They set up their camp a quarter mile from the portal hub, far enough away to give them some privacy, but close enough to enjoy the safety a large group of humans clumped up together provided. There were no less than six other campfires studding the darkness within five hundred feet of them, and many more beyond that.

  “It’s time to plan our next move,” Nemari announced after they’d finished eating.

  “Shouldn’t we wait for Sorin to get back?” Rue asked, more to open up the topic than because she didn’t already know Nemari’s opinion on the subject.

  “If he wasn’t the topic of conversation at hand, sure. But we only agreed to bring him on for one climb, and I think we can all agree our first climb is finished. The question now is whether we want to keep working with him.”

  “This has been the most successful first climb I’ve ever heard of,” Od said. “Two soulprints for each of us, and another three to sell.”

  “On the other hand, a bunch of pissed off climbers who wanted to kill Sorin and weren’t particular about collateral damage almost wiped us out,” Nemari said. “We might not have made as much profit without him, but we probably would have been safer.”

  Rue wasn’t so sure about that. Yes, the manticore had attacked them because the other climbers had baited it in their direction. Yes, that had resulted in Nemari almost dying, and that was a fight they probably would have completely avoided if not for Sorin.

  “How do you think we’d have done against those hounds when we first emerged through the portal?” Rue asked. “That wasn’t Sorin’s fault, but he sure handled his fair share of the fight.”

  “I’m not saying he’s dead weight,” Nemari said. “I’m questioning whether he brings enough value to outweigh the problems he comes with.”

  “It would seem to me that those problems have been dealt with,” Od said. “I doubt Sorin would have lied to us about it if he hadn’t managed to kill them all.”

  “Those problems, sure. I believe that. What other problems are going to pop up because of him? We all know he’s hiding something big.”

  More than you even realize, Rue thought to herself. She’d quickly realized that no one else knew just how deep Sorin’s anima reserves ran. If she just judged the man by what rank his soulspace felt like it was at, he appeared as a standard rank 1. But when she felt out his anima, it was closer to a rank 3’s. Rue hadn’t had her soulprints for very long, but she’d spent enough time around climbers to know that was weird. There were individual variances, sure, but no one else had even close to that much more anima than they were supposed to for their rank.

  What Rue hadn’t done was go running her mouth about it. The last few days fighting alongside the man had done nothing to make her any less terrified of him. It was a burr in her mind, the knowledge that Sorin could kill her—could kill all of them—without breaking a sweat, that the only thing keeping her alive out here with him was his good nature.

  It wasn’t a fair response, she knew. He’d done nothing to deserve that kind of paranoia, but Rue couldn’t shake it. Even if she didn’t logically believe Sorin would do that, the knowledge that he could was always in the back of her mind. Maybe it would be better to cut ties with him and find someone closer to our own level of strength. Or maybe that would just piss him off and make him hunt us down.

  “What happened to ‘getting all we could out of him’ before going our separate ways?” Od asked.

  “I took three poisoned manticore spikes to the gut,” Nemari said flatly. “Like I said, I’m not denying his skills. He’s good at what he does, and we’ve had a very successful climb if we just look at how much we brought back from the field. I’m just not eager to be incidental damage the next time someone from his mysterious past tries to kill him.

  “And don’t try to say there isn’t one. Someone did… whatever it was they did… and knocked him back down to rank 0 somehow. We don’t need that kind of heat. When that person catches up to Sorin, anyone close to him is going to die.”

  “Hmmm…” Od scratched at a cheek and stared into the campfire while he thought. “What would he need to share with us to make you comfortable with keeping this team together?”

  “How the hell would I know?” Nemari asked. “We have no idea what he’s hiding. I just know I’m not interested in getting blindsided by it. Could he even say anything that would convince us it’s safe to be around him?”

  Rue refrained from mentioning that it had barely been twenty-four hours since Nemari had been arguing to extend their first climb. Giving her time to think about things must have changed her mind. Or maybe it was just the hours of feeling like shit until Od had enough anima to get rid of the rest of that poison.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I agree that he could be a bit more open with us, but everyone is entitled to their secrets. Why not just ask him plainly if we’re in any danger from his past coming back to haunt him?” Odric asked. “He hasn’t really given us any reason to distrust him, not as far as I can see. If he can tell us that we’re not at risk, I don’t see a problem.”

  “Maybe, but he did say that once already and was wrong.” Nemari frowned and dug her heel into the dirt, twisting it back and forth repeatedly. She didn’t seem to realize she was doing it. “I still don’t like it. I want to know what’s going on with him. If this is a one-and-done climb, then fine. His secrets are his own. If this is going to be a long-term team, then we can’t have this kind of shit hanging over the group.”

  Not like the rest of us don’t have secrets of our own. Admittedly, they’re probably nothing like what Sorin’s got going on, but I’m certainly not about to tell you about the guy who wants me dead. Fucker’s not a real threat, anyway, especially not now that I have so many soulprints.

