Page 59 of Wind Valley

“I’ve been checking ever since we left the hotel parking lot. We’re safe. If he decides to come out here to look, it’s as good a place as any to disappear. It gets crowded here. Japanese tourists love it. People come from all over the world to this place. It’s entirely heated by geothermal energy.”

“You mean, volcano steam?”

“Pretty much.”

“And you promise we’ll be warm enough? Look at the temperature.” She pointed to the readout on Sam’s car dashboard. “It’s ten below zero. And you want me to take my clothes off and get into a spring?”

“Technically, swimsuits are required. But yes.” He pulled into a parking space in front of a gift shop. “Let’s see if they sell swim gear here.”

“Should I get a swim cap too?”

“Definitely not. You’ll miss half the fun.”

“How’s that?” She couldn’t imagine why a swim cap would make any difference.

“You’ll see.”

Once inside the gymnasium-like structure where the locker rooms were located, Maura felt transported back to her swim team days. Wet concrete, the smell of shampoo, the echo of kids’ voices. They paid the day rate and were each given a towel. At that point, they separated, agreeing to meet next to the indoor pool.

As she changed, Maura listened to the multitude of languages being spoken around her—Japanese, Russian, probably some Native Alaskan languages. Who would have thought this tiny spot in the frozen north would be such an international hotspot? Or cold spot, in this case?

She still couldn’t believe this was a real thing people could do—and survive—but no one around her seemed worried about it. Leap of faith, she told herself. You took a leap of faith coming to Alaska, why stop now?

In her simple black razorback suit—the only kind the shop carried—she padded barefoot out of the locker room into a steamy tiled space that held an indoor pool and a separate hot tub. Kids played in the swimming pool with beach balls and foam noodles.

Lachlan waited near the hot tub, tall and lean in his swim trunks, instantly recognized by his mop of brown hair. Her heart did something funny when she caught sight of him. It…melted. Yes, that was the right word. Her lips curved in a smile all on their own, and she practically skipped across the concrete toward him.

He caught her to his side and kissed her on the side of her forehead, which was the closest bit of her body he could reach. “Hey there. Looking…well, maybe an Eastern European swim instructor, but that’s not a bad thing. Do you want to warm up in the indoor hot tub first or go straight to the outdoor springs?”

“Springs,” she decided, eyeing the several strangers already soaking in the tub. “Let’s get this over with.”

“That’s the attitude.” As she laughed, he added, “We can always come back in if we need a break.”

He led her through a door onto a path lit by solar lights. The cold hit her like a wall of stone. She’d experienced lower temperatures than this in Firelight Ridge, but she’d been cocooned in her parka. Experiencing this level of cold while barefoot, wearing nothing but a swimsuit, shocked the breath out of her.

Lachlan took her by the hand and led her down a wooden boardwalk. “Watch your step, it gets slippery.”

That was because people splashed water on it as they left the springs, and it instantly froze, she realized. The wood felt cold and slimy under her feet, and she was glad that Lachlan was holding her hand. Her body was shivering now, the skin of her face prickling with cold. Was she going to get frostbite before she even made it to the water?

Finally, there it was, wreathed in steam, set into rocks—a pool about half the size of a football field, its contours organically curved rather than straight. Colored lights were nestled strategically into nooks in the rocks so their illumination wouldn’t interfere with the impact of the night sky. The light steam hovering over the water’s surface gave the scene an otherworldly feel. She caught the faint scent of sulfur.

About thirty people floated in scattered pairs or groups, but the pool was large enough that everyone seemed to be in their own world. The noisiness of the kids’ pool receded into the background. Here the atmosphere was quiet, almost reverent.

Lachlan led her to some concrete steps with a handrail.

“You first,” she told him.

With a smile, he stepped into the steam and immersed himself in the dark water. He made it look inviting, but it was still hard to believe the water would make up for the intense cold of the air.

Oh, how wrong she was. Gearing up her nerve, she climbed down the steps and slid into the water, where warmth enveloped her like some kind of primal force, as if she’d returned to the source of life itself. She moaned as her body adjusted to the change in temperature with a flush of liquid sensation. Her muscles, which had been so tense just a moment ago, eased into glorious relaxation. Her head swam as she entered a kind of trance state. No drugs required, just the extreme contrast of hot and cold, and her confused mind caught in the middle.

She paddled toward Lachlan, and they interlaced arms with each other, staying afloat by gently moving their feet. The water didn’t have the buoyancy of ocean water. Instead it felt still and heavy, like a weighted blanket in liquid form.

Time passed while they floated together, sometimes on their backs so they could look up at the night sky, sometimes upright in the water, aimless as jellyfish. The strangest feeling was when she turned onto her back, so one part of her skull was immersed in the warmth, but her face was still exposed to the cold air. It didn’t bother her now, she noticed. With her core and all her limbs nice and toasty warm, her face was flushed with blood and felt only mildly chilled.

“Duck your head under,” Lachlan told her after a time.

“Is that safe? Won’t the water freeze on me when I lift my head out? I’ll turn into an icicle!”

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