Going any faster than a walk was no longer possible, since they ran the very real risk of falling straight into the water. They slid on, the mist laying a chilly sheen on their coats and gloves and hats and whatever parts of skin it could find. “Better than snow,” Leo chanted under her breath, getting a good silver-lining rhythm going. “Better than snow, better than snow, better than—”
He stopped her with a hand on her wrist, tight but not threatening.
“Don’t move.” He looked one way, then another, and cursed under his breath.
“What?” she whispered. “What is it?” Her voice was swallowed up by the gloom.
He didn’t immediately answer, but she heard it then, the gentle lap, lap of water, so close to where they stood that she went absolutely still, forcing herself not to back up.
“This is it. End of the line.” He peered forward. “Isn’t far, but I’d hoped…”
The water washed suddenly high, over their boots, sending Leo back, while Elias remained frozen.
Then he came out and just said it, though by then he didn’t really have to. The hunk of ice was dipping, dipping…
“Nowhere to go.…” He looked down. “But in.”
He stepped back from the edge, dropped, and started unlacing his boots.
“This why you had all those super-sized baggies in your pack?”
He grunted an assent.
She got to work on her own footwear. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
He shot her a look. “You seem like you were made for this.”
“Diving into subzero water?” She stuck her boots and socks into a bag and carefully closed it, then put it into another. “Um. No.”
“I don’t mean that, but…the rush.”
“Adrenaline’s definitely my drug.” She made a face. “Sort of regretting that now.”
“Let me have those.”
“I can—”
“I’ve done this before, Leo.”
Her brows flew up to her hairline. “You serious?”
He nodded.
“On purpose?”
His eyes crinkled.
Shit, the dude was some special kind of hardcore. She plucked at her coat. “We do our clothes too?”
Something bumped the ice they sat on, propelling it forward until it crunched into a pile of the stuff. Leo’s pulse went wild, which was funny, given that she’d thought it couldn’t get any faster.
“No time. It’ll crush us if we don’t go now.” He turned back, dipped his feet into the water, and hissed.
Before he could jump, she grasped his arm, conscious of the risk they were taking. “Thank you, Elias.” When he shook his head, she tightened her hold and leaned in, more intense than she’d ever been in her life. “Thank you.”
Something crashed behind them.
“Wha—”
