Uncharted by Adriana Anders

Chapter 16

No more gunshots, no sign of their pursuers. Still, they kept moving at a quick clip. Which wasn’t particularly good in this cold. If they weren’t careful, they’d sweat and the sweat would freeze. Hypothermia was right around the corner.

Meanwhile, a fog rolled in fast and thick, surprisingly opaque, given the continuing rain. Right. Probably didn’t need to worry about sweating when they were already soaked through.

He blinked at the landscape around them. Were they going the right way? The run had disoriented him.

He shifted the bag on his shoulders, cringed, and squinted. There. Was that Dead Tree? No. Just a pine. He turned, stumbled, and just barely managed to stay on his feet.

He shut his eyes for a few seconds, breathed until his pulse slowed, then opened them. There was Dead Tree, its branches spread wide, the tallest of the bunch raised up like a spindly middle finger, towering over the trees around it. And, though it wasn’t visible right now, beyond it was the first in a long line of peaks. Unlike the mountains they’d just left, they weren’t white-capped beasts soaring to blend with the sky. These hunkered low and dark, rooted in the earth, veins of copper and gold, silver and zinc, pulsing straight from her core.

He tripped on a sharp edge, righted himself, and paused, reaching deep inside for the strength he’d need to get through this. This wasn’t just about survival anymore. He had to get Leo to safety.

If he could just get her to the river, she could go on alone. That would work.

He glanced down at his body, saw nothing different, and focused forward again. He’d be fine for now. Just get her that far, that was all.

One plodding step at time.

As she caught up to him, he folded his arms across his front, hunching as if cold. Which, now that he thought of it, he was. Shivering a ton, actually. He shook his head hard to clear it.

“You okay?”

He ignored the question. “Keep walking.”

Her eyes, dark and layered as rich, new earth after the thaw, flicked over him, then snapped up to meet his, and he could swear he felt a connection, as if she’d touched him with a bare hand.

Christ, he wanted that. Her hand on him. Just the warmth of her skin would be something.

“What’s our objective here?” She had to raise her voice to be heard above the rain’s constant patter.

“Look.” When he couldn’t quite get his right arm up, he used his left to point southwest. “Can’t see ’em through the fog right now, but…”

She gave him a strange look. “But?”

“See that tree—dead one?”

Thankfully, she looked up in the direction he pointed, which gave him the space he needed to breathe again.

“The one giving us the bird?”

A laugh burst from him, the pressure on his lungs so harsh he couldn’t breathe for a second or two. “Yeah. Always thought that.” He snagged her gaze again, got caught in the details of her face, the water dripping from pointy lashes to sluice down her brown skin. If there were time, he’d lean forward and lick it off.

He shook the rain from his eyes. No time. Also, really not the thoughts he should be having.

“Gotta get to the mountains beyond.”

She said something that he couldn’t quite grasp.

He grunted in response. Grimaced at the pain of heaving the pack up higher on his back.

The ice shifted with a groan.

And even though he’d wished for just this event—exactly what they needed to escape their pursuers once and for all—it was happening too damn soon.

Breakup was starting and they were still smack dab in the middle of the water.

***

Would this lake never end?

Leo wiped cold water from her eyes and peered ahead at a shore that didn’t get any closer, no matter how far they went, how hard they ran.

And all the while, the ice popped and groaned and sagged beneath them. It felt like tiptoeing across a waking monster’s back.

Breath coming out in visible puffs, she swiped a hand across her eyes to clear them and stared hard at the landscape—or into it. Was it a landscape if you were part of it? She shook her head, narrowed her eyes, and peered through the falling raindrops to the layered, patchwork scenery with its ever-changing lights and darks and misty reflections. It was beautiful. Awesome, even in the pouring rain. Her next sinus-clearing breath smelled of mineral earth and pine, with something rotting underneath.

She glanced back and came to a sudden stop, blinking at the figure that had grown small in the last few minutes. What was wrong with Elias? He’d stopped and stood sagging against his pole while he drained his canteen. The posture was so different from how he’d been up until now that it set off an alarm bell in her brain.

Stomping back over ice she’d already checked and traversed seemed like tempting fate, but she did it anyway because something was going on with the yeti and it freaked her out.

Maybe she was imagining it, given that she didn’t really know him from Adam.

