Page 20 of The Edge of Never

I could have died. Fuck. Fuck!

“We need tae get up, Kit.”

I nodded, loosening my hold on him as he pulled away. He got up to a kneeling position first, his eyes darting around us before pushing himself up to standing. I let him tug me to my feet, digging my crampons into the snow to keep steady.

Thane rubbed his face with one hand and squinted at the ridge. I brushed off the snow clinging to my clothes, waiting for him to say something.

“We cannae go that way.”

“No?”

“Tae dangerous noo.”

I could barely see across the ridge with the snow coming down, but I didn’t trust it after the avalanche. In fact, I didn’t trust anything about this fucking mountain at that point. The weather and the cold had me wishing it didn’t exist.

“What are we going to do, then?”

There was no way I could navigate us out of this. Thane had all the experience. He promised Callan he would keep me safe. And I believed him. He wouldn’t let me or his friend down.

Thane didn’t immediately respond. I didn’t push him. He needed time to think about our next steps. Instead, I glanced around and tried not to imagine what would have happened if we had been in the avalanche’s path. And I really fucking hoped the rest of the group hadn’t got caught in it. I decided it would be better not to voice that concern to Thane right then. We were already in enough trouble ourselves without worrying about what had happened to them.

A moment later, Thane reached around and unclipped a small bag from his pack. Unzipping it, he dug out a map in a clear sleeve to keep it dry and studied it for several minutes. Then he looked around before staring down at the paper. He let out a huff, shoving it back in the small bag and clipping that to his pack again.

“We have tae take another route doon.”

He didn’t exactly look confident as he said it.

“Is there a problem with that way?”

“Aye, but ye let me worry aboot that.”

His words didn’t fill me with confidence. I had no choice but to trust him. He was my only way out of this situation.

“Okay.”

He nodded and pointed back up the slope we just come down. I followed him this time. Thane kept looking back to check that I was okay.

My legs hurt after hours of walking and the cold was seeping into my bones, but I didn’t stop or complain about it. Judging by Thane’s lack of confidence in the route we were taking, I imagined it would be a long time before we made it back.

He told you not to worry, but how can you do anything but? This is bad. Really fucking bad.

My eyes were firmly on Thane, watching each step he took and doing everything he did. There was no way I wanted to give him any further cause to be concerned about me. I might be flagging, but I could do this. I had to. The only way out of the situation was through it.

We didn’t speak much as we made our way up further towards the summit. Thane took a sharp left at the rocks we’d sat on to take our break. As I couldn’t see much further than his back, I had no idea what we were in for.

A little while later, he put his arm out to stop me in my tracks. His gaze darted over to me, but mine was on the sheer drop a few feet in front of us. I couldn’t see the bottom because of the weather and the cloud cover. It scared the absolute shit out of me. I could have walked into that if he hadn’t stopped us.

“I need tae get a rope oot mah pack tae tether us together,” Thane shouted at me above the wind and snow.

I didn’t like the sound of that.

He didn’t wait for my response. Thane hauled his pack off, removing the waterproof cover from it. I shivered as he dug through his pack, bringing out a rope and a few carabiners.

What the hell else does he have in there?

There’d been no training with ropes on the course since we weren’t doing any climbing. Callan hadn’t been joking when he said Thane was over-prepared for anything. I didn’t think that was such a bad thing under the circumstances.

Thane attached us together using the rope and carabiners and made sure we were both secure. It made me nervous as fuck about what was coming next, but I said nothing.

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