Free The Fire Sisters (Brilliant Darkness 3) by A. G. Henley Page A

fell now, I wouldn’t be able to hang on to her. She'd take us both down. The wind rattles the bridge, shaking us up with it.
    Kai shouts, and her weight falls into my outstretched arm, almost dragging my feet off the bridge. “Hand… slipped!”
    Her body twists, stretching the muscles of my arm past the point of exertion and into pain. Teeth clenched, I hold her with all the strength I have.
    “I’m here!” Peree leans out behind me, his arm joining mine around Kai’s back. Her body stops swiveling.
    “We’ve got you, Kai,” he says. “Reach up and grab the rope again.”
    Together, we support her as she slides her hands back to our side of the bridge. We don’t let go.
    “Now bring your legs up,” Peree tells her.
    Her feet thunk on the board we’re standing on. We back up a little, and Peree must pull her to her feet. I grip the handhold with both hands, breathing hard. He rests a hand on my back.
    “All right, Kai?” he says.
    “Yeah… thanks," she pants.
    I'm glad she's okay, but we can't stay out here chatting. I yell over the wind. “How big is the gap?”
    “Two paces,” Peree shouts.
    “Should we go back? Try to cross the river some other way?” Lightning fractures the sky overhead.
    “Can’t. Cuda and Conda are already coming across on the rock trail. They’d started before the bridge went.” Thunder menaces, and the bridge shudders. “We have to get across this way.”
    I hang on to the rope through the next gust of wind.
    “The boards on the other side of the gap look okay,” Peree says, “but it’s hard to tell for sure.”
    “I’ll go across the rope and test them,” Kai says.
    “Kai, wait—” Peree says.
    But she doesn’t listen. The bridge sways as she drops back onto the rope. Call the girl reckless, thoughtless, and mean, but she’s no coward.
    “She’s across. The slats on the other side held,” Peree says close to my ear. “Do you want to use the rope to cross hand to hand, like she did, or jump?”
    Neither?
    “Out of the way,” Cuda calls from behind us. He’s trying to sound casual, but I hear the apprehension in his voice. “Con and I are going.”
    I must look as sick and indecisive as I feel, because Peree pulls me back to where the bridge meets the rock trail. As soon as we squeeze onto the dubious safety of the rock trail at the start of the bridge, a brother’s feet thump by us. There’s silence for a moment, when he must jump, and then a bang.
    I bite my lip hard. “Did he make it?”
    “Yeah.”
    The other brother does, too. Those boards on the far side of the gap must be strong to take their weight; why did some break up under Kai when she was moving so carefully?
    Bear comes next. “You two okay?”
    “I need another minute.” I still feel sick, and my heart flutters.
    “You can do it, Fenn,” he says. “When you’re ready.”
    The bridge creaks as he moves across. Amarina and Derain follow Bear, stopping briefly to check in with Peree and me.
    Thunder growls over our heads; rainwater runs down my legs. The river crashes below, a constant reminder that one misstep could mean death for any of us.
    “Time’s wasting, sweetheart.” Moray pokes me as he goes by. He smashes onto the other side of the bridge a minute later.
    Only Peree and I are left. I hold the carved bird at my neck as if it could flicker to life any moment and carry me to the other side. No such luck. Hands trembling, I reach out for the handholds, and we cross the bridge again.
    He grips my shoulder to stop me. “How do you want to do this? Hand to hand or jump?”
    “Jump.” The others all did it, and the idea of hanging free in the gap terrifies me even more than a leap. “Two paces, right?”
    I feel for the gap with one foot, then back up three measured steps. It’s probably an easy distance, even for me, except I can’t see the boards I’m leaving from or the ones I’m landing on. I try, but I can’t make myself move forward.
    Get a grip, Fenn.