Although, in a weird way she couldn’t explain, that felt like a lie. The past twenty-four hours had forged a link between them. An understanding. Hell, maybe more. Maybe even something like attraction, though that was irrelevant in the current situation.

But why was he bent forward like that? Was his pack too heavy? Probably. He’d been hauling it for hours.

Guilt shot through her. After adding her weight to his load for a portion of the trip, the man was probably close to collapsing.

He should rest. They both should. She looked up at the sky. Was it even day still? Impossible to tell with the rain pouring over them. Were their pursuers getting close?

She was sure of very little right now. Could see next to nothing, could barely feel her fingers and toes. And while adrenaline had worked for a while, she was definitely running on empty. There was only so much more her body could handle.

But seeing Elias flagging did more to pierce a hole in her composure than anything that had happened since they’d teamed up.

And it was her fault. He’d taken up her slack. Hardening her resolve, she picked up her pace.

The dog gave a high-pitched whine, ears going straight, head tilting at a cute puppy-dog angle.

A smile pulled at Leo’s lips. “What’s going—”

The earth growled.

She stopped, mouth open, her last word unspoken.

What the hell was that? She panted, head tilting in unconscious imitation of the dog, who’d adopted a low, tense stance, like she was about to attack, or—

“Run!” Elias’s shout hit her a split second before another noise rent the air, so loud she couldn’t locate the source, could only feel the rumbling beneath her feet. She’d lived through earthquakes before and this was immeasurably worse. A mix of thunder and heavy artillery and the world ripping open.

The ice boomed beneath her feet and she set off, willing it to stay in one piece.

Please don’t break yet.

A series of pops like rapid gunfire sent her skidding to the side, eyes searching wildly for Elias and Bo, who’d been there seconds earlier. In flashes, she took in sky, mist-wrapped trees, Elias’s moving silhouette. Her feet slipped out from under her. Water, dark and churning, licked at the ice she’d been standing on seconds before. Faster than she could fathom, her body slithered down what was now a slide. Pure instinct made her dig her boots in and claw hard with numb fingers. With dizzying swiftness, the ice seesawed back, sent her careening up, then down again, tumbling toward the roiling water, at the mercy of the elements and fate, like a die being thrown over and over.

Beyond the terrible grind of ice against ice, she heard one sound, ringing clear as a bell above the hellish din—Elias calling her name. Those two syllables centered Leo, gave her a sense of direction and a goal. One second her muscles loosened, the next they tensed, and using the ice’s rhythmic sway to guide her, arms reaching, straining, she pounced. One hand caught the top edge of the piece, her body hitting it with an audible exhale. The other hand found purchase and she heaved up, teetered on the rim, threw her legs over it, and leapt just as it sank.

Stance wide, arms out, she eyed the ice around her. It was a bigger, steadier piece. She hoped.

“Leo, go!”

She didn’t wait, just sprinted hard until her lungs hurt, her vision darkened, and the only thing—the only thing—was not falling in. Not getting pulled under.

Something appeared in her peripheral vision and Elias was racing beside her. They slipped, jumped, ran so hard one false step could break a limb. It was too treacherous to look anywhere but right in front of her feet. She reached to the side—blind, hopeful, trusting. And he was there. Their hands met, grappled, and finally held on, their fingers entwined like rope.

Nothing existed beyond the two of them, attached like a ship to its moorings, and the ice—the most dangerous moving target she’d ever encountered. She’d seen this lake from the air; she knew its surroundings, its shape and surface. But here, in the midst of breakup, they might as well be in the middle of the ocean, with nothing but each other to count on.

Something marred the surface ahead. A dark, jagged line that reached from one bank to the other. A crack. Was it widening?

Elias’s grip tightened. She replied with a squeeze of her own and put on more power, heaved air into her lungs at an unsustainable rate, moved her limbs until every muscle burned.

She blinked in time to see the dog leap over the rip in the ice and land, her feet skidding dangerously on the other side.

The gap grew larger, darker, the noise massive, apocalyptic—the earth ripping open.

Suddenly, they were close enough to see what looked like two tectonic plates, scraping together…apart…together again.

She glanced right, met Elias’s eyes, in that split second taking in the world around them—trees and mountains and rain-drenched sky, so close and yet outside this hellish bubble. “On three!” he yelled.

