“I’m here, baby.” The deputy walks by, and I watch him climb into one of the pickups. “We’ll be careful,” I promise her. “Gotta go, but we’ll be checking in. Don’t fall asleep.”
Her response comes through immediately. “I won’t.”
The snow is coming down even harder by the time we reach the caves on the far east side of Maia. We’re so far away from the rest of the search team that even the helicopters searching from the air are a distantthump-thump-thump.They’ll have to give up the aerial search soon once the visibility becomes too limited and to avoid the blades from icing over.
The knowledge soothes some of the agitation that’s been riding me since we started and injects some urgency in its place. Before we head inside though, I radio Aurelia one last time to check on her, since we’ll probably lose signal. Once I’m satisfied she’s safe, the four of us head inside the first of the caves.
I make sure to keep the deputy within my sight at all times as we search high and low for the missing and possibly dead campers.
AURELIA
Ipromised Seth I wouldn’t fall asleep, and after what he told me, I don’t think I could, so I set aside the book I’m reading and rise from the bed Khalil built for me and stretch. Leaving the room I’ve been sharing with Zeke and Seth, I walk out onto the lower deck for some fresh air. I haven’t been out here since the guys locked me out to freeze to death that first night. I push the memory away and focus on everything I’ve learned about them since.
It’s snowing now, but the cold doesn’t deter me.
My guys are out there, and the worry stirring in my gut still won’t abate even with the cool air filling my lungs. I head back inside when I can no longer feel my toes and I get to work lighting the fires in all of the wood-burning stoves.
I want the cabin warm when they return.
Hopefully, in one piece.
Feeling like I need to do something, I recheck all our packed bags waiting by the door to make sure we’re not missing anything from the list. We packed pretty light even though we’ll be gone for months.
We have no way of knowing how long it will take Isaac to take the bait, and then there’s my uncle and cleaning up the mess he’s making of my name. After we deal with them both, the four of us plan to lie low in the Caribbean for a few weeks until we’re sure it’s safe to return.
It’s a good plan, but somewhere in the back of my mind, there’s a loose thread taunting me. One that I can’t seem to graspno matter how much I try. A blemish in an otherwise flawless plan.
At night, it makes me toss and turn, so now I sleep whenever I can, which is usually at random times during the day.
Oni will be arriving with the plane tomorrow, and the idea of boarding one again makes me nauseated. I groan miserably as I shuffle into the kitchen with my hand clutching my cramping stomach under Khalil’s shirt. I grab the kettle to make tea and stare out of the window at the whiskey barrels and the strawberries I planted months ago, when I thought there was time. They aren’t mature yet and would have gone dormant soon, but I’ll never know now if I succeeded in growing the fruit, since I won’t be here to care for them.
There’s always next year.
If I live.
As I wait for the water to boil, I’m considering radioing the guys again to check on them when I jump, hearing a knock on the front door. Immediately, I’m on edge since the guys wouldn’t knock and the sheriff is no doubt busy with the search. And then my blood goes cold when I wonder if he came to tell me something happened to Khalil, Thorin, or Seth.
Shoving away from the counter, I run to the door and snatch it open only to rear back when I see a lone robed figure standing on the porch.Interesting choice for outerwear. Maybe he’s a priest.His head is bent like he’s praying, so I can’t see his face, but priest or no priest, I’m officially creeped the fuck out.
Remembering there are lost hikers out there, I ignore that paranoid voice in my head whisperingdangerand reach for empathy.
“Can I help you?”
Finally, the visitor’s head lifts at the sound of my voice, and I’m met with a scarred black mask and familiar green eyes. Before I can react to the strangeness of it all, movement acrossthe clearing catches my eye, and I squint as I try to make out the dark shapes taking form. The hand of the stranger in front of me slowly raises toward his mask just as more robed and masked figures slowly drift from the trees like a plague. I count at least twenty carrying lit torches, and that whispering voice in my head starts screaming.
“On second thought,nope.”
I only get a glimpse of the man’s charred face before I slam the door shut and lock it without an introduction or an explanation. I run to the kitchen where I left the radio. The kettle is whistling now, but I don’t stop to remove it from the stove or radio my guys. Instead, I make a mad dash out of the kitchen and down to the basement where the weapons are stored.
As I ransack the weapons locker, I try repeatedly to reach the guys to no avail. It doesn’t take many guesses to figure out who the creep is, which means Seth, Zeke—allof them—are in danger.
Isaac is here in the Cold Peaks somehow, and if he and his cult want inside, there’s not much that can stop them. This cabin wasn’t built to be a panic room. It’s not a fortress than can survive a siege. Khalil, Thorin, and Zeke’s entire defense system rested in never being found, and now their walls are crumbling, and they don’t even know it.
If Isaac had them, he wouldn’t be coming after me, so I don’t have to wonder if they’re safe. And the only hope of them staying that way is to make damn sure Isaac doesn’t get his hands on me. He’s already used the girl Zeke loved against him once. I’ll die before I let Isaac do that to him again.
It’s not until I smell the smoke and return upstairs armed with my bow and a handgun to investigate that I realize Isaac never had any intentions of coming inside. With burning lungs and stinging eyes, I run over to the windows in the kitchen andsee flames licking around the porch railing and smoke curling from the shed.
A moment later, I hear a window shatter, and I run out of the kitchen to see the couch and Bruce on fire. Before I can grab the extinguisher and put them out, more windows shatter one after another. I scream and duck and scramble for cover from the flaming objects as fire erupts all around me until the message from Isaac is clear.