  Rue had picked up her own personal stalker a few months ago, and after the third run-in with him, she’d taken one of his eyes with her knife. His obsession had turned from romantic—well, sexual, anyway—to hatred right then and there. Twice since then, he’d taken shots at her. The last time, he’d almost caught her, too.

  But he was a no-name loser, no soulprints, rank 0. Rue wasn’t worried about him causing any problems beyond the city, and by the time she was ready to head back there, she’d be too powerful to fuck with. If he tried anything again, it wouldn’t be an eye he lost next time.

  “Rue?” Od called her name.

  “Huh?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Same as I thought last time we talked about this. He’s a scary son of a bitch, and I’m happy to follow along behind him and pick up the scraps. I know you both understand how much stronger we’ve gotten in less than a week. That kind of growth isn’t normal. At this rate, we could be rank 2 at the end of our next climb. How many people do Floor 1 in under three months, let alone one?”

  And there’s that look again. Look at Rue, stupid teenager. Doesn’t know any better, can’t assess risks versus rewards. Like you know the first damn thing about me, Nemari. You didn’t grow up in a slum district, did you? No, nice climber family buying you new clothes and all the food you could want.

  “This isn’t something we put to a vote,” Nemari said. “I run this team.”

  “Two days ago, you were trying to get Sorin to run it for you,” Rue pointed out.

  “That was before he damn near got me killed. Yes, he’s impressive in a fight. Yes, he knows his stuff. But he’s already got a proven record of drawing in trouble.”

  “We’re just going around in circles,” Od said softly, trying to calm Nemari down. “There’s nothing more to be gained here, not tonight. When Sorin comes back tomorrow, we’ll talk to him, see if he’ll open up a bit to us. If you’re still not comfortable working with him after that, then we’ll figure it out from there.”

  A scowl twisted Rue’s mouth. We’ve got a good thing going. Let’s not screw it up, please.

  If it came down to it and she had to pick between Nemari and Sorin, well, that was an easy decision. The problem was that Rue didn’t know which way Od would jump. That wasn’t a conversation they were going to have tonight, not with Nemari right there in front of them, but there’d be plenty of opportunities to talk to her brother alone when they woke back up.

  She was afraid she already knew the answer though. Od might fool everyone else, but she’d known him her whole life, and she knew what those glances he occasionally tossed at Nemari when he thought no one was looking meant. If they had to pick a side, Rue was afraid Od would do his thinking with the wrong head.

  Nemari pulled Rue’s attention back to her with a heavy sigh. “I guess you’re right. I think I’m going to send a message down to my uncle, though. Maybe he’ll know something about this weird rank reversion thing. Anything he can tell us would help at this point.”

  She stood up and brushed the crumbs off her pants, then started walking back toward the portal hub. “Right now?” Od asked. “It’s a bit dark to be wandering alone.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’m a climber, for God’s sake. Just relax; I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

  Oh, good. I guess we can have that conversation now, Rue thought as she watched Nemari walk off.

  Once the woman was gone, Rue looked over at her brother and said, “If she keeps pushing on this, it’s going to split the team.”

  “I know,” Od said with an unhappy frown.

  “Which side are we going to land on?”

  “What?”

  “Which side?” Rue repeated. Ugh, the idea of not sticking with Nemari never even occurred to you, did it?

  “That’s obvious, isn’t it?”

  “Is it? Sorin’s the better fighter, better caster, better strategist. Better everything. Except tits. Nemari’s got better tits. So, you tell me, which is more important to you?”

  “What are you talking about?” he asked, hunching his shoulders. But Rue could see the heat rising on his face.

  “I don’t care if you’ve got a crush on her, bro. I just don’t want you making decisions based on that instead of being smart. Nemari’s good. Sorin’s better. If she refuses to work with him, we’ll have to decide who to stick with.”

  “Never heard of a thing called loyalty, huh?”

  Rue shrugged. “I’m loyal to you. And let’s be honest. Prior to Sorin joining up, we couldn’t beat the Floor 0 portal guardian. We’ve got no successful climbs under Nemari’s leadership. At this point, they’ve got an equal claim to any loyalty I might have to them.”

  “What about the month before that?”

  “Where we risked our lives against the stupid golem and got nowhere? And besides, what about Nemari being stubborn and unreasonable. How many danirs you want to bet Sorin has no problem working with us despite not knowing anything about whatever baggage we’ve got?”

  “Well, his baggage is a bit different, isn’t it?” Od pointed out.

  “Sure, but come on. You’ve been screwing around on Floor 1 for years. You ever work with anybody at his level?”

  With an unhappy sigh, Od said, “No. He’s… He’s pretty unique.”

  At least I’ve got him thinking about the possibility now. This way he won’t blindly follow his dick if it comes to it.

  “Just take some time to think about what you want to do if the team doesn’t stick together,” Rue said.

  Glumly, Od nodded along.