Page 247 of These Tears

If this is it – if they find a frozen body tucked under a cliff when the thaw finally reaches it – then at least I die knowing that much was true, and—

Something cuts through the blur at the edge of my vision. I snap my head to the side.

It blends with the snow, but the snow doesn’t move that way.

A shape stops close to where I’m hiding. Unreal enough that my mind refuses it at first. A demon in a snowsuit.

Am I dead already?

The figure stops. Turns towards me.

I lurch upright before sense catches up.

My knees fold beneath me, but on the next attempt I force them straight, one numb hand clawing at the rock as I stagger uphill.

‘Stop!’ The word is swallowed by the thick fabric of the balaclava and wind.

But… it sounds too soft.

‘Leah!’

The name cleaves clean through my skull.

I still. Spin around.

As the shape resolves, it becomes smaller than either of the masked men who chased me.

Swearing under a breath, the figure rips off the goggles and yanks down the balaclava. Familiar movements. Familiar shoulders. Blonde hair, reflecting the white of the snow.

Blue eyes look up at me.

‘Inga?’ I frown, still shaking.

Relief drops her shoulders – then they snap rigid again when I sway.

‘Leah, don’t move.’ Her voice turns clipped and sharp. ‘Stay where you are.’

She drops to her knees, tears open the pack at her side and pulls out a silver emergency blanket. ‘Can you understand me?’

I blink.

The panic doesn’t disappear so much as drain unevenly, leaving my limbs weak and my breath scraping in shallow pulls.

I stare at her like she might still turn into something with antlers or claws.

‘Tell me your full name,’ she says.

‘Lean-ndra Notting-gham.’ My teeth knock through it.

Only then does she release a breath, her eyes closing with regret. ‘This was not supposed to happen.’

She lifts the blanket. ‘Put this around yourself.’

I jerk back, looking at the thing, then back at her as though one of them might bite me.

She stops moving, her lips pressing together. ‘I’m so sorry. My brothers frightened you badly. They are idiots.’ She swallows, eyes flicking over my face, my shaking hands, the snow clinging to my clothes.

Brothers?