She nodded.

“One!” Her feet pounded the ice. The mist swallowed her every gasp.

“Two!” She could do this. She could do this.

“Three!” They could do this.

They tightened their hold, squeezed hard enough to break bones. As one, she and Elias jumped.

For a few freeze-frame seconds, they flew through thin, humid air, hands linked, bodies bracing. Above them, a bird cawed, as if life could just go on at this moment.

They landed with a bone-jarring thump, hard enough to knock the air from Leo’s lungs and the thoughts from her head. She saw stars and wondered if it was night or day or heaven or hell.

She blinked the falling rain from her eyes, pulled at her hand to wipe it, but couldn’t. It was still in his. Or his in hers. Whatever. Still holding on for dear life.

Ears ringing, she concentrated on the first thing she saw—ice. Or snow. Or water. Focus.

White, crusted with gray, transparent in places. This close, bubbles were apparent, trapped in the water, swirling. Pretty.

Deadly.Ice scraped behind them. She turned to stare at the opposite bank. It was moving. They were moving.

“Elias. Come on. Let’s go.” Time to get up, away from the edge, off this ice, to solid earth. Bo snuffled at something beside her. Good. The dog had made it.

Head spinning, she strained her eyes in search of the shore. There, straight ahead, were trees, the mountains looming in the distance. Surely that must be less than a mile away? They could do it. No problem.

It took effort to let go of his hand and get herself up on all fours, then finally plant one foot on the treacherous ice. But she could do it. They’d do it, together. She and the yeti could do anything.

“Elias.” She reached for his hand, ready to help him up to standing, maybe lean on him a little in the process. She was almost smiling when she looked his way. “We’re close. We can do this.” She grabbed his hand. It was heavy in hers. She squeezed. No response. “Elias.” Nothing. His arm was a dead weight, his body unmoving. “Wake up, dammit. Elias, wake up!”

***

Something slapped his face, jarring Elias awake.

He moved his mouth, tested his jaw, opened his eyes and then immediately shut them. He turned his head and tried again. After a second, things came into focus—water, ice, a dull black that gradually turned to trees as his eyes adjusted to the distance. Everything was gray and brown and black—smears of color slowly taking shape.

“Elias.”

He squinted at the silhouette above him and blinked until the face separated itself from the rest of the world.

“Elias. What happened? What’s wrong?”

“Fine.” He shut his eyes.

“You’re bleeding. What the he—”

“Not bleeding.” With an effort, he stood.

“That’s blood on your coat.” Leo’s tone brooked no bullshit.

His gaze followed the direction she was pointing. A stain darkened the right side of his coat. “Huh.” He met her eyes again. “Must be yours.”

She looked down pointedly, where one puddle was darker than the rest—the dirty reddish-brown of rust or winter moss. “You are bleeding,” she said.

He looked at her. “Okay. But we don’t have time.” He swung around, disoriented. “Need to move.”

“How can we move if you’re injured?”

“Remember which way we were headed?”

“Do I remember?” The wide-eyed, brows-raised look of disbelief she threw him actually made him smile. “Did you get shot? Elias, is that what happened?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it freaking matters! If you’re hurt, then our chances of getting out of here go way—”

A chunk of ice crashed nearby, startling all three of them.

“You can…” He focused hard on the horizon, finally getting his bearings. “Break my balls about getting shot when we make it to shore. How’s that sound?”

“At least you admit that you did get shot.”

They were hit by a gust of wind so hard it shifted the ice, slamming and crunching and overlapping the pieces like multicar pileups. What he wanted—what they needed in order to get away from their pursuers—was for the glacier along the lake’s eastern shore to calve into the lake. Its ripple effect would send waves out across the surface and dump those assholes into the frigid water before they knew what happened.

No, what they needed was to make it to shore before the lake chewed them up.

“Let’s go.” He reached for her hand.

She pulled away. “You won’t even tell me where you’ve been hit?”

“No, Leo.” In truth, he wasn’t sure. Adrenaline had masked the pain while they ran. If he stayed here much longer, he wasn’t sure he’d work up the energy to keep moving. “We don’t have time for this.”

“Fine.” She blew out an impatient sigh. “But trust me, I will break your balls about it later.” There was just enough snark in her response to put a grin on his face.

