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By instinct, I reach for another hold, but it’s too late. The ice cracks, my claws spreading it apart like butter as I slip down the icefall. My ropes are hardly ready for the sudden jolt and whip violently as friction finally takes hold.
I can't help but forge a low guttural moan as the rope breaks the fall, claiming all the air from my lungs as it saves my life. Shards of ice sprinkle around me as I dangle, trying to regain my senses.
“Ahhhhh!” I holler as the rope tenses in my hands. Suddenly I’m hit with all the reasons not to climb by myself. Dying alone just made the top of my list.
Swaying with the breeze, I try to flip my body forward. My back aches, ready to break with gravity pulling against mymidsection. Sunlight blinds me on the cold, crisp day as a slight breeze splinters across my sweating brow.
With a few breaths of bravery, I set my body into swinging motion, until at long last I’m able to make a sturdy hold on the opposite wall.
Feeling my feet planted firmly on the ground a few moments later, I let myself fall into the ground, grateful that gravity didn't have its way with me. This time, anyway. With my head digging into the gravel, I turn onto my back and face the daylight. Grateful, truly grateful.
The way I see it, fate has given me another chance. Just like in the days before, Mira was the first thought that popped into my brain when I thought I was done for. It's been like this too long to ignore it anymore.
Maybe this is what it comes down to. I see it, now that I’m ready to face it head-on. Happiness, sadness. It doesn't matter.
She’s my fated mate. I just can’t not be with her.
15
MIRA
It’s really helped me, having something to look forward to. I’ve stopped double-timing my shifts, and I’m sleeping better. I still think of Renxel every day, but the pain of it is subsiding.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
The problem is that I keep bumping into him. I don’t know why he continues to stay at the Inn. I distinctly remember his mother looking around in disgust and insisting he come home. Plus, I thought he had another climb coming up.
Every time I see him, he turns his head and skulks off, like it was me who dumped his sorry ass and not the other way around.
“You’re daydreaming again,” says Harlen over my shoulder. “You know I’ll get out of you what’s going on when we go away. There’ll be no getting away with these brooding silences then.” She laughs as she says it, but she doesn’t know how close she is to scaring me off going. The last thing I want to do is talk about him on a weekend away.
The bar is almost empty tonight. A band is playing at the Starlight Tavern next door, and most of the guests and regulars are there.
“You girls may as well go home,” says the proprietor, who has even sent Silvy home for the night. “And have a good weekend. I wish I was coming with you.” Satay is quite old to still be running a business, but her eyes shine bright with merriment. I couldn’t see her ever giving up the Inn. It’s her life and soul.
“Thanks, Satay,” I say. “You could always join us.”
“And who would keep this place running with three of my best girls going off for the weekend?”
I smile at the praise. So often humans are treated like slaves, or menial servants at best. But Satay seems to be genuinely fond of us and has never shown me the slightest prejudice.
“We’ll be back before you know it,” I tell her.
I’m so excited. Apart from Harlen’s promise to extract information from me, I’ve been looking forward to this for the last two weeks. It’s been the incentive that has kept me going every time I start thinking too deeply about Renxel.
I get home and start to repack my bag. Again. Suddenly, I’m startled by a knock at the door.Who the hell is that at this time of night?
The mixture of emotions I feel as I open the door to Renxel threatens to overwhelm me. “What are you doing here?” I ask him sharply. Inwardly, I kick myself for the rebuff. I have been secretly longing for this moment since the start of his strange ghosting.
“Can I come in? I’d really like to talk to you.” There is not a shred of bravado in his words as he stands on my doorstep with his head bowed.
I take a deep breath. I should shut the door in his face after how he’s behaved for the last two weeks. “What the fuck, Renxel? You can’t just show up at my door and demand entry in the middle of the night after the way you’ve treated me.”
“I know,” he says. “And I came here to apologize.” He looks at me as if the bottomless depths of his beautiful eyes should sway me back to his bed.
“No,” I say. “No. I’ve just started getting over you. Why do you have to come back now and ruin everything? You can’t come in. I won’t just drop at your feet again. Now go away, and stop invading my privacy.”
My heart feels like it’s going to break in two as I go to shut the door.
