Cardio, Darling

The convertible hummed along the coastal highway, the city shrinking behind them as they headed into the hills. Amelia had taken them to some absurdly expensive Thai place after her meeting. The kind where they don't list prices on the menu because if you have to ask, you can't afford it. Rome had barely touched his pad see ew, too busy watching her demolish three plates of food while chatting about technique theory.

The sun was doing that golden hour thing, turning everything into a movie scene. Some instrumental jazz played softly from the speakers. Amelia drove with one hand on the wheel, the other tapping along to the rhythm against the leather.

"You're staring," she said without looking at him.

"I'm processing."

"Process faster. We're almost there."

Freya yowled from her carrier in the back seat. She'd been making various sounds of discontent for the past hour, ranging from annoyed chirps to full-throated wails of betrayal. Rome had never heard her make half these noises.

"Your cat has an impressive vocabulary," Amelia observed.

"She's usually quieter."

"She's usually not forced to share space with someone who could crush her into a singularity." Amelia glanced in the rearview mirror. "Relax, little beast. I'm not going to hurt your precious human."

Freya hissed.

"See, this is growth. She's moved from murder-growls to simple hissing. We're bonding."

The highway gave way to a narrow private road that curved upward into a forest. Massive redwoods and cypress trees closed in on both sides, their branches forming a canopy that filtered the sunlight into scattered golden coins on the pavement. The temperature dropped. The air smelled like pine and wet earth and something else, something that made the hair on Rome's arms stand up.

"You feel that?" Amelia asked.

"Feel what?"

"The barrier. We just passed through the outer ward." She took a turn without slowing down, the car hugging the curve like it was on rails. "From here on out, mundane humans see nothing but private property signs and an overwhelming urge to be literally anywhere else."

Rome twisted in his seat to look back. The road behind them looked the same. "I don't feel any different."

"Because you're not mundane, darling." She said it like a compliment. "Your demonic energy recognizes the ward as something familiar rather than hostile. It's letting you pass."

The road climbed steeper. Through gaps in the trees, he caught glimpses of New Pacifica spread out below, the city starting to light up as dusk approached. Then the forest swallowed them whole again.

The pavement ended at a clearing.

Amelia killed the engine. Silence rushed in, broken only by Freya's continued complaints and the whisper of wind through the trees.

In front of them stood a massive torii gate, its wood lacquered in deep crimson that seemed to glow in the fading light. Beyond it, a staircase. An endless flight of polished black stone steps that disappeared up the mountainside like some kind of ancient pilgrimage route designed by sadists.

Rome stared at it. Then at Amelia. Then back at the stairs.

"Are you serious right now?"

She popped the trunk and stepped out, stretching like they'd just arrived at a spa instead of the base of Mount Doom. "What, did you think the most prestigious shaman college on the west coast would have valet parking?"

"I thought there'd be, I don't know, a road? A funicular? Literally any form of mechanized transportation invented in the last two centuries?"

"Where's the fun in that?" She pulled his sad duffel bag from the trunk and tossed it to him. He caught it on instinct. "Besides, it's good cardio. Come on."

She started up the stairs in her designer heels and fitted skirt like she was heading to brunch.

Rome grabbed Freya's carrier. The cat gave him a look through the bars that clearly communicated he had betrayed her in the worst possible way.

"I know," he muttered. "Trust me, I know."

The first fifty steps weren't so bad. He was in decent shape from construction work. He could handle some stairs.

By step one hundred, his thighs were starting to burn.

By step three hundred, he was convinced this was a hazing ritual.

Amelia remained exactly three flights ahead of him. Her heels clicked against the stone in a rhythm that never varied, never slowed. She wasn't breathing hard. She wasn't breathing at all, as far as he could tell.

Meanwhile, Rome was dying.

"You're doing great!" she called down, her voice bright and encouraging. "Only about nine hundred more to go!"

He wanted to throw something at her. He would have thrown something at her if he had the energy to spare.

Freya had gone ominously silent in her carrier. Rome couldn't decide if that was better or worse than the yowling.

His shoulder burned where the duffel bag's strap dug in. His other arm felt like it was about to dislocate from carrying the cat carrier. Sweat ran down his back, his face, soaking into his new shirt Amelia bought for him.

Amelia paused on a landing maybe ten flights up, leaning casually against the railing. "Need a break?"

"I'm fine," Rome wheezed.

"You sound fine. Very healthy respiratory situation you have going on there."

"Your concern is overwhelming."

She laughed, the sound echoing through the trees. "Oh, I'm not concerned. Your heart rate is elevated but stable, your breathing is labored but rhythmic, and your demonic energy is actually responding quite nicely to the physical exertion. This is good for you."

"How can you possibly know my heart rate from up there?"

"I can see it." She tapped next to her eye, where the lotus pattern was doing its slow rotation. "You're an open book."

"That's deeply disturbing."

"That's the Eyes of Saba, sweetheart. Get used to it." She turned and continued up. "Now come on. We haven't got all night."

Rome forced his legs to move. One step. Another. The black stone was so polished he could almost see his reflection, all sweaty and miserable and questioning every life choice that led to this moment.

Jake would have loved this. The thought came unbidden, stabbing through him with unexpected pain. He would have been huffing and complaining right alongside Rome, making increasingly ridiculous observations about how this was definitely a workout montage from an anime.

Rome's chest tightened. Not from exertion this time.

"Hey." Amelia reached out and plucked Freya's carrier from his hand like it weighed nothing. "Come on. Almost there."

"You said nine hundred more steps."

"I lied." She started back up, carrying his cat one-handed. "We are actually almost there though. Final push."