The silver badge hit the gray dirt with a dull thud.
Lily watched it fall.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The wind howled through the ravine, throwing fine grit against their boots, but the heavy, unnatural heat of the academy's protection was finally gone from their chests.
Daniel reached out, his fingers rough as he unclasped Lily's badge from her cloak.
He threw it down beside his own.
"Without them, the stations won't recognize us," Lily said. Her voice was steady, but her eyes remained fixed on the two pieces of metal sinking into the ash. "If there are any Ghost Killers left out here, they'll treat us as hostiles. Or worse."
"If they are still alive, they'll know why we cast them off," Daniel replied.
He picked up his pack, slinging it over his good shoulder. The strap dug into his collarbone, a sharp reminder of the physical toll the mountains were already demanding.
"We move high," he added, looking up at the jagged ridge. "The low paths are funnel points. The Ash-Walkers hunt where the terrain is predictable."
Lily wiped a streak of gray soot from her cheek, her jaw tight.
"Lead the way."
The ascent was brutal.
The air grew thinner with every hundred paces, tasting increasingly of sulfur and dead frost. There were no paths here, only loose shale that threatened to slide out from beneath their boots with every step. A single misstep meant a drop into a bottomless crevasse hidden by the low-hanging fog.
Daniel kept his gaze fixed on the horizon, tracking the unnatural swirl of the clouds above the peak.
It was a vortex. A manifestation of dense, corrupted energy that shouldn't exist in the natural world.
By mid-afternoon, the fog thickened, swallowing the base of the mountains entirely. They were isolated in a world of sharp black rock and white mist.
"Daniel," Lily called out from behind.
He stopped, lowering his center of gravity, his hand instinctively dropping to the pommel of his blade.
"What is it?"
"Listen."
He strained his ears.
The wind had died down. In the absolute quiet, a new sound emerged.
It wasn't the rusted dragging sound of the Ash-Walker they had fought earlier. It was a rhythmic, hollow clicking. Like thousands of small stones being struck together in rapid succession.
The sound was coming from the rock face directly above them.
"Move," Daniel hissed.
He grabbed Lily's arm, pulling her into the narrow recess of an overhanging cliff just as the shale above them gave way.
A shower of black stones rained down, followed by a shape that dropped heavily onto the ledge they had stood on seconds before.
It wasn't human.
It was a massive, chitinous horror, its body forged from the same dark, volcanic glass as the mountain itself. Six segmented legs ended in razor-sharp points, and its head was a cluster of blind, white sensory nodes.
An Ash-Stalker. A apex predator of the high ridges.
The creature tilted its head, the white nodes pulsing as it tasted the air for their scent.
Daniel held his breath, pressing his back against the freezing stone wall of the recess.
Lily didn't move a muscle. Her eyes were locked on the creature's forelegs, which were sharp enough to sever a man's limb in a single strike.
The Ash-Stalker clicked, its mandibles snapping open to reveal rows of jagged, crystalline teeth. It took a slow step toward their hiding spot, its heavy legs sinking inches into the loose shale.
It was relying on vibration.
Daniel looked down at a loose stone near his boot.
He carefully slid his toe beneath it, lifting it without making a sound. With a sudden, precise flick of his ankle, he launched the stone down the slope, far out into the fog.
The rock clattered against a distant ledge.
The Ash-Stalker turned instantly. With a terrifying screech that sounded like tearing metal, it leaped off the ridge, disappearing into the white abyss after the noise.
Lily let out a ragged breath, her shoulders sagging against the rock.
"That was too close," she whispered.
"It means we're entering their territory," Daniel said, his expression darkening as he looked toward the peak. "Finn Foster didn't just choose a hiding place. He chose a fortress guarded by monsters."
He turned back to the path, his grip tightening on his weapon.
"We need to find shelter before nightfall. Out here, the dark belongs to them."