“Oh, my gracious,” she said, watching me with wide eyes, “you didn’t think of it either! You didn’t consider that if Nil sent a triple, the third gate was yours, Mr. Leader with Priority?”
“Not really.”Not at all. And I couldn’t believe I’d missed it.
She nodded, looking at our hands entwined together. “I just—I want to have a proper good-bye. I want—” Charley broke off, shaking her head slightly.
“No regrets,” I whispered, filling in her blank. “Nothing left unsaid.”
“Exactly.” She lifted her face to mine. “No regrets.”
Her hand in mine, we sat tight together, cloaked in darkness, just us against the clock. And in that quiet moment, I knew exactly where I was headed, I just had to work through the best route to get there.
“My dad and I had a fight,” I said quietly. “My last morning in Whistler. A blowout after breakfast, right after I told him I was dropping out of school.”
I closed my eyes, remembering. My dad had grabbed my helmet, holding it hostage as he forced me to listen.Drop out?he’d roared.For this?He’d shaken my helmet in my face.You want to throw away your future FOR THIS?
I’d snatched my helmet and held it high.This IS my future.Not a windowless cubby, crunching numbers, eating what-ifs for lunch.Then I’d turned my back on my dad, grabbed my board, and stormed out, too furious to make my case. Instead of telling my dad that my future was boarding, built on a present packed with daily coaching and private tutoring, I’d left him with hateful words and a cheap shot to boot. I knew I needed to apologize, but I was too pissed off to go back. I figured I’d set things right later, giving myself time to cool off, giving him time to come around.
Later never came. Regret was an ugly bastard, one I’d lived with every day since.
“And?” Charley prompted gently.
“I screwed up. The thing is, my dad quit the pro skiing circuit forschool when my mom got pregnant with me. He’s an accountant, and he hates it. Going pro was his dream, and I know he regrets giving it up. But I’m not him. I’d planned it out. I had a tutor lined up, and I was actually going to graduate early, but he never gave me the chance to tell him. And I planned to go to university in the off season. But after ten months of cooling off, I realizeI’mthe one who walked away. I had a chance to tell him my plan, but I didn’t. I walked out.”
“But—” Charley started.
I placed a single finger over her lips. “My point is,” I whispered, for her ears only, “I was waiting for the perfect time to lay out my plan, and I missed it. I waited too long. I won’t make that mistake with you. I keep assuming you know how I feel, even though I don’t say it. There is no perfect time, especially not here, where every moment could be our last.” I smiled, still blown away by the one girl who made me feel more alive than I’d known was possible, especially in a place where death was king.
“I love you, Charley. More than I’ve loved anyone ever, more than I knew I could. I’ve loved you since the first day I met you, when you strode out on the sand looking like a seriously hungry badass, worried about your goat when you should have been worried about yourself. I’ve loved you for weeks. It just took me some time to realize it.” My voice was raw. “So now you know.”
Charley smiled. Reaching up, she traced the tiny scar over my eyebrow. “I already knew,” she said softly. “You’ve shown me a million times how much you love me, constantly protecting me from this.” She swept her hand around us. “And while you’ve been busy being the best island guide ever, with full Nil-protection services, I’ve been protecting you here.” She placed her hand against my chest, over my heart. “Because I love you, too. More than I’ve ever loved anyone ever, more than I knew I could. I’ve loved you since the firsttime I saw you walking down my beach, guarding Jason from scary wild things like me. I’ve known it since Day One.” Charley grinned.
“And,” she said, “if we’re practicing a proper good-bye, then I think it needs a kiss, don’t you?” She smiled her sly Charley smile, the one that made me feel like we just might make it after all.
“If you insist.” I grinned. As I moved to kiss her, a massive roar split the air.
I leaped to my feet alongside Charley.
“We’re screwed,” Jason called. A few meters away, he stood rigid, his back to us, spear raised as he scanned the darkness. “We’re sitting ducks.”
“Charley,” I said, sweeping my eyes around the darkness, “make sure the fire doesn’t go out.”
No one slept. The night burst with noise and silence, and the three of us were caught in the dead zone, trapped inside our black rock prison.Rats in a maze, I thought. A hyena cackled, dogs barked, and faceted eyes glittered in the darkness. Backs to the fire, Jason and I lobbed rocks at the eyes and the darkness using cloth slingshots, with Charley feeding us rock ammo. Finally, one rock connected. From the whimpers, if I had to guess, I’d say a wild dog went down. The keening death cries and intermittent roars rubbed our nerves raw.
The eyes retreated but the sounds remained, and when we weren’t launching rocks, we waved torches at the dark maw of night. It was like trying to stop an avalanche with an umbrella, hoping to be breathing when it finally stopped.
Dawn broke before we did.
“Well, that was fun,” Jason said, stretching.
“I’m sorry for dragging y’all out here.” Charley looked miserable, but we probably all did after last night’s crappy no-sleep-a-thon. “This was a mistake. Give me a sec to do my business, then I’ll beready to head back.” She walked over to a large rock, the one resting alone near where the trees thickened, like a marker for a trailhead. A black behemoth sporting green groundcover, the mountain’s slope began a stone’s throw away—if you threw hard, which for me right then would have been tough. My shoulder ached from last night’s artillery.
I followed Charley, knife out, unwilling to let her out of my sight. Privacy took a back seat to safety. But as she approached the back rock face, I scanned our perimeter. So far, so good.All quiet on the southern front.
“Thad!” Charley’s voice snapped my focus. “C’mere!”
She was frantically ripping vines from the rock, and soon I understood what drove her. Flat and etched, the rock bore another carving. Same maze, same12at the top, only this carving had two lines bisecting the maze, placing the man dead center in the target.Bull’s-eye, I thought.
Charley practically glowed. “This is what I was hoping to find! Another carving!” She pulled a sheet of paper from her satchel and placed it over the carving. The thin paper was almost translucent, nowhere near the thickness of our clothes; it made me appreciate Jillian’s mad skills with paper trees. Using charcoal, Charley rubbed the paper, pressing until her paper turned black and the white maze leaped out in sharp relief.
