Page 59 of Glimmer in the Darkness

She did, and, after marking their location on the map and shoving his flashlight in his back pocket, he stowed his backpack and reached for hers. “It’ll be easier to climb without these.”

She shrugged hers off and handed it to him, then returned to the slope and started climbing toward the cave and, he hoped, Ella and a kidnapper and murderer.

Chapter Twenty

Don’t think about it.

Don’t remember.

All that mattered now was finding Ella. What happened back then…

Don’t think about it.

But the memories were as solid as the boulders that scraped against Cassidy’s hands.

She should have listened to James. To come this way was only stubbornness. They could have found the other path. But it would’ve taken time, time they might not have.

Ella. She had to focus on Ella, on saving this girl’s life. Not on the one she failed to save.

She reached for a handhold and gripped. Ignoring the pain in her fingers, her shoulder, her hip, she hoisted herself up, tried to settle her foot in the crag of the rock. Her boot slipped. Her knee jabbed into the stone. She tipped back, and her hand lost its hold.

Her arm flailed, found nothing to hang onto.

Memories flashed, all the things she never wanted to see again. Hallie’s terror, Hallie’s trust.

Hallie’s lifeless eyes.

A strong hand pushed Cassidy forward. James whispered, “I got you.”

She managed to get her foot on the crag, her hand in a hold. Pulled herself up.

Only a little part of her wished she’d fallen. Wished for all this to be over.

Lord… But there were no words. Because to live meant to face it. To die meant freedom.

Definitely not the kind of thoughts she should be harboring while she climbed this dangerous slope.

James came up beside her. The hill wasn’t that high—she guessed sixty feet—and the worst was below them.

He studied her face, and she worried her thoughts would be as obvious as the concern in his expression. He whispered, “You okay?”

“Just lost my grip. Thank you for that.”

“Glad I was there.”

She steeled her courage and continued.

James lifted a staying hand and went ahead of her.

He scrabbled up the remaining fifteen feet or so. When he reached the summit, he crouched down and held out his hand to help her up.

She followed, gripped his hand, and joined him on the hillside.

They rested a moment, breathing heavily. It was silent. Even the birdsong was muffled. Or maybe her fear was roaring too loudly for her to hear anything over it.

The hill gave way to a level area covered in vegetation. A natural path led to the right from where they’d climbed, but she pointed to the left, where the mountain rose steeply toward the summit.

Now that she was here, she remembered it vividly.