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Rummaging in my bag, I came up with my binoculars and handed them to Austin. He popped them on his face and limped toward the rocks.

“Wait! Where are you going? What if there’s a monster in there?” I rushed to catch up to him, which took a pathetic amount of time considering I was relatively uninjured.

“It’s our best chance for shelter. If we check it out now, we have the advantage of daylight, which is good considering how short it is this time of year. It could be worse. We could be here during the part of the year where it’s night almost twenty-four hours a day.” He waited for me to catch up.

“Shouldn’t we at least have a weapon of some sort?” I reasoned, trying to ignore the way my stomach knotted with the memory of the dogs’ reaction.

Austin held up the laser cutter with a shrug and marched onward.

I couldn’t believe that my opinion of him had changed so thoroughly in the last hour. My head spun from the accident and his about-face. But he’d wrapped around me like old-fashioned bubble wrap in that pod, risking everything without a second thought. And that kiss…damn that kiss was so raw. There was no faking that.

One thing was for sure. When we did get set up, we needed to talk. First thing was first, though. We had to search the area for animals and possibly worse.

I didn’t like the idea of being unarmed after the way the dogs behaved yesterday, but I also knew Austin was hurt, and we weren’t in a position to fuck around. I wanted to believe that Austin Cooper, who’d survived some of the most dangerous situations nature could conjure, would be able to handle anything. But he’d already admitted to never running into a cryptid. Could he take on a monster? Could I?

On the upside, the pod hadn’t exploded like in the movies.

Walking over the ice and snow, even in specially designed boots, took double the effort of a simple hike. Add to that the layers of clothing and my supplies, and I found myself fatigued by the time we reached the edge of the rocks.

Wind kicked up, peppering my face with flecks of sharp ice that had me hiding in the crook of my elbow. Then Austin was there again, shielding me with his back. I felt him before I looked up. He was like the sun and a shield between his body heat and shelter.

“That came out of nowhere!” I yelled over what sounded like a pack of wolves howling in pain but was only the wind. I hoped.

Austin grimaced beneath his mask and took my arm to guide me forward. I copied his movements, shielding with my free arm and focusing on my footing. We walked at an angle to the wind so we weren’t fighting it directly, and after what felt like an hour, we made it the last few meters to the overhang. Between the exertion and the terror of what we might find, my heartbeat kicked up into heart attack territory when I approached the unseen area.

Guiding me wordlessly around the chunks of ice and rock that surrounded the flattened boulders, Austin rounded the bend with me in tow. What I’d thought from afar to be a cave was in reality more of a large formation of boulders, ice, and snow with a long, flat, angled slab of stone that acted like a roof. The moment we made it underneath, I collapsed on my ass, out of breath, exhausted, and finally away from the wind and sideways blizzard that had infiltrated the air like a swarm of bees.

“Fuck,” I said, slipping my pack off my shoulders, relieved to find the space devoid of other lifeforms.

But when I glanced at Austin, he’d already made his way to the back corner and was carefully pressing on the rocks before beckoning me over.

“Rosi! I found an entrance that looks like it angles downward.”

Yanking the bag with me, I made my way to his side and saw an opening in the wall, hidden behind a crag but big enough for both of us if we wriggled in sideways and Austin ducked.

“What’s in there?” I asked, not getting the best vibe from the complete darkness.

Austin tilted his head, considering. “Possibly better shelter. Possibly an animal’s home. Do you have a lantern?”

I felt in my bag and pulled out the hand-sized sphere, pressing the sides to turn on the soft glow of white light. “You lead the way,” I told him, not even pretending to be brave.

Austin nodded and took the lantern, reaching through the opening first. I followed behind him as closely as possible.

Once we cleared the entrance, the space opened up enough to move forward comfortably, and I clutched Austin’s shoulder as he led the way down a twisted path. When he stopped with a gasp, my heart raced, but he held up the light to reveal a series of three pathways leading into caverns in different directions.

“Which way?” I whispered, feeling strange about disturbing the still air.

Austin pointed the light to the right, and it fell on the unmistakable arrangement of stones that made an inuksuk marker like I’d seen in the museum. Someone had been here.

“I thought no one lived in this area because of the elements,” I said.

“If someone is here, it would explain what you saw. And if they have supplies, we’ll be set for the night. Besides, I’d rather deal with another human than a monster if I have a choice.”

“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. It was true it didn’t seem likely an animal had placed the marker, but no one really knew how intelligent cryptids were. I chose to keep my concerns to myself as it wouldn’t be helpful to voice my worries.

Austin continued down the path marked by the inuksuk, and as we rounded a curve, the end came into view. It was a circular area of smooth stone, about twice the size around as the hellipod and four times as high. The front of the archway was covered in plastic sheeting to protect from the elements, but the whole side had been ripped into three long strips like something had clawed it from top to bottom.

Inside were two stacks, one as high as my shoulders and filled with random objects—everything from plates and cups to backpacks and clothing. Austin moved toward the second pile that was half as high but a million times as worrisome.

“Is that—” I said, hand shaking as I lifted it to point toward the small mountain.

“Bones,” Austin confirmed, meeting my eyes with pure panic.

The globe in his hand went out and plunged us into pure blackness.