Chapter 3
The morning sun did nothing to warm the mountain air.
The higher Luke and Julianne climbed, the steeper the incline became, their boots sinking deeper into the fresh winter powder with every grueling step.
The avalanche debris wall loomed ahead like a fortress of jagged white boulders and broken pine trees, completely blocking the main path to the ridge.
"We can't climb over that,"
Luke gasped, stopping to lean his hands on his knees.
His breath formed thick, white clouds that instantly froze against the collar of his jacket.
"It’s too unstable.
One wrong step and we’ll trigger another slide."
Julianne stopped a few paces ahead of him, her dark eyes scanning the tree line to the left.
Her face was pale, but the determination in her jaw was solid.
"There’s a shortcut.
Down through the ravine.
The old mountain river cuts straight through the base of the north ridge.
If we use the riverbed, we bypass the slide entirely."
Luke frowned, a faint, instinctual alarm ringing in the back of his mind.
"The river? Julianne, it’s early December.
The current up here is incredibly fast.
Are you sure it's frozen solid enough to carry our weight?"
"It’s been below zero for a week, Luke,"
she said, already turning to descend the steep slope into the ravine.
"We don't have a choice.
Maya is waiting, and the clouds on the horizon mean a second storm is rolling in by afternoon.
We go over the ice, or we go home."
Luke looked back down the mountain toward the safe, boring town he had left behind, then looked up at Julianne's dark silhouette moving confidently into the trees.
He swallowed his fear and followed her down into the shadows of the ravine.
At the bottom of the ravine, the mountain river looked like a highway of solid, cloudy glass.
The water had frozen into thick, undulating waves, bordered on both sides by massive snowbanks and heavy, ice-capped boulders.
It looked peaceful, but the deep, hollow groaning sound echoing beneath the surface reminded Luke that the water was still alive and moving fast underneath.
Julianne stepped onto the ice first.
Her boots made a sharp, echoing clack against the surface.
She waited a beat, shifting her weight from foot to foot to test the density.
The ice held perfectly.
"Keep your distance from me,"
Julianne instructed, turning back to face him as she began to walk down the center of the frozen river.
"Spread the weight out.
If you hear a sharp pop, don't run.
Just slide your feet and move toward the bank."
Luke took his first step onto the frozen sheet.
The slickness of the ice immediately made his boots slip, forcing him to extend his arms for balance.
The sensation of walking over a hidden, raging current was terrifying.
Through the translucent patches of dark ice, he could see the gray, turbulent water rushing furiously underneath his feet, separated from him by only a few inches of frozen armor.
They walked in silence for ten minutes, the ravine walls rising high above them, trapping them in a corridor of shadow and ice.
Luke kept his eyes locked onto the back of Julianne's trench coat, counting her steps to keep his own rhythm steady.
The bond they had formed in the ranger station the night before felt like a physical weight in his chest; he wasn't just following a stranger anymore.
He was protecting someone who held the key to his entire forgotten past.
They were halfway through the river bend when the temperature seemed to drop even further.
The canyon opened up, exposing them to a sudden, vicious gust of wind that swept down from the peak.
The wind polished the ice, making it as smooth as a mirror.
CRACK.
The sound was as loud as a rifle shot, echoing violently off the stone walls of the ravine.
Luke froze instantly, his heart leaping into his throat.
He didn't move an inch.
He didn't even breathe.
"Julianne..."
he whispered, his voice trembling.
"Don't move, Luke,"
she said, her voice dropping to a deadly calm.
She was twenty feet ahead of him, slowly turning her head to look back over her shoulder.
Right between Luke’s boots, a long, jagged silver line was rapidly spider-webbing across the dark surface of the ice.
A low, hissing sound followed as the intense pressure of the river below began to force freezing water up through the newly formed fracture.
The ice beneath his right foot groaned, sinking just a fraction of an inch into the dark abyss.
"The thermal runoff,"
Julianne realized, her eyes widening in horror as she looked at the water bubbling up.
"The chemical waste from the facility up the mountain...
The higher concentration of toxins prevents the water from freezing properly near the deep channels.
The ice is thin here."
"What do I do?"
Luke asked, his fingers clenching into fists inside his gloves.
He could feel the ice tilting.
The structural limit of the sheet was failing beneath his bones, and his willpower couldn't hold it together.
"Drop your weight, Luke! Now!"
Julianne screamed.
Before he could even process her words, the ice beneath his right boot gave way completely, shattering into a dozen floating white chunks.
