out to Shay," I whisper.

Danny offers my dagger again. "You should go. The wolves will follow you."

I take the dagger, then lay it on his chest. "Keep it safe for me," I whisper.

He glances at the green-gem. "But-."

I grab his face and lean over him.

He gasps into my mouth as I kiss him.

His lips are cracked and bleeding from the cold and his fingers are dry and rough on my skin, but it's all perfect.

His hair is greasy in my dry hands and both our faces are wet from tears, but it's Danny, and if I'm about to leave him here, it's the best damn kiss I've ever had.

I sob into his mouth and pull back a bit.

He presses chaste kisses to my cheeks, and my temples, and my forehead. "Go," he whispers, between kisses. "You have to go."

I struggle to my feet and turn on the wolves, drawing my blue-gemmed dagger.

I lunge with a scream.

I slam my shoulder into one's throat, driving it back.

It snarls and its teeth graze my back.

Cat follows me, swinging her daggers at the other two.

They lunge, snapping their teeth at us.

Beyond us, deep in the snow, is the sheer cliff-face we have to climb to reach the top.

"I'll distract them! Get somewhere steady up there!"

"What!?" Cat shouts. "You want me to leave-!?"

"Less arguing! More climbing!"

Cat bellows into her teeth and plunges her daggers towards one of the wolves.

It leaps back, snarling.

Cat dashes past it, sprinting for the cliff-side.

I dance around the three wolves, keeping their focus on me.

More wolves are approaching from the tunnel, howling as they near us.

Several of them leap over Danny.

He clutches my dagger, his hand trembling, but they ignore him.

They're coming straight for me.

I gulp.

One wolf lunges and my dagger is too short to do much damage when it ducks under and grabs my leg.

Its teeth pierce my skin and I scream into my teeth.

It yanks me off my feet and throws me into the snow.

"Raven!" Cat shouts.

Two of the wolves turn on her, snarling, but she's already high enough on the cliff-side that they can't reach her.

I struggle to push myself up, my leg gushing blood.

The one that bit me advances towards me, my own blood dripping from its teeth.

I scan my surroundings. "Cat... Are you sturdy?"

Cat bounces a bit, testing her footholds. She nods. "Yes!"

I push to my feet, clutching my dagger with the blade flat against my forearm.

The wolves snarl, pushing me back towards Danny.

They want to corner me.

Smart. But not that smart.

The wolf that bit me lunges again.

I lunge to meet it, my eyes blazing silver. I roar and slash my dagger out, across its throat.

It chokes and staggers.

One of the wolves yowls as the wolf I'd injured collapses into the snow.

I dash into the opening, slamming into the wolves as I pass like I'm ping-ponging between them.

They snarl and try to bite me, but all they get is open air.

Cat's eyes widen as I near the bottom of the cliff-face. "What's your plan!?"

Plan? When have I ever had a plan?

I roar, lunging like I'm gonna go between a wolf's legs.

It lunges down to meet me.

I course correct, leaping upward.

It leaps upward as my feet meet its back.

It launches me and I slam into the cliff. I plunge my dagger into the cliff-side and slide down a few feet. My dagger rips a hole in the rock like the Grand Canyon.

Cat scrambles to grab my other arm and yanks me up so I can find a foothold.

Once I'm steady, I nod. "Thanks," I pant.

"What the hell were you thinking!? What kind of plan was that!?"

"The kind that worked!"

The wolves yelp and leap towards us, but we're too far up for them to reach.

In the distance, I see Shay flying in with Carter dangling from her arms.

"We should go," I whisper.

Cat gives the tunnel a forlorn look. Her squinty eyes are even more squinty than normal.

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to leave him."

She sniffles and looks up the cliff-side. "I knew we'd have too anyway. Let's move." She starts ahead of me, clambering up the rock-face.

I follow, silently.

If my dagger wasn't magic, I'm sure I would've ruined it by now since I use it when I can't find a handhold.

After climbing for a while, Cat shouts at me.

I can't see what she's excited about, but I follow her anyway.

She pulls herself up an edge, then disappears.

Seconds later, her head pops out and she offers me her hand.

I take it and drag myself up into an alcove in the side of the mountain.

Cat collapses against the wall, her chest heaving.

I slip my bag off and pull my canteen out. The water's frozen.

Cat grabs some snow off the cliff-side and stuffs it in her mouth.

I grimace, but don't stop her.

If there were enough dry twigs, I'd start a fire and sanitize it. But that's not going to happen up here.

I rummage around in my bag until I find Rae's first aid kid.

Cat munches on a few berries while I clean the cuts on her hands and bandage them. She watches the sun set with a stern expression.

"Something's on your mind," I say. I rip the gauze with my teeth and tape it to hold it on her hand.

She flexes her fingers, studying her new bandages. "What are the chances we get to the top and no one is waiting for us?"

I snort, cleaning my own wounds. "What about Charlie? He wouldn't have lied-."

