Page 54 of The Mountain
I know better now.
Still, as I rise to my feet and survey the tumultuous sea of white and gray around me, I can’t help but hope. Especially when my friends gather in close, shoulders pressed together as we stare at the device in Liam’s hands, working to gauge where each person is likely to be based on the readings flashing across the screen.
“Come on, Captain America.” Eddie claps me on the back, his brown eyes glinting with determination as he flashes me his signature smile—sharp and feral and reckless. “Let’s save some lives.”
Chapter 19
Seth
Sweat drips down my spine beneath my thermals, the icy morning sun feeling like a furnace against my snowboard coat. I don’t dare take it off though, barely pausing to undo the zipper and loosen my scarf. I can’t stop—not when someone’s life depends on me.
“I’m not finding anything,” I call out, pulling Eddie’s ski pole out from the snow for what feels like the hundredth time.
I grit my teeth and glare down at the snow around me, rolling the ski pole in my hands. Liam said the transceiver was picking up on something from this spot. That someone—some poor person—is trapped beneath the snow somewhere in a ten-foot radius around me. For the past fifteen minutes, I’ve been working in a methodical grid, expecting to feel resistance with each dip of Eddie’s ski pole—and finding nothing.
Liam trudges over to me, transceiver clasped in one hand, his bare knuckles red with cold, expression pinched. “It’s definitelypinging in this spot.” He glances at the ski pole clutched in my hands and frowns. “Could be we aren’t hitting deep enough. A ski pole isn’t as long as an avalanche probe.”
Well, that’s fucking unhelpful. I shoot him an irritated look, and he lifts his free hand in a placatory gesture. “Hey. Don’t give me that Terminator look. I’m just the messenger.”
I huff, my cheeks burning at his words, then carefully press the pole into the snow. Again. And again.
“You got this, big guy.” He pats me on the back. “I’m going to check on Antoine.” He tilts his chin in Antoine’s direction. “Hopefully ski patrol will be here soon.”
I hum in agreement, then pull the pole free. I should smile at him, should tell him thank you. I just… can’t. My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I ignore it. Whatever it is, it can wait.
I push the pole in again.
Nothing.
Anger simmers beneath my skin, trickling alongside the sweat, burning beneath the layers of clothes. I grit my teeth, trying to push back the unwelcome feelings of helplessness, mingling with icy dread.
Maybe if we had proper backcountry gear. A probe, a shovel. Fuck—we don’t even have a transceiver. If Matty hadn’t miraculously pulled that first guy out, we wouldn’t even have a sliver of a chance of finding any of these guys.
And if it had been us caught in the avalanche?
I shiver, feeling suddenly queasy at the thought.
A few years ago, back in Canada, some of the guys I knew from school got lost skiing backcountry. They went into the mountains and never came back again.
They found their bodies the following spring, when the snow melted.
I dip the pole in again, muscles tense and shaking, my breath sawing in and out, clouding the cold air in front of my face.
What if Lily had been with us? We’d taken her out here a few weeks ago, hadn’t we? She’d dropped in, fearless and laughing, completely blind to the danger. Trusting us. ButI’dknown. I’d known it was dangerous to go backcountry without the right gear, and I hadn’t said a word. I just smiled and went along with the rest of the guys. Not wanting to make waves, just wanting everyone to get along. Wanting to make everyone happy.
What if it was Lily buried in the snow? What if it was Antoine? Or Eddie, or Liam, or Matty?
My chest clenches, a painful ache burning in my throat, sorrow ripping through me at just the thought of losing them, this beautiful family I’ve started to build.
Last night… last night had been incredible. The six of us, piled up on that tiny sofa, Eddie falling asleep between my legs, his head resting on my knee. Lily sinking to the floor, her eyes glazed with pleasure and lips swollen as she moved between Matty and Antoine, Liam guiding her movements. And the way they’d held each other afterward, and Matty’s head had rested on my shoulder, and Lily had pressed that sweet kiss to my thigh, her body sated and languid…
The six of us together, it’s everything I ever dreamed of.
I can’t lose them. I fucking can’t.
I press the pole in, almost on autopilot now, then nearly drop it when it hits something soft and solid, about three feet down. This time, when my phone buzzes in my pocket, it barely registers in my consciousness, like a gnat whispering past in a forest.
I drop to my knees, a cry of relief and exhaustion and hope ripping out of me. I release my hold on the pole, gloved hands digging desperately at the snow.
