Chapter 14 James
James
How she’d kept ahead of them for so long, James didn’t know. Strength. Endurance. Speed.
Sheer fucking willpower.
He’d put his money on the latter.
But willpower only went so far, and as he heeled Maven around a bend into an open stretch of path, James’s eyes locked with Ahnna’s.
She was looking over her shoulder, Dippy galloping down the trail like he was back on the racetrack. Her slender frame was bulky with the thick coat she wore and her face was partially obscured by a woolen cap, but even across the distance, seeing her was like a punch to the gut.
Ahnna’s lips parted, then she twisted back around and leaned over Dippy’s neck.
“I don’t think so,” James snarled, and dug in his heels.
“Sir!” Arthur shouted from behind. “James! Stop!”
James ignored him, but as Maven galloped ahead of his companions, a dark cloud of smoke blew over him.
Far up the slope was a large fire, a fallen tree with its exposed roots ablaze. Perhaps an attempt at starting a forest fire, but it was a waste of effort: The trees around it were laden with snow. Even as he watched, the fire lessened its intensity, more smoke than flame.
The sound of wood snapping was deafening even over Maven’s hooves, and it was followed by a far worse noise.
Horror gathered in James’s stomach as debris exploded through the burning tree roots and tumbled down the mountainside.
An avalanche.
Ahnna meant to block the trail.
Instead of checking Maven’s reins, he bent over the mare’s neck and shouted, “Run!”
Boulders and chunks of ice smashed through trees and tore up earth, the mass of debris growing with each passing second. The noise was deafening, louder than a thousand claps of thunder rolling through the sky at once. Everything in its path would be destroyed, but James raced toward it anyway.
Because if he didn’t get to the other side, Ahnna would escape.
Flecks of foam flew from Maven’s mouth, his horse seeing the wave of death rolling down the slope as clearly as he did.
Faster, he pleaded, feeling his mare’s fear, knowing she was loyal to him even if it meant death.
A large rock bounced on the path ahead of them and Maven veered to avoid it, nearly going off the cliff to their left.
Smoke and embers clouded the air, and a rock clipped James in the shoulder, another striking Maven on the neck.
She barely flinched, terror driving away pain as she ran for both their lives.
He’d made a mistake. He was dead, Ahnna would escape, and his father would never have justice.
The slide was upon them.
Maven leapt forward—
And the murderous tide of ice and rock washed over the trail.