Cat waves at me to cut me off. "Sure, he wouldn't. But he hasn't been back in a while anyway. Things could've changed."

"Well, lucky us, then."

"Lucky us?" She asks. "This entire thing has been about killing... our maybe dad. If he's not there-." She puts her berries away with a pinched face like she sucked on a lemon.

"Well, there's a portal up there either way. Whether we kill Thomas or not, we're finding our friends."

"I thought humans couldn't survive in Ebony," she says.

"Who of us do you think is human anymore?"

"What about Nick?"

I scoff.

She quirks her eyebrows. "You know something I don't?"

"I know he's not human, Cat."

"What about Danny? He never showed any signs of magic. He's... normal."

"I have a theory," I mutter. I don't elaborate, even when she pushes for information.

Soon enough, she gets tired of trying and curls up to fall asleep.

The alcove isn't very large, but I don't toss in my sleep, so we retie the rope around our waists.

At least if Cat falls off, I'll be able to catch her. Or we'll die together.

Once I'm sure she's asleep, I dig in my bag until I feel the smooth plastic under my fingers. I pull the MP3 player out and stare at it.

I'd taken to trying to turn it on every night since Charlie gave it back to me. But I know it's dead.

Still, I want it to turn on. I want it to answer all the questions I've been asking since the start of this.

I'm not an idiot. The answers for everything come easily. The reason all of this is happening. I have the answers.

I just want them to be wrong.

Cat's hand curls around mine.

I look down at her and find one green eye peering up at me. "I thought you were asleep."

"Are you scared?" She asks. Her voice is quieter than I've ever heard her. She's loud and obnoxious. But now, she's soft. She's afraid.

I shift my hand so it's holding hers. "Of what? Some dumb mountain? People used to do this for fun. You ever hear of Mount Everest?"

"Not the mountain," she rasps.

I look down at the MP3 player and run my thumb over the plastic. "Are you?"

She rolls onto her back and stares up at the cave ceiling. "I've never had a father before. I finally find out I have one and he's... a bad person."

"We can't choose our parents." I shift my gaze to the scar on my hand, poking above my bandages.

She squeezes my hand. "Are you going to kill him?"

I look over at her. I don't answer.

She closes her eyes and squeezes my hand harder. "Okay."

"Cat-," I start.

She rolls away from me. "If it's him or you... I pick you."

I sigh and bow my head.

We keep going in the morning.

Luckily, the wind is blowing away from us, so it's at least a little easier to climb.

We learn how to take breaks on the side of the cliff. If we're careful, we can leverage the rope over something and slide it under our legs so we're sitting in it like a swing.

We only do this when we haven't found an alcove for a while. Or when our fingers start to bleed through our bandages.

We run out of berries a few days into the climb. Our supplies might not last much longer. We'd be making better time, but Cat's breathing gets worse the higher we go.

Her breaths get almost as labored as Danny's had been. She has to take breaks as often as possible. She drinks what's left of our water, then takes to eating the snow for hydration.

She can barely sleep at night; her breathing is so bad. Her face is blue more often than not.

I try to take care of her to the best of my ability, but there's not much I can do.

Climbing gets harder and harder the higher we go.

Cat can barely hold herself up anymore.

The rope has saved her life several times when she's slipped and the only thing that keeps us from falling is my dagger in the cliff-side.

For a few days, Cat gets to feel a little better.

The wind dies and the sun comes out, beating down on our backs. We both start to get our tans back.

Cat smiles and tilts her head back during our rests, soaking in the sunlight while it's here.

We can't take these moments for granted.

She smiles brightly those nights, when the stars glitter above us.

It feels like it's been years since we've seen them.

Cat grew up with them, since she lived outside the dome.

But until I left, I'd never seen them. Then the last month or two, they'd mostly been hidden behind the clouds.

I relish seeing them. But I wish it wasn't just me and Cat.

Not saying I don't love Cat. She's cool. She's family. She's a friend.

But it still feels like there's this weight on my chest. It's suffocating. It feels like I'm being held underwater. Like I can almost see the surface, and the sunlight, but I keep getting pulled further down.

It's worse than when I first left the dome and all I could think about was my tiny room in the compound. My vanilla candle on my side table. The broken mirror, the shards resting in the sink. My bed. I'd missed it all. Like I'd left home knowing I'd never see it again.

It's worse than that now. It's like a piece, several pieces, of me have been ripped away.

I think that's why I keep making Cat climb.

I know I shouldn't. I know I should send her back down. Let her find somewhere safe. Let her rest while I handle Thomas. While I find our friends and bring them back.

But I don't want to be alone. I don't want to have to do this by myself.

"You'll be eighteen soon, right?"

I jolt and look up at her.

She's rolling a pebble back and forth with her shoe. There's a hole near her toes at the bottom of her shoe. The pebble grazes her toe when she rolls it.

When I don't answer, she looks outside, up at the stars. "It's almost the twenty-fifth."

