Page 139 of Beneath the Mountain Sky
“Did you see Willow come this way?”
Ned’s brow furrows as he looks to his brother, Daryl. “She didn’t come this way.”
Daryl shakes his head. “Sorry, Killian. Haven’t seen her since we took over the watch about two hours ago.”
“Shit.” I run my hands through my hair as that unease I felt back in the tent now races through my bloodstream, chilling every inch of my body. “Okay…”
Where is she?
The brothers push up from the log, suddenly on high alert.
Daryl starts to reach for his shotgun propped up next to him. “Should we be worried?”
I hold up a hand before he grabs the weapon. “Give me a minute to look for her before you wake anyone else.”
The last thing I want to do is start a panic in the middle of the night when everyone needs to rest up for tomorrow. If I can locate Willow quickly, there won’t be any reason to stir up the rest of the camp.
They both nod, their suspicious gazes now roaming over the campsite illuminated by the fire and moonlight.
Where the hell would she go?
If she went toward the game trail that we know she ran down to get to the river that night, she would’ve had to walk past the Winslows or at least close enough that they would have heard her, which means she went the other way—toward the water.
Hell…
I stalk off in that direction, scanning the deepening darkness for any signs of her, with the moonlight the only thing to guide me this far away from the fire.
The sound of the water bubbling over the rocks in the center of the river reaches me before I can see it, bringing with it the vision of her floating there, limp, cold?—
No.
I refuse to consider that possibility.
Each step across the clearing feels like it takes hours, even though it can’t be more than a few hundred yards to the water’s edge. I scan it frantically until a heavy, relieved breath rushes from my lungs, my heart finally beating again.
There she is…
Willow stands not far from where I found her in the river, just above where the rapids start, where the water is calmer and swirls gently in a naturally created pool near the bank.
She stares at it, her head tilted slightly, arms wrapped around herself protectively. Her thick, dark hair floats around her shoulders in the light breeze, but if she’s cold, she doesn’t show it.
Her eyes stay locked on the small pool, like she can see something there I can’t. She doesn’t hear my approach, doesn’t seem to even sense that I’m here until I’m right up on her.
“Hey…”
She startles and whirls toward me, her eyes wide, hand pressed over her heart. “You have to stop sneaking up on me like that.”
“I didn’t mean to.” I shift closer, trying to see if she’s been crying, but her eyes seem clear, no telltale streaks down her cheeks. “What are you doing out here in the middle of the night? I woke up, and you were gone. I was worried.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” She closes the distance between us and rests her hands on my chest. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I…” Her head turns back toward the river. “I couldn’t sleep, and I thought maybe if I came out here…”
My heart breaks for the thousandth time over what she’s suffered, what she continues to suffer because of some psychopath who decided to keep her from her life, from me.
Willow rotates in my arms to face the river again, and I press in tightly behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and resting my chin on her shoulder. “You thought maybe you’d remember something else?”
She nods, her focus still completely on the water.
Moonlight reflects off it, creating a cascade of diamond-like sparkles across the surface with the movement downstream.