He started off, eyeing the crackling expanse between them and the western shore, now blurred by rain. They were lucky the ice in front of them was mostly whole. They were lucky the weather hadn’t cleared before this day ended. He turned and eyed the far side of the lake—lost in fog now—and caught sight of the widening gap in the ice. His guts tightened. Holy shit. The rift had to be twelve feet wide, the pieces they’d surfed minutes ago churning up the water like gigantic teeth. They were lucky they weren’t dead already.

“Give me your hand again.”

He turned to look at her and just kept himself from stumbling to a stop. She shook her hand, waiting for him to take it. A little exasperated maybe, but also solid. Bloodstained, battered, and soaking wet, Leo should look like something the cat had dragged in. She didn’t.

Her dark eyes met his. She appeared exhausted and possibly feverish, a little angry, and above all, fierce.

A force of nature.

There wasn’t time for this now, thinking about how this person who’d been sent to him—who’d literally fallen from the sky—made him strong in a way he’d never felt. Together, he thought, letting his mind take an uncharacteristically fanciful spin, they were more than the sum of their parts.

Her presence, the solidity of her beside him, with her humor and her drive, sent something through him, so unfamiliar he couldn’t quite place it. But he knew one thing: for the first time in as long as he could remember, he wasn’t alone.

***

Surfing ice during breakup wasn’t nearly as fun as it sounded. In fact, it was more of a running the gauntlet type of thing, which consisted of listening to the ice—that was Elias’s job—following a seemingly random, invisible maze, led just by sound; sprinting over flat, slippery surfaces; then jumping from one massive hunk to another, in a deadly game of leapfrog that was more exhausting than anything Leo had ever done. The final phase, of course, was the deadliest.

They’d made it far—or so she thought, though it was almost impossible to tell, the way they’d become enveloped in thick, soupy fog. She had no idea how he knew which way to go—or what time of day it was. How long had they been out on this ice? Three hours? Ten hours?

Going any faster than a walk was no longer possible, since they ran the very real risk of falling straight into the water. They slid on, the mist laying a chilly sheen on their coats and gloves and hats and whatever parts of skin it could find. “Better than snow,” Leo chanted under her breath, getting a good silver-lining rhythm going. “Better than snow, better than snow, better than—”

He stopped her with a hand on her wrist, tight but not threatening.

“Don’t move.” He looked one way, then another, and cursed under his breath.

“What?” she whispered. “What is it?” Her voice was swallowed up by the gloom.

He didn’t immediately answer, but she heard it then, the gentle lap, lap of water, so close to where they stood that she went absolutely still, forcing herself not to back up.

“This is it. End of the line.” He peered forward. “Isn’t far, but I’d hoped…”

The water washed suddenly high, over their boots, sending Leo back, while Elias remained frozen.

Then he came out and just said it, though by then he didn’t really have to. The hunk of ice was dipping, dipping…

“Nowhere to go.…” He looked down. “But in.”

He stepped back from the edge, dropped, and started unlacing his boots.

“This why you had all those super-sized baggies in your pack?”

He grunted an assent.

She got to work on her own footwear. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

He shot her a look. “You seem like you were made for this.”

“Diving into subzero water?” She stuck her boots and socks into a bag and carefully closed it, then put it into another. “Um. No.”

“I don’t mean that, but…the rush.”

“Adrenaline’s definitely my drug.” She made a face. “Sort of regretting that now.”

“Let me have those.”

“I can—”

“I’ve done this before, Leo.”

Her brows flew up to her hairline. “You serious?”

He nodded.

“On purpose?”

His eyes crinkled.

Shit, the dude was some special kind of hardcore. She plucked at her coat. “We do our clothes too?”

Something bumped the ice they sat on, propelling it forward until it crunched into a pile of the stuff. Leo’s pulse went wild, which was funny, given that she’d thought it couldn’t get any faster.

“No time. It’ll crush us if we don’t go now.” He turned back, dipped his feet into the water, and hissed.

Before he could jump, she grasped his arm, conscious of the risk they were taking. “Thank you, Elias.” When he shook his head, she tightened her hold and leaned in, more intense than she’d ever been in her life. “Thank you.”

Something crashed behind them.

“Wha—”

“Breathe!” Elias grabbed hold of her by the lapel, just as the ice beneath them shifted into the air.

Together, they dove.