Luke cried out as his leg plunged into the sub-zero water.
The cold was instantaneous and blinding, an agonizing shock that felt like thousands of needles piercing through his jeans and into his skin.
The terrifying current instantly grabbed his boot, pulling his leg forward under the remaining sheet of ice.
He threw his upper body forward, slamming his chest and arms onto the unbroken ice ahead of him, desperately trying to keep from being dragged entirely under the dark water.
"Julianne!"
he choked out, his vision blurring from the sheer panic and the freezing shock.
Through the haze of white snow and dark ice, Julianne didn't run away.
She didn't hesitate.
She threw herself flat onto her stomach, using her entire body to distribute her weight across the fragile sheet.
She began to slide herself forward across the slick surface, using her elbows and boots to propel herself toward the edge of the dark, gaping hole where Luke was dangling.
"Hold on!"
she yelled, her fingers clawing at the ice.
She reached the edge, her dark eyes locking onto his with an intensity that burned right through the freezing terror.
She extended both of her hands, gripping Luke’s wrists with a desperate, iron-clad hold.
Her boots dug into a solid patch of snow near a protruding boulder, anchoring them both.
"On three, you pull!"
Julianne grit her teeth, her face turning crimson from the sheer physical exertion.
"One...
two... THREE!"
Luke unleashed every ounce of strength left in his upper body.
He dug his elbows into the ice, ignoring the agonizing burn in his frozen leg, and pulled himself upward.
Julianne leaned back, using her own body weight as a lever, dragging him across the slick edge of the fracture.
With a final, desperate heave, Luke’s soaked leg cleared the hole.
He slid across the solid ice, tumbling directly on top of Julianne as they slid together into the deep, safe powder of the snowy riverbank.
They lay there in the snowbank, gasping for air, their chests rising and falling in unison.
Luke was shivering violently, his right leg completely numb and covered in a rapidly freezing sheet of slush.
But as he looked down at Julianne, who was lying beneath him in the snow, the terrifying danger instantly melted into a moment of pure, raw connection.
Her hood had fallen back, her dark hair splayed across the white snow.
Her breathing was frantic, her lips parted as she stared up at him.
For a second, the entire universe seemed to shrink down to just the two of them on the riverbank.
The memory he had recovered the night before—of her saving him at the old quarry—felt completely alive right now.
"You saved me,"
Luke whispered, his face just inches from hers. "Again."
Julianne reached up, her gloved hand resting gently against his wet shoulder.
A soft, breathless smile touched her lips.
"I told you, Luke.
I'm not letting you go a second time."
The romantic warmth of the moment was instantly shattered by a violent, teeth-chattering shiver that racked Luke’s entire frame.
His right pant leg was already stiffening, turning into a solid sheet of ice in the biting mountain wind.
"We need to get you dry, right now,"
Julianne said, her tone instantly snapping back to its sharp, protective focus.
She scrambled to her feet, helping Luke stand.
"If we stay here, hypothermia will set in within fifteen minutes.
The cabin is just up this embankment, through the pine clearing.
Can you walk?"
Luke put weight on his right leg.
It felt like a heavy, frozen log attached to his hip, but the adrenaline pumping through his veins allowed him to nod.
"I can walk.
Let's move."
They scrambled up the steep, snowy incline of the ravine, leaving the treacherous river behind.
Julianne practically carried him through the dense clearing of pine trees, the snowdrifts reaching up to their waists.
Every step was a battle against time, the freezing moisture on Luke’s leg slowly robbing his body of its core heat.
Through the thicket of trees, the clearing finally opened up.
Standing in the center of a small, windswept plateau was a small, rustic wooden cabin.
A thin wisp of gray smoke was curling out of the stone chimney, a sign that someone was inside.
"We made it,"
Julianne breathed, her grip on Luke’s jacket loosening slightly as they stumbled toward the wooden porch.
"Maya's inside."
Luke didn't wait for Julianne to knock.
Driven by a year of pent-up questions, heartbreak, and the desperate need to get out of the freezing wind, he threw his shoulder against the heavy wooden door of the cabin and burst inside.
The interior of the cabin was dark, warm, and smelled strongly of burning pine wood and copper.
A small fire crackled in the hearth, casting long, dancing orange shadows across the rustic furniture and the bare log walls.
But Luke didn't look at the fire.
His eyes locked onto the figure standing in the center of the room.
It was Maya.