Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
I won’t survive the night.
My body aches from the violent shivering while my steps and breathing slow. When I reach the same six-foot-slanted rock I’d passed an hour ago, my soul withers and my legs collapse under me.
It’s hopeless.
I’ve been going in circles, and I can’t entirely blame the low visibility for it. I’ve been wandering aimlessly because my heart can’t decide on a direction—home or…home.
Pathetically, I leave myself lying face down in the snow so I can just die already. I know I probably shouldn’t sleep when I’m one step from death’s door, but my lids, ladened with frost and snow, are growing heavy, and I can’t walk another step.
All I need is a few minutes.
Ironically, it’s the same thing I said when I climbed into Khalil’s bed that first day at the cabin and look where it had gotten me.
Whatever.
This is long overdue. It’s not fair that I got to live when so many good people died—Cassie, Harrison, Tyler…If I wasn’t convinced that I’m a terrible person, I sure as hell know it now. Dying cold and alone, face down in the snow, seems just.
It feels like my eyes have only just closed when I hear something that makes them pop back open. My head feels like it weighs a hundred pounds when I lift it and peer through cracked eyes.
I must be dead already. There’s no one there.
“Aurelia!”
Satan, is that you?
“Aurelia!”
I’m coming, evil hell Daddy.
“AURELIA!”
Okay, don’t get pushy.
It figures I’d traded three growly, demanding alphaholes for another.
“Aurelia!”
I groan when my heart jumps in my chest, and I realize I’m not dead. That voice…I know it. I never thought I’d hear it again, but there’s no mistaking it. I’d know it anywhere.
“Aurelia!”
So, not evil hell Daddy, then.
Just one determined and loyal bodyguard. Tyler.
I gasp when I hear his voice again, leaving no room for doubt. How had he survived the avalanche? How had he found me?
“Aurelia, answer me!” He sounds further away now as if he’s turned to head a different way.
“Come back,” I croak out as Rose did in Titanic after the ship sank and she let Jack die. It feels like I’m floating alone on a door in the middle of the cold, dark sea. Only, in this version, Jack isn’t dead. He made it somehow, and he came back for me. “Tyler, I’m here!”
My voice isn’t loud enough to rise above the wind, much less reach him wherever he is.
He must be close.
That knowledge is enough to make me stand, though it takes me a full minute to climb to my feet.
“Tyler!” I scream a little louder this time. “Tyler, wait! Ty—”
My shout is cut off, and I stop when I see something large and fast dart from the left up ahead. At first, I wonder if I’m hallucinating it until I see it again, closer now and heading in the opposite direction.
“What the…”
A low, rumbling sound has the frozen hairs on my nape and arms rising as I look behind me for the source.
All I see is the snow falling so heavily that it creates a shimmering curtain of nearly solid white.
I know I’m not alone, though. I can hear pattering in the snow, and it’s coming from every direction. No matter which way I turn, I can’t pin it down. Whatever it is that’s stalking me, it’s not alone.
I can barely keep calm when I catch another glimpse of something faster and larger than a dog running past in my peripheral. I just keep walking, head down, arms wrapped around myself, hoping that this new threat is just curious and goes away now that I’m up and moving. They probably spotted me lying in the snow and couldn’t resist an easy meal in this storm.
“Tyler!” I call out again.
The only thing that answers back is a howl that expels all the air in my lungs. It’s so cold I can see my breath curling in the air in front of me.
I hear more pattering, and even though my muscles tense, I somehow know not to run. Maybe I have my short time in the cabin to thank. Each time I ran from Khalil, Seth, and Thorin, they pursued me like any beast of prey. They pinned me down, and they sank their teeth in—often literally. My running activated their need to chase, and there’s no reason to think it would be any different now.
So I keep walking with even, steady strides even though my heart is pounding and I’m terrified.
When I spot part of a branch lying in the snow, I risk stopping long enough to pick it up. It’s almost as tall as me and looks sturdy enough, so I keep my gaze on a swivel as I slowly pull the ice pick from my pocket. It’s not as big or sharp as the hunting knives the guys carry, but it’s better than nothing. Lucky me. Thorin must have forgotten this one when they hid all the weapons from me.