Page 65 of Into the Mist

“Oh no. I get it. I know you’re not making light of anyone’s loss. And I’m glad Kong went to frolic with the Goddess last year. I’d hate to think about him scared and dying without me.” She paused and then continued in a soft voice. “It’s not real yet. I–I still feel like as soon as we’re in cell range, I could call my parents, my brothers, or their wives, and they’d answer and want to know when the hell I was coming home.”

“Glenn would grumble at you and tell you that you should be a better sister and keep in touch with your brother,” Stella said with a smile.

“Oh, for sure. He’s been overly sensitive since he was a kid, and Lionas and I lured him into drinking pee by saying it was lemonade.” Mercury laughed.

“Right? He’s still weirdly touchy about that.” Stella echoed her laughter.

“Probably because Glenn’s the baby of the family,” said Mercury.

Stella nodded. “Oh, for sure. And Lionas is the more reasonable one.”

“Yep. He’d say, ‘No problem, little sis—you’re busy.’” Mercury shook her head. “I don’t know when it’s going to feel real, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want it to. Right now it’s like going away to summer camp when I was a kid. I used to miss my parents so, so much. I mean, I ended up having fun, but I missed them the entire time and was so damn glad to see Dad drive up in his truck to take me home.” Her breath caught on a sob.

Stella squeezed her arm. “Be kind to yourself. Everyone grieves differently.”

“Like Imani said yesterday—I hope it was fast. It was Sunday morning. Dad and Mom were probably having breakfast out front.”

“Using that big rock as a table,” said Stella.

“Yeah. Dad was probably spiking his coffee.”

Stella grinned. “Right? I’d forgotten he’s where you got your love of Kahlúa coffee.”

“And my love of mimosas—the tree and the drink.” She laughed a little and her gaze lifted, as if she might see her father reflected in the dove-colored clouds above them, and through the grayness she caught the silver outline of an almost full moon low in the sky. “Wait! What’s today’s date?”

Karen joined them, rubbing her arms vigorously. “Well, let’s see—Sunday was the last day of spring break, which means it was March nineteenth. It’s dawn on Tuesday, so it’s the twenty-first.”

“Tomorrow’s the spring equinox, which means Ostara.” Still staring up at the sky Mercury spoke wistfully. “This year it also falls on a full moon.”

“That’s right,” said Stella. “You have a big Gathering planned for Ritual.”

“Had,” Mercury corrected with a sad sigh.

“Hey, we’re done peeing!” Imani and Gemma joined them.

Gemma held out the roll of toilet paper like a prize. “Anyone need this?”

“Nah, I think we’re good for now,” said Stella.

At that moment fat snowflakes began falling from the sky.

“Shit! It’s starting. We need to get to a lower elevation before we get stranded up here,” said Stella, and the women scrambled for the truck.

CHAPTER

20

THE SNOW QUICKLYincreased from fat, lazy flakes to sheets of never-ending white. The old truck’s windshield wipers weren’t fabulous, and even with the defrost turned all the way up, Stella was soon forced to peer through a soggy, streaky circle of melting snow and ice.

“If you want me to take a turn at driving, I will,” said Mercury.

“How long’s it been since you’ve driven a manual?” asked Stella.

“Last summer. I drove Dad’s old truck while he and his temp worker guy tossed hay bales onto the trailer.”

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind if I need a break.” Stella slowed and flexed one hand, wiped it on her jeans, and then flexed the other. Her knuckles cracked, and she never took her gaze from the snow-covered road. “Well, the one good thing about all this snow is that it’s easy to see the half of the highway that’s gone.” She jerked her chin to the right. That side of highway 26 was impassable—whether from it having slid down the side of the mountain, or whether the asphalt was just too broken to drive over—and the settling snow accentuated the broken and missing areas like a highlighter on a page of dark print.

Stella downshifted and slowly steered the truck around the blackened shells of wrecked vehicles.