Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 51 of 86

Zach packed a single bag by lamplight. The road to the world's center ran south, then down into the mountain cave beneath the northern peak. He had walked that swamp before. It had swallowed the airship and left them trekking five miles on foot through serpents and mud. Alone, that same swamp would strand him again, and he would never reach the fire in time. He tightened the bag's strap. He had no answer for the ground itself. Raven found him before he could slip away. She pulled him into her chamber high in the tree palace and shut the door. She stood with her back against it, arms crossed, cat ears flat. "You're not doing this alone, Zach," she said. "I'm going with you. So are the rest of us." "Geneva said one man walks to the fire." Zach set the bag down. "If I take you and the swamp takes you, I can't fight what's below. I love you. I won't lead you into that." "You think I'll sit in a branch and wait for word that you drowned?" Her voice cracked. "Lyra can sense a heartbeat through stone. She'll find you dry ground when the mud rises. Talon knows every trail in that marsh. Ayla can pull you back from a wound that would kill you alone. That swamp beat you last time because you were six people carrying each other. It won't beat you if we carry you again." Zach stared at her. She was right. The swamp had never been a problem for the group. It had only ever stranded a man by himself. "Raven, if you die out there—" "I would rather die beside you than live one day knowing I let you go alone." Tears stood in her eyes. She did not wipe them. "That's not love if I stay. That's cowardice with a nice name." Zach crossed the room. The plan bent under her words and reshaped itself. He had spent the whole night trying to solve the swamp as one man. She had solved it in three breaths. The answer was the group. It had always been the group. "You're right," he said. "We do this together. All of us." She kissed him hard, both hands fisted in his tank top, pulling him down. He wrapped an arm around her waist and held her off the floor. For a moment there was no tower, no fire, no war beneath the world. There was only her mouth on his and her heart pounding against his chest. When they broke apart, she pressed her forehead to his. "I'll wake the others," she said. "Talon marks the trail. Lyra reads the ground. Ayla keeps us breathing." Zach picked up his bag. The lone road was gone. Six people would cross the swamp that had stopped one man, and reach the fire together. He opened her door and walked out to gather the crew that would carry him to the world's center.