Page 30 of Keeper of Talon Mountain
"If I don't remember, Crane will kill everyone in this town."
"Then you'll remember. We'll help you." Her jaw tightens. "And even if you do remember, there's no guarantee he won't kill everyone anyway. But at least we'll have options."
Her voice is certain. My breathing evens out.
"But why did the amnesia kick in. Were you being interrogated," Mara asks.
“I don’t know.”
"You're trying to remember voluntarily."
"Which might not matter if the safeguard can't distinguish between voluntary and forced recall." Ice crystals melt against my skin as I drag a hand through my hair. "I need to talk to Dr. Sage. See if there's a way to unlock whatever I did to myself."
"In the morning," Mara says firmly. "Right now, you need food and rest. You climbed a mountain and confronted a psychopath. That's enough for one day."
The exhaustion is catching up anyway. Adrenaline gone, leaving me hollow. But there's one more thing they need to know.
"Someone's outside right now. Watching."
"Then we give them nothing useful to watch." Zara heads toward the kitchen. "I'll make food. We'll eat, we'll plan, and then we'll see what happens."
Her voice is certain. It helps.
Zara disappears into the kitchen. Mara touches my face, fingers coming away red. "Bathroom. Now."
The cut has reopened during the climb, blood dried on my face. Mara cleans it with gentle efficiency, her hands steady even though I can see the fear still lurking in her eyes.
"He showed me a photograph of you," I say quietly. "Told me everything about Phoenix. About Derek."
Her hands still. "I was going to tell you. I just... I didn't know how."
"You don't owe me your past, Mara. Not until you're ready." I catch her hand. "But Crane knowing about it—that's leverage he'll use. We need to be prepared for that."
"Derek doesn't know where I am." But her voice wavers slightly.
"Crane knows. Which means he could tell Derek. Use him as another pressure point." The thought makes my chest tight. "We need to consider all the angles."
"One crisis at a time." She applies a fresh bandage with careful precision. "First we figure out how to access your memories. Then we deal with everything else."
"Crane said something else. About me being smart. About building failsafes." A thought surfaces, incomplete. "What if the trigger isn't psychological? What if it's physical?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know. A location, maybe. Or an object. Something that would jog the memory without requiring me to force it." Dog tags cold against my chest through the shirt. "These survived. The leather pouch with my mother's picture. What if there's something else? Something I kept with me that would serve as a key?"
Mara's eyes light up. "Your belongings. When I found you, you had a backpack. We stored it...”
"Where?"
"The storage room. I haven't gone through it. Dr. Sage said we should wait until you were ready."
My pulse kicks up. "Show me."
The backpack is military-grade, weathered and worn. Mara brings it to the central room where the fireplace provides the only light. Zara joins us, and together we lay out the contents on the floor.
Tactical gear. A knife. Rope. Emergency supplies. Everything a professional would carry for wilderness survival. But nothing that screams "memory trigger."
"There has to be something. I wouldn't have left this to chance."
