Another voice answered, too low for me to make out the words. The flashlight beam moved again, probing the darkness.
Jake’s hand found mine in the shadows, squeezing once. I understood the message: Be ready to run.
The light inched closer to our hiding place. I held my breath, feeling Nora tremble against me. Just a few more feet, and we would be discovered.
Suddenly, a shot rang out from further back on the trail. The light jerked away, and the footsteps retreated rapidly.
“Mikhail,” I breathed.
Jake nodded. “Come on, while they’re distracted.”
We emerged from our hiding place and continued down the path, moving as quickly and quietly as possible.
When we finally reached the riverbank, Jake paused, assessing our options. “I know this area. There’s a bridge half a mile downstream,” he said. “But they’ll be watching it.”
“Then what do we do?” I asked, my voice shakingfrom cold and fear.
Jake looked upstream, his face grim in the moonlight. “We cross here. The ice should hold if we’re careful.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “With Nora? Jake, are you serious?”
Chapter 14
Jake
“We don’t have a choice,” I said firmly. “They’ll be here any minute. Here, I’ll carry her.” I held out my hands to her, but she shook her head.
“No. Our combined weight is lighter than yours.”
She had a point. “Okay then,” I said, scanning the ice ahead of us for the most stable path. The moonlight revealed a stretch that looked thicker. “I’ll go first. Follow my lead exactly.”
I moved carefully, testing each step before putting my full weight down. The ice groaned but held steady. When I reached the middle, I looked back to see Ella following and Nora clutching her tightly.
“That’s it,” I encouraged. “Slow and steady.”
They were halfway when I heard it—that sickening crack every ice fisherman fears. The sound echoed across the frozen river like a gunshot.
“Jake!” Ella screamed, her eyes wide with terroras they met mine. In one smooth motion, she threw Nora toward me. The girl slid across the ice just as the surface beneath her mother broke.
She vanished with barely a splash, the dark water swallowing her instantly.
“ELLA!” I lunged forward, dropping to my stomach. “Nora, don’t move!”
The girl was crying, frozen in place where she’d fallen. I crawled toward the jagged hole, my heart pounding. The edges of the break were already refreezing, like a deadly lid closing over her.
Suddenly, I heard crashing behind us through the trees. I spun around, ready to protect Nora, just as two familiar figures burst through the woods.
“Jake!” Declan’s voice echoed across the ice. “What happened?”
“Ella’s in the water!” I yelled back. “Get Nora!”
Without hesitation, Declan slid onto the ice, moving carefully toward a trembling Nora while Rory stood on the riverbank, already taking off his heavy coat.
I focused on the hole, desperately searching for any sign of Ella. The water was black as oil.
“Ella!” I plunged my arm into the freezing water, and the cold felt like a white-hot fire. Nothing. Just emptiness.
How long had it been? Thirty seconds? A minute?The human body can survive only minutes in freezing water before hypothermia sets in. My mind flashed back to Avril and Melanie, pulled from the river after our car flipped. The coroner said they died on impact, but I wondered if they felt the water filling their lungs.
