Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
We’ll never outrun the mountain men nipping at our heels, so I sure as hell hope Tyler has a plan.
AURELIA
“Seth!” someone barks.
The voice is deep, angry, hoarse from shouting over the wind, and panicked, so why is it that simply hearing it so close by feels me with comfort?
I can hear the storm I got caught in raging around me. At some point, I must have rolled onto my back from my face-down position in the snow. The gap in my memory is startling, though. While I still feel the frozen ground underneath me, the sheet keeping the wind and snow from reaching me while trapping my body heat is new.
But that’s not right either.
The last thing I remember is…Tyler. He came for me. He found me. Wolves attacked me, I nearly got crushed by a tree, and then we were running—
Someone yells again before I can consider opening my eyes to look around, and recognizing the voice, I decide to keep them closed. How the hell had they found me?
“Seth, get that goddamn fire going!”
Thorin?
I thought he’d be the last person to come for me after swearing he wouldn’t. I believed him.
“I’m fucking trying!” Seth shouts back over the wind. “Everything is wet! I can’t get a spark!”
A flicking sound follows, and then Seth blows on something before viciously swearing. At the same time, I hear snow being dug nearby.
When I pry open my eyes the tiniest bit, the first thing I notice is that night has fallen. There’s too much snow and wind to see the stars that are usually so vivid out here, but the nearly pitch-black sky leaves no room for doubt. What little of the moon that pierces the blizzard is our only source of light.
That and the occasional golden glow sparking in my peripheral.
Letting my head fall to the side, I spot Seth kneeling over a tepee fire as he tries to light it, but even I can tell from here that the sticks, tinder, and dead leaves are soaked through. He tries anyway because our situation is too dire to give up.
“I think I have some dry kindling stashed in my pack,” Khalil says as he continues to dig. Oh, my God…they’re going to bury me alive, aren’t they? It seems more likely than Khalil, Thorin, and Seth risking their lives to find me. “Try that.”
The snow crunches under Seth’s booted feet as he rises and rushes over to Khalil’s heavy-looking pack abandoned by my feet.
That’s when I see them—two more imposing figures hunched over a few feet away. Thorin and Khalil are holding what looks like shovels as they work together, hurriedly scooping up snow and tossing it onto the mound that’s nearly as tall as them and at least ten to twelve feet in diameter.
When did they find me?
How did they find me?
And where’s Tyler?
I must move or make a sound because Seth’s head snaps up, and he looks over at me.
The thought of what they might have done to Tyler has me passing out again, but I still hear the words Seth says before I do.
“We got you, Sunshine. We’re here. Just hang on…”
I’m startled awake again when I hear the crunch of something being stabbed into the snow-covered ground near my head.
“The quinzee should be hard enough to hold now!” Thorin shouts. “Let’s get her inside!”
A moment later, I’m lifted from the ground. The storm still hasn’t abated, and when I crack my eyes open, I see the trees swaying hard and the gray storm clouds through the canopy.
It’s still night.
And a testament to how fucked we are that Thorin, Khalil, and Seth decided it was safer to make camp and ride out the storm than try and make it back to the cabin.
How far had I wandered?
The answer is not really as imperative as why I’d left the cabin in the first place. It wasn’t survival. Only fear could have driven me to do something that stupid.
But when I left the cabin, I didn’t flee in fear of them. I was terrified, yes, but not of them. It’s why I had to leave.
The thermal blanket that looks like a foil tarp is now wrapped tightly around my body as Thorin carries me from the fire. Seth not only managed to light it, but he’d built a small enclosure to keep it from going out. He’s crouching by it now, his lean frame shivering as he holds his hands close to the flames to warm them. I’d never noticed before how long and capable his fingers were until the glow of the fire touched them.
Why does that stick out to me at a time like this? Only a licensed therapist can tell.
Embedded in the snow next to him is the ice pick I’d stolen.
Thorin and I only go a few feet before he says to Khalil, who’s following us, “You go first, and then I’ll hand her to you to pull inside.”