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“We’re not gonna find any more clues tonight in the dark. Troopers have it covered, and they’ll resume the search when it’s light out.”

“So, you’re just going to leave her out there? In this weather? It’s January.”

“She might not even be out there—” He choked up, bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Voices around us had quieted to eavesdrop. “I heard the officers saying she could have been kidnapped. They’re gonna issue a missing person’s alert and hopefully—”

“I can’t believe this.” I whirled away and headed for the door.

“Rae, wait!” Brett called. “It’s not safe.”

The door slammed shut behind me, rattling in its frame, but when I made it to the base of the porch steps, the hinges squealed, and the screen door swung shut again.

“I’m not waiting around while there’s any chance she could still be out there,” I said without looking back, assuming it was Brett as I paused to zip up my insulated coat.

“Brett’s right, you know.”

I spun around at the sound of the unexpected voice, locking eyes with Fox standing on the porch with his arms crossed over his chest. He was still fully dressed in his boots and coat with a hat and gloves sticking out of the pockets. Like me, he looked ready to plunge back out into the cold at a moment’s notice.

There was no empathy in his voice as he continued, “It’s really not safe tonight. I know you’re just thinking about your sister, but don’t be stupid enough to get yourself lost or hurt, too. Don’t make yourself a burden.”

My teeth ground together. “Trust me. I’d be less of a burden to my family if I went missing. Everly means so much more.”

His eyes flickered, the light from the window shimmering in their blackened depths. Not pity, but not fully understanding either.

I looked like I had it all together, and that was by no small effort on my part, but Everly was all I had. The only one who loved me unconditionally. The only family I needed.

If I lost her...

Losing Everly meant losing my whole world, the only thing keeping me sane.

My throat closed at the mere thought of going on without her. It was an unacceptable conclusion.

Before Fox could talk me out of it, I headed back down the well-trodden snow paths into the woods.

His footsteps crunched behind me, but not to stop me this time.

Guess I’m not going out alone after all.

Chapter 7

The dead air leeched every drop of warmth out of me, leaving me a husk of frigid bones with stinging fingertips and the taste of salt on my tongue from the snot dripping down my face. My coat and gloves did little to retain any warmth, but my body seemed reluctant to keep it in the first place with only cold, harrowing thoughts eddying inside me.

When my fingers and toes numbed to ice blocks, I thought about how much colder Everly must be and pushed on. When I startled at the hoot of an owl, I thought how much more frightened Everly must be on her own and walked faster past my fear. When the forest closed in around me, so thick I could barely see my own two feet, I extended my arms blindly, ignoring the bite of briars and thickets ripping through my gloves and sleeves.

Every footstep crunched with frozen leaves and residual snow from the last storm. More flurries started up as we pressed on, dampening the top of my head and sliding down the back of my neck to soak my collar. Perfect time to forget my hat... Fresh chills rippled through me with every drop that dried inside my coat.

Stumbling onto a gravel path most likely blazed by the Winters, I paused, looking up and down it each way. Ice-draped trees flanked the path, leaning in so closely that the sky was nearly swallowed up, but it left more room to check one’s bearings than inside the forest depths.

“She might have wandered onto this path,” I said through numb lips, each word sluggish and a chore to say in the cold. “And she’s smart. So, she would check the sun’s position and follow it back.”

Fox’s crunching footsteps paused when he joined me on the path. “You think she could be heading back by now?”

“I think it’s possible, and on the way back, we could look for more signs of her. Everyone was searching the woods, but she’s smart enough to find a stream or a path to follow. She might have gotten turned around, but she wouldn’t stray.”

“Alright. So, let’s head back.”

I nodded, finally ceding to the idea we should turn around, and a tiny bit relieved to have found a logical reason to do it that didn’t involve giving up. We were simply exploring a new possibility.

With a hunched stature, pulling my coat and limbs in as tight to my body as I could, I started walking, but Fox didn’t follow.