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)
By the time we reach our clearing, the shitty visibility makes it hard to see even our cabin, a mere three hundred feet away. There’s no glow from the windows to guide us from the fires that should be burning inside, so it’s my second clue that something is wrong.
Aurelia didn’t seem keen on defying us again when we left her this morning, but I wonder if she’s a better actor than I thought as we step inside the cabin and don’t see her waiting for us.
The fires Thorin lit before we left are mere embers, so we’re once again returning home to a freezing cabin. Dropping Aurelia’s duffel bag and our packs by the door, the three of us search the cabin to see if she’s fallen asleep again. By the time Thorin walks inside his room and returns empty-handed seconds later, I’m praying she’s just taking a nap. The three of us silently search the cabin from top to bottom before meeting back up in the living room.
Thorin has a torn look on his face while Seth paces and pulls at his hair.
If Aurelia doesn’t walk through those doors in the next few minutes, he’s going to lose his shit. We all are.
“You…” I gulp. “You think she ran?”
The vein in Thorin’s neck bulges when he finally explodes. “Of course, she ran! We haven’t given her a fucking reason to stay.” He unzips his snowsuit, and I frown at the motion while he drops onto the couch. He frees a bottle of bourbon from under one of the couch cushions and takes a swig before leaning his head back to glower at the ceiling.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m drinking.”
“It looks like you’re on your ass sulking when we need to go find her, Thor.”
“And why would we do that?”
“What do you mean why? Because she’ll die!”
“I seem to recall you telling her that’s exactly what would happen if she left, and she did it anyway.” He lifts his head to give me a hard look. “Give me one good reason why we should go chasing that ungrateful bitch when she’s made it clear she’d rather die than be with us?”
“Because she’s our ungrateful bitch, Thor.”
“Really?” He waves a hand around the cold, bleak cabin. Aurelia’s brought so much life to it in just a few days, and she doesn’t even know because we never told her. We’ve been merely existing before now. Most days, we couldn’t be bothered to utter a word or climb out of bed if it wasn’t to hunt or rescue some dumb teenagers who’d wandered a little too far and gotten themselves trapped or lost. “Do you see her here? Because I don’t.”
“Thor—”
“You two do what you want. Waste your time rescuing her so she can run again the moment our backs are turned. God fucking speed.” He offers a sarcastic salute.
“You’re a selfish dick, you know that? You’re probably the reason she left. I heard how rough you were with her this morning. She told you no.”
“Yeah? Well, she told you no, too, or did you forget? And I don’t recall you trying to stop me, Khalil. You were too concerned with getting off to worry about her wellbeing, so I’d look in the mirror if I were you.”
“Fuck you. We both know you’ve been the biggest asshole to her. You—”
Hearing something slam behind me, I whirl around to see the front door wide open and banging against the wall. A gust cold enough to make my muscles lock up blows inside the cabin. The gale is strong enough to push my solid frame back a couple of steps, and Aurelia—our girl and reason for being—is out there in that, lost and alone.
“How did the door get open?”
I don’t hear Thorin move until he’s standing next to me with a pinched expression. “Seth.”
Frowning, I look around for him, but the spot where he was pacing a hole in the floor is empty, and his pack is gone. I feel the blood drain from my face and hands when I realize he must have slipped out while Thorin and I were arguing.
“Jesus, he went after her alone.”
Thorin sends the bourbon bottle sailing across the room, where it hits his bedroom door and shatters. “Goddammit!”
AURELIA
I can’t feel…anything. I can’t feel my face, fingers, or toes. All I can feel is the brutality of the mountain and the storm swirling around its peak. Giving up on finding my way back to the cabin, I’ve been trying to find shelter for hours, but I can’t see a thing.
There’s only a wall of white all around me.
I know after the first hour of being caught in the storm that it’s worse than any of the others. The extra protection only prolongs my death, but it won’t be enough to stop it.