Her chest clenched again, and this time, panic joined the growing numbness creeping through her fingers and toes. The cold wasn’t just biting anymore. It gnawed. Stole heat, stole strength. Her hand shifted weakly, trying to brush at the snow weighing her down, but it was useless.
Sebastian shifted again, his breath a little louder now, labored. Fear flared in her stomach. Not just for herself but for him.
She’d always thought her fears were logical. Sensible. Fear of disappointing her mother. Fear of being too much, too loud, too independent. Fear of wanting more than society said she ought to.
But this… this was real fear. A raw, soul-deep terror that she might never hear his laugh again. That she might never see the way he softened when he looked at her like she was the only thing worth protecting in a chaotic world.
Sebastian.
She had wanted to believe she had time. Time to sort through her feelings. Time to figure out what came next. But time had vanished the moment that second avalanche tore through the hills, and now all that remained was the sound of his breath and the weight of his body keeping her from being buried completely.
If he was hurt because of her, if he had shielded her and paid the price, she would never forgive herself even though she had no control over nature.
A sob built in her throat, dry and aching, and she swallowed it down. Not now. Not yet. They weren’t dead. They couldn’t be.
She had fallen for him faster than sense allowed, and still she’d hesitated—held back, waiting for certainty, for signs. But here, under this brutal cold, she realized she didn’t need signs.
She just needed him.
She didn’t care if he never wrote a poem or brought her flowers or declared anything with fancy words. She just wanted more mornings. More stolen glances. More rides. More everything, so long as he was there beside her. To kiss her after. To tell her, in his way, that he’d do it all again.
Please, she begged silently, pressing her heart into the dark.
Please don’t take him from me.
*
The weight pressedagainst Sebastian’s arms, trembling now, despite his stubborn attempts to keep steady. The weight was immense, relentless, crushing down on him with an unforgiving force.
How much did snow weigh? A ton? It certainly felt like it, pressing on his back, on his shoulders, grinding his body into the cold abyss. Suddenly, his arms trembled violentlyagainst the burden, every muscle in his body alight with searing pain. His instincts screamed at him to drop, to collapse into the suffocating white, anything to make the agony stop. But Sebastian knew if he gave in, the fragile chamber of air he’d created over Maddie would vanish. The snow would claim her completely, seep into every inch of what lay beneath him, leaving no space to breathe, no space to survive. If he fell, they would die.
He roared and pushed himself farther up, trying to see if Maddie was alive. Was she safe? Breathing?
The realization hit him like another avalanche, heavier than the one that buried them. It wasn’t just his strength fighting gravity now; it was his will, forcing his body to endure past its limits. He had thrown himself over her in those frantic moments, instinct taking over before fear could paralyze him. His arms had locked, forming a barrier, and for all he knew, it was that thin, trembling shield that stood between Maddie and death. The snow weighed so much more than he’d imagined. Every second dragged through him as though the icy mass above grew heavier, testing his resolve. His muscles burned with each breath he took, threatening to give way, to betray him. His knees were pinned beneath his twisted body, trapped so firmly he barely had feeling left in them, yet even that unpleasant numbness was a gift compared to the screaming ache across his shoulders.
And still, he held.
Because if he didn’t, Maddie would disappear beneath the snow, suffocated by the same icy void clawing at him now. Giving up wasn’t just failure. It was a death sentence—for both of them.
How long had it been since the stifling silence had washed over him after the roaring of the rockslide?
Seconds?
Minutes?
Sebastian shifted slightly, his torso burning from the strain of keeping himself aloft. Snow had crept into every space it could find, chilling his body to the core, soaking through his coat to claw at his skin. Hislegs were twisted beneath him, trapped awkwardly by the force of the avalanche, but he ignored the sharp protests of pain racing through his muscles. Pain meant he could still move. Pain meant he was still alive.
“Maddie,” he rasped, her name escaping him in a voice he barely recognized. His breath clouded the pocket of air above her, his mouth close enough to see the faint tremble of snowflakes on her hair. She didn’t answer. Her silence was worse than the crushing cold, worse than the suffocating darkness encompassing them.
“Say something,” he murmured, his voice breaking. “I just… need to know you’re alive.” He adjusted his posture to shield her more fully. The motion sent a stab of agony through his shoulders, but he bit down on it until his teeth ached. He couldn’t move too much, not without risking further collapse.
“Maddie?”
The memory of the avalanche flashed through his mind. He had seen it before she had, the first shift of snow on the ridgeline, like sand tumbling from an hourglass. The terror swallowed him whole, not for himself, but because she had been so still, so unaware. She’d barely started to turn before he acted, instinct taking over as he shoved her down, throwing his body over hers. He hadn’t even stopped to think. There hadn’t been time.
Above her now, he closed his eyes for a moment, forcing out the thoughts that clawed at him. He hadn’t been nearly fast enough. If he had pulled her further… If he had done more… His jaw clenched painfully. The what-ifs threatened to drown him almost as much as the snow.
Sebastian leaned closer to her ear, forced to shift precious inches down as his strength faltered. “Maddie,” he said again, more desperate now. His voice cracked like a brittle branch underfoot. “You… you have to hang on for me. Just for a little while longer.” A pause. The silence around them was too heavy, a reminder that they were both buried in something much too large to fight. “It’llbe alright. It has to be.”
