Chapter 173: Promise

~ SASHA ~

Zev led her up a thin trail, barely visible to her eyes beyond an area where the rocks and grasses seemed to get sparser. It doubled back on the ravine they'd just followed, the first few feet so steep she'd almost had to climb them. But then it evened out and slanted up the foothill of a mountain. At first, when she began to puff and sweat from the climb, she wanted to curse. If they were almost at their destination, she didn't want to arrive stinking and sweaty.

But as she watched Zev, his eyes dancing, and she realized that not only was he not even breathing hard, but he'd slowed his pace to match hers, then she just got embarrassed.

He was carrying both bags—neither of them light. He was wounded, and his eyes pinched sometimes. Yet he was carefully waiting for her?

"I'm going to have to… get fitter…" she panted as the trail climbed.