“We swim.” He turned to continue walking. “And hope we’re close enough to shore to survive.”
“Great. Just freaking great.”
He’d gone maybe a hundred yards in her cautious footsteps before he realized that, for reasons he couldn’t begin to explain, he wore a massive grin.
Chapter 16
No more gunshots, no sign of their pursuers. Still, they kept moving at a quick clip. Which wasn’t particularly good in this cold. If they weren’t careful, they’d sweat and the sweat would freeze. Hypothermia was right around the corner.
Meanwhile, a fog rolled in fast and thick, surprisingly opaque, given the continuing rain. Right. Probably didn’t need to worry about sweating when they were already soaked through.
He blinked at the landscape around them. Were they going the right way? The run had disoriented him.
He shifted the bag on his shoulders, cringed, and squinted. There. Was that Dead Tree? No. Just a pine. He turned, stumbled, and just barely managed to stay on his feet.
He shut his eyes for a few seconds, breathed until his pulse slowed, then opened them.Therewas Dead Tree, its branches spread wide, the tallest of the bunch raised up like a spindly middle finger, towering over the trees around it. And, though it wasn’t visible right now, beyond it was the first in a long line of peaks. Unlike the mountains they’d just left, they weren’t white-capped beasts soaring to blend with the sky. These hunkered low and dark, rooted in the earth, veins of copper and gold, silver and zinc, pulsing straight from her core.
He tripped on a sharp edge, righted himself, and paused, reaching deep inside for the strength he’d need to get through this. This wasn’t just about survival anymore. He had to get Leo to safety.
If he could just get her to the river, she could go on alone. That would work.
He glanced down at his body, saw nothing different, and focused forward again. He’d be fine for now. Just get her that far, that was all.
One plodding step at time.
As she caught up to him, he folded his arms across his front, hunching as if cold. Which, now that he thought of it, he was. Shivering a ton, actually. He shook his head hard to clear it.
“You okay?”
He ignored the question. “Keep walking.”
Her eyes, dark and layered as rich, new earth after the thaw, flicked over him, then snapped up to meet his, and he could swear he felt a connection, as if she’d touched him with a bare hand.
Christ, he wanted that. Her hand on him. Just the warmth of her skin would be something.
“What’s our objective here?” She had to raise her voice to be heard above the rain’s constant patter.
“Look.” When he couldn’t quite get his right arm up, he used his left to point southwest. “Can’t see ’em through the fog right now, but…”
She gave him a strange look. “But?”
“See that tree—dead one?”
Thankfully, she looked up in the direction he pointed, which gave him the space he needed to breathe again.
“The one giving us the bird?”
A laugh burst from him, the pressure on his lungs so harsh he couldn’t breathe for a second or two. “Yeah. Always thought that.” He snagged her gaze again, got caught in the details of her face, the water dripping from pointy lashes to sluice down her brown skin. If there were time, he’d lean forward and lick it off.
He shook the rain from his eyes. No time. Also, really not the thoughts he should be having.
“Gotta get to the mountains beyond.”
She said something that he couldn’t quite grasp.
He grunted in response. Grimaced at the pain of heaving the pack up higher on his back.
The ice shifted with a groan.