"Did you ever celebrate Christmas?" I ask, looking away.

She rubs the back of her neck. "Not really. I know outside the dome we were allowed to celebrate those things. But I was in the orphanage."

I bite my tongue. "Sorry."

She shakes her head. "I wouldn't have met Danny without being there." She looks down and rolls her bottom lip between her teeth. "Do you want to celebrate it?"

I rest my head back against the wall, staring at the North Star. It was the only star all of my friends knew, because I made them learn how to find it. "Yeah. With everyone."

Cat sighs, "you really think we'll be reunited before then?"

I don't answer, curling up on my side and closing my eyes.

She lets out a sharp breath. "Yeah. Me either."

The days following our short reprieve bring the worst of the storm yet.

The wind changes directions, slamming us into the rock-face instead of blowing away from us.

I can't hear much over the wind, but when it starts to sound like Cat has smoked since she popped from the womb, I force her to take a break.

But Cat's getting worse instead of better. The days drag on. Our arms and legs are rubber.

Cat nearly falls every time a cough wracks through her body. She's constantly exhausted. Everything is too much.

I know she has pneumonia. I know the sporadic resting and the lack of clean fluids is killing her. I want to call on Shay. I want to beg. I want to promise her anything in the world if she'll take Cat somewhere safe. Not even through the portal. But back down the mountain. To a village, maybe.

But there's this twisted fear in me.

I don't like the idea of everyone of my friends being in a single realm, except one.

I plan to come back to Ivory when this is over. I plan to find the portal and return to the dome. But how long will it take?

What if everyone isn't healed yet? What if I have to wait?

How long am I willing to leave Cat here by herself? Will I even be able to get back right away if I can't kill Thomas?

What if something happens to Cat while she's alone?

I'm afraid to risk it.

And my fear is hurting her.

I can't make a decision. So, Cat has to make one for me.

The wind is worse than usual on the day Cat drags herself onto a tree protruding from the cliff-face. She dangles over it, breathing like a pug who ran a marathon.

I pull myself up beside her, making sure the rope is secure around us. "I think I saw an alcove up ahead. We're almost there. I don't know how long this tree can hold us."

Cat shakes her head. "I can't," she wheezes. She's blue in the face.

"C'mon. It's only a hundred feet, at most. How about we take ten minutes, then keep going?"

Cat looks up at me, her usually vibrant green eyes dull and lifeless. "You don't understand," she rasps. "I'm dying."

I yank on the gold cord as hard as I can, providing no words, but letting Shay feel every ounce of panic in my body.

"No," I say, rubbing Cat's back. "You're okay."

She sobs and digs her nails into the tree. "I can't feel my hands or legs, Raven! It's like I'm breathing fire! I can't... I can't go on like this!"

"I can get you help!" I shout.

Cat squeezes her eyes shut. "Help? The bird won't take me through the portal. And you know I can't stay here. Not anymore."

"Don't talk like that," I snap. "You don't get to do this to me, Catherine! You don't get to leave me alone! I can't-I can't do this without you."

She grabs for my hand, but even her squeeze is frail. "You're Raven fucking Black. You can do anything."

"No," I sob, gripping her hand. "No, I'm not as strong as you think I am. Don't you get it? It's all a lie. I'm weak, Cat. I can't do this without you."

Cat lifts tearful eyes to mine. Her lips quiver. Her face is red and wind-shorn. She looks like hell. Her short hair is knotted and may have actually been home to a bird at some point. "I'm sorry," she whispers.

I shake my head. "No. No."

She shoves off the tree.

"NO!"

Her entire weight drops onto my arm as I make a wild grab for her wrist.

The tree bites into my other arm as I hold us both up.

I kick at the cliff, trying to get a foothold to pull her back up.

Cat draws one of her daggers.

I shake my head, vigorously. "Don't do this! Shay is coming! I know she's coming! Just hold on! I'll come back for you! I promise I'll come back for you! I vow! Please!"

Cat's eyes are lifeless on mine. "You're holding onto this idea that we're ever coming back here, Raven. But we don't belong here anymore." She slashes her dagger at the rope and it snaps.

I scream into my teeth as my arm starts to pull from its socket.

"You're not coming back," she whispers. "And I refuse to be left behind." She stabs her dagger straight towards my hand on hers.

I don't let go.

Her dagger plunges past my hand, missing me. Her eyes snap to mine. "Let me go!"

I grit my teeth, straining to pull her back onto the tree. "I can't do this without you!"

Cat grabs my forearm in her hand and pulls herself up until her hand is on my shoulder.

"Yes!" I shout. "Yes! That's it! Pull yourself up!"

Electricity zaps up and down my spine.

Her thumb plunges into my bullet wound.

I scream into my teeth as my arm seizes. My hand releases her arm.

She slips down, holding herself up on my arm. She meets my gaze and smiles. "It was nice to have a family. At least for a while."

She releases my arm.