Page 63 of Mountain Void

“I can’t.”

“You can,” he insisted, steady, unyielding. “Listen to me, we do this together.”

Together.

She eyed the rope. It wasn’t far away. But the boy was so heavy … and her fingers had long gone numb. Before she could second-guess herself, she gripped the boy’s hands tightly in her left hand and reached out with her right.

Her frozen fingers closed around the rope.

“Slip it under your arms,” Lorenz said.

“Shouldn’t I wrap it around the boy?” Charlie asked.

“We don’t have time, Charlie. You hold on to him. I will pull you both in. I promise.”

She slipped the loop over her head and pulled one arm through. Then the second arm, in what felt like a superhuman effort. She tugged until the rope settled beneath her armpits, snug across her back.

The ice cracked again, and then she was fully immersed in the water. The shock of it squeezed her lungs. She’d thought it was cold outside, but that was nothing compared to this. She held on to the boy, then looked down at her wrist—she couldn’t feel the rope anymore. Had she lost it? No, it was there.

“Hold on to him!” Lorenz cried.

She held. Her body was jerked backward—hard. Water rushed past, then air, and then she was back on the crackling ice.

Lorenz’s muscles strained, his neck taut with the effort. Behind him, someone’s muffled voice. It took Charlie a moment to understand somebody else must be pulling on Lorenz’s legs.

In a matter of seconds, she and the boy were clear of the water. Lorenz kept pulling them backward until they were at the edge of the pond.

Safe.

The wind hit her then. It cut straight through the wet fabric clinging to her body, a different type of cold, but no less shocking than the water had been. No less painful.

Her body seized.

Charlie whimpered.

“Hold on, honey. Hold on.”

“Take the boy,” she begged.

“I’ve got him,” another voice answered.

Charlie rolled to her side, her body instinctively curling up into a ball, trying to conserve heat, to disappear into itself.

“Here,” Lorenz said. Something soft and warm wrapped around her shoulders. Lorenz rubbed her shoulders, her back, her belly, forcing heat back into her skin.

“Shouldn’t you be taking my clothes off? And yours too?” she asked. She’d read that, somewhere. In a novel, probably.

Lorenz let out a strained laugh. “Good. You’re still cracking jokes.” Then, quieter, closer, “Hold on to me, okay?”

She tried. Her frozen arms wrapped around his neck. He lifted her in one smooth, easy move.

Charlie hummed at the sudden warmth, pressing her body into his heat.

“You’re so much better than the blanket,” she said, burrowing closer against his chest.

“Stay with me, Charlie,” he whispered into her ear.

“Your heart’s beating fast,” she answered sleepily.