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“I thought I’d done a pretty good job at eating you last night.”

I smacked his chest half-heartedly. “You know what I mean.”

“Then let’s get our things packed up and hike back to the resort while we have the sun on our side.”

That sounded like the best idea I’d heard in ages. So we pulled on our clothes and packed everything inside the tent into my bag as fast as we could. When Austin reached to open the zippered door, I stuffed a chunk of hair in my mouth to prevent a gasp from escaping. Every muscle in my body tensed as the blast of cold rushed in to meet us.

Following Austin outside, I relaxed when nothing moved, aside from the slow drip of water sliding off a stalactite and disturbing the pool of water with a lazy ripple. Austin folded the tent quickly and expertly then stepped in front of me. He tugged my balaclava down over my face, leaving his hand on my cheek for a moment, his silvery eyes the only things showing of his own head like two beautiful crystals.

“Ready?” he asked, offering his hand.

Nodding, I clasped his gloved palm to mine, and we made our way back down the path toward the main cavern. I wondered if he could feel the way my heart thumped against my ribs. If I rested my head on his chest, would I hear his pumping hard with adrenaline too?

When we crossed the threshold to the point of the three offshoot tunnels, I relaxed, again seeing nothing waiting for us. The scent decoy must have helped. I made a mental note to add that to my private journal.

We’d made it all the way to the sloped exit path when the sound of stones sliding down rock made me pause.

Austin tensed, so I knew he’d heard it too. I looked at him, silently asking what we should do.

A low snarl echoed around the large chamber. We both slowly turned toward the three openings at the other end of the cave. A crash came from the path with the nest and made me cringe. After a moment of silence, several large rocks and a couple of bones came rolling from the opening.

“Should we run?” Austin whispered as the snuffs and growls of something grew closer.

Right. I was the expert on this. “If we run it might automatically chase us,” I said, trying to think. “Start moving backward, up the path as slowly and quietly as you can.”

My mouth was dry as Austin led the way behind me. I used my hands to keep balanced on either side of the narrow corridor as I glanced back and forth between my footing and the spot where I was sure something horrible would burst through at any moment. The dreams I’d had flashed in my mind, raising my pulse rate until the drumbeat in my head drowned out all other sound. The teeth—the blood.

The bite of cold air at the nape of my neck told me we were close to the exit. The path grew steeper, making me pay more attention to my precarious balance so as not to set loose too many stones and make too much noise. As we curved away from the sightline, the very air above the rocks and bones that had shot from the tunnel shifted. A warbling I associated with a mirage of heat above asphalt made me question if my vision was blurred from fear.

Then the rocks and bones moved, stirring up into a small funnel of wind. My feet slipped, causing a mini avalanche of pebbles to bounce downward. Shit.

The rocks and bones stopped swirling and hung in mid-air. A pair of yellow eyes stared at me above them. There was no body attached, and my brain scrambled to try to fill one in. I couldn’t tell if the blurred space was a product of my eyes or some sort of camouflage, but the effect was a mixture of terror and confusion. Then the free-floating orbs made eye contact with me, and my blood ran cold.

“Run!” My voice came out raspy, but I knew Austin heard because he grabbed my arm and helped yank my frozen feet up the rest of the way.

We burst through the crevice and out past the entrance to the rocky cavern. The storm had stopped, but a fresh layer of snow coated everything, erasing our footsteps from the day before. The sun shone above, though the wind still bit at any exposed skin, no matter how tiny.

I didn’t care. I pumped my legs as hard as I could, forcing myself across the frozen tundra and away from the cave. Maybe the creature wouldn’t follow us into the light. Some cryptids hated light, according to my research.

Squeezing my hand, Austin pulled me along in his wake. His long legs could go faster than my short ones, and he was built for this sort of exertion. Pure adrenaline made me fight to keep up as the sounds of crunching snow and growls like no animal I’d ever heard nipped at our heels.

“It’s too far!” I yelled as the imposing beauty of the Glacial Palace Resort came into view on the horizon, reflecting rainbows up into the sky around its uppermost dome.

“No it’s not,” Austin said, pulling harder. “Focus on the goal. Just keep going forward. Don’t stop, and don’t look back.”

Look back? The urge to do exactly what he’d said not to claimed me. What did it look like in the sunlight? Was it still using camouflage? What cryptid was it? Abominable snowman? Aklut? Amorat? It didn’t sound like a wolf per se, but then again, I didn’t spend a lot of time with wolves either.

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as some sort of electric force filled the air around us. My back arched, and I sensed that something was about to grab me. Certain it was right there, I glanced over my shoulder.

I screamed.

Austin swung toward me, and I felt his arms around my waist, but I couldn’t stop screaming and I couldn’t look away. It was impossible. The thing was right there, not five feet from us. Its decaying gray body stood out starkly against the white and blue backdrop of the world around it. It towered above us—at least seven to eight feet of lean sinew and muscle. Its yellow eyes held mine, and they felt human, though it looked anything but with its double-wide mouth filled with rows of needlelike teeth that dripped with something that was either saliva or venom. I didn’t want to find out which.

“When I spin you around, I want you to run.” Austin’s warm breath coated my ear as he spoke. “Don’t look back, and don’t stop for any reason.”

“No.” I remembered my dream in vivid detail. It was coming true, and I wasn’t going to let Austin die. I wasn’t. He promised me.

“Rosie, now is not the time to fight.” Austin yanked me off my feet, and the next thing I registered was flying through the air. We’d be discussing this later.