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“No!” My voice was louder as I acknowledged her retreat, and abruptly, her jumbles of words started to make sense.

She was going off on her own to look for James’s body. She didn’t want anyone with her as she attended to this one final task for him.

“Chelle!” I ran in her direction, only compelling her to move away even faster. “You can’t go off on your own!”

“Just let me go.” She bumped into a nearby tree, tears blurring in her gaze as she called out. “I need this!”

“But...” I cried out. “It’s not safe! How will you find him? How will you find your way back?”

“Chelle!” Eli’s voice boomed from behind me. “Where are you going? Come back!”

Emotion burned in my eyes as she slipped between two vast trunks and disappeared from sight. Every fiber of my being wanted to go after her and drag her back to the bridge, but that wasn’t what she wanted. I’d seen the fortitude in her sad eyes, and I accepted the facts. She was an adult and could make decisions for herself. I didn’t have to like them, but I still had no control over them.

“What happened?” The urgency in Eli’s voice hit me in the chest like a freight train. “Why aren’t you going after her?”

“She wants to go.” Wiping my eyes with the heel of my hand, I allowed those words to sink in.

This is what she wants.

“She could die out there on her own!” His expression was scathing, as though the unscrambling events were my responsibility.

“I know.” Fresh tears blurred my vision.

“And you just let her go?” He flung his arm out in the direction she’d retreated.

“I...” Unable to meet the power of his stare, I glanced away. How could I make him understand? “I think that might be what she wants.”

“To die?” His tone was incredulous.

“Maybe.” Shit, what had I done letting her go? “But I can’t stop her. She’s a grown woman!”

“For fuck’s sake” He glowered at me as if I was a foolish child. “Do I have to keep the two of you tethered to me to keep you safe?”

“I don’t know.” My knees buckled as the weight of grief descended. “She’s grieving and she just left. I’m sorry.”

My knees hit the hard earth as the apology escaped, pain ballooning in my head as I struggled for air. WhathadI done? Had I just assigned my best friend to an early grave?

“Hey, it’s okay.” Dropping the bags he was carrying, Eli fell to his haunches beside me, his knee visible in my peripheral vision. “I’msorry. That wasn’t fair. None of this is on you. I’m the one who was supposed to have been looking after you all.”

I glanced up in time to see him looking in the direction Chelle had vanished into.

“It’s not your fault.” I don’t know why I wanted to reassure him. He was right, after all. Our safetywashis business, but the idea of him losing the plot so far from any relative sanctuary filled me with dread. I still needed him in a tangible way. “Chelle’s strong-minded about the things she wants. Nothing, short of tying her up, was going to stop her.”

“And if she was tied up, how would I have carried herandthe bags?” His tone was sardonic.

“Right.” I smiled, even though my heart was breaking wide open for my friend.

“Here.” Reaching into his inside pocket, he retrieved a handkerchief. “Take this. It’s clean.”

“Thanks.” Our fingers grazed as I took the cloth from him, and fleetingly, I wondered why he hadn’t offered it to Chelle when she’d sobbed over James, but dabbing my eyes, I was grateful for the loan.

Kneeling there on the cold ground, I was struck by an ethereal sense of desolate serenity. The whole world had come crashing down upon me in the last hour. Two people I was trekking with had fallen to their probable deaths, while another—the only one I truly cared about—had fled into the forest on a crazy mission to find the bodies.

Everything had gone to hell.

Yet, being there with him at that moment, even the pain in my head seemed easier.

Closing my eyes, I looked at the sky and pulled in a deep breath. I had to get through this. I had no choice.

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