Somewhere, the crying continued. In his brain or—
“Do you hear that?”
She stilled. Frowned. “Yeah. Someone shouting, maybe?”
He looked around, then walked to the edge of the porch.
In the distance on the lake, he spotted an orange dot through the snow and wind. “Is that a person?”
She joined him. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
Barking. “Is Caspian out there?”
“Do you think Wren took him for a walk?”
Her words sliced through him. “On thelake?”
He took off down the stairs, slipping. “Wren!” He started through the snow, barely able to make her out. “Wren!”
His steps sank in, nearly thigh deep as he headed out. Surely a little girl couldn’t get through this snow—
The orange started to move across the ice, and the barking sounded louder, sharper.
“Wren!”
He reached the shore—or what he thought might be the shore. The hole in the ice had completely snowed over. The wind cut off visibility, but there, in the distance, he made out an orange blob.
Barking sounded behind him.
Turning, he thought he spotted Caspian, a black outline against the white.
He turned back, the orange drifting farther.
What—
Not a person, maybe, because suddenly it lifted off the horizon.
A hunting vest, caught in the wind—what an idiot. All that regurgitating of the past had turned him jumpy.
Except, someone wascrying. The sound lifted above Caspian’s barks.
Trust the dog. He felt it, more than heard it.
He plowed back through the snow, toward the black blur. “Wren?”
The next step simply broke out underneath him, and he went through, and through, and suddenly, water sucked at his boot.
He’d hit the hole, and with the snow, it had kept it warm enough to stay open.
Worse, Keely had fought her way out, even with her bruised ankle, through the snow, all the way to the edge of the lake. “Stay right there! Don’t move!”
She turned then, as if hearing something. And then took off toward his dog.
And that’s when the ice under him decided to give way. He flung himself onto the loose snow, trying to spread his weight. The effect of it felt like jumping on a floating air mattress, unwieldy.
And slowly, but surely, sinking.
Keely ran over to Caspian, and he looked up to see her in that white jacket, reaching for something.
