Minutes passed—two, maybe three—each one longer than the last.
My teeth chattered so violently I bit my tongue.
The cold had seeped into my bones, turning my blood to slush.
“I can’t breathe...” I whimpered, gripping his foot tighter, my frozen fingers slipping on the wet fabric.
“It’s too much—Ramiro, I’m going to die out here. Please... help me. Lift me up. I’ll do anything.”
Ramiro’s voice finally came, low and strained, almost regretful. “I wish I could, Loretta. But this is his order. I can’t disobey.”
His words shattered the last fragile piece of hope.
A fresh wave of snow slammed into me, heavier now, accumulating so fast it weighed me down like a wet blanket of ice.
I screamed again, raw and broken, pressing my face against his leg. “Please! Breathing is too hard—I’m dying! Don’t let me die like this!”
More minutes crawled by.
My grip on his foot weakened as feeling left my hands.
The cold was everywhere—inside my chest, squeezing my lungs, making every inhale a shallow, painful rasp.
I kept begging between sobs, voice growing hoarse. “Ramiro... I can’t... I can’t take it anymore...”
My hand slipped slowly from his leg, fingers uncurling one by one despite my desperate attempts to hold on.
The world tilted.
Blackness—deeper than my usual darkness—closed in at the edges of my mind.
The snow kept falling, merciless, burying me under its frozen assault.
Then everything went silent.
I passed out.
Chapter 12
LORETTA
“Is she awake?”
Rafael’s voice reached me through the darkness.
