Page 63 of Salvation
Chapter Twenty
Sakura crunched through the snowbank behind Storo. The thumps of several pairs of booted feet came from behind her. The search party had left the outer wheel hours ago. Endless whiteness as far as she could see, the monotony of it broken by the stark black lines of the next mountain range in the distance, and a stand of trees to the right. Why did everything appear so much closer on a map? The deception was unfair and cruel. She much preferred working in the solid parameters of bodies. No matter how big or small the patient, everything was contained in a specific, easily accessible area. Dealing with sentient lifeforms also had the decided advantage of not being cold.
She wiped the back of her glove under her nose. “We need to stop. It’s hard to feel Nick now.” The echo of his signature had faded into almost nothing. “Oof.” She staggered back a step and raised her chin to better view Storo. She should have been paying closer attention where she was going. This time she’d plowed into his butt, which was a little less embarrassing than running into his crotch like she had earlier.
Storo twisted partway around, an amused gleam in his eyes. “Are you well, little blossom?”
“Fine.”
“You asked to stop. Do you need to get bearings on Nick’s location?”
“Yes.” Sakura knelt to place her hands in the snow. Nothing. She cast a look over her shoulder at Alex. “I can’t hear him anymore. If I could touch the ground maybe I could pick up his signature again.”
“It will take a long time to dig through all this snow,” Ita muttered.
She was right, especially since only Storo and Ita had come along for this walk through the frozen tundra.
Alex had a distant look in her eyes. The seconds ticked by but she didn’t move. Was she talking to her husband again?
“Maybe we should start digging,” Ita suggested.
“Wait.” Alex held up her gloved hand. The dissenters looked at her expectantly. “Gryf says there’s a shelter nearby.” She made a slow turn. “He recognizes the trees, specifically the dead one rising out of the middle of that grove.”
Sakura gaped. Gryf couldseethrough Alex’s eyes too?
Alex stopped turning. “Are you sure? Yes. Yes.”
The one-sided conversation was a little odd, but who was she to object if it could help Nick?
“This way.” Alex tromped off toward the trees.
~*~
“Are you sure about this, Gryf?” Alex ducked under a branch. “It all looks the same to me.”
“Bear to the left a little more.” Her husband’s direction floated through her mind.
Hopefully the shelter he remembered hidden in the leaf-bare trees was still standing. And hopefully Nicky was in that shelter. And alive. It was such a gamble. If she had only made an effort to reach out to her brother, he wouldn’t have gone away, stayed away. How stupid she had been for allowing the wounds to fester unattended over the years.
“Animi.” Gryf’s gentle mental voice drew her attention back to the present. “He is his own man and must find his own path. His choices are in no way your responsibility.” A sense of reassurance and love filled her.
“But, what if he had been waiting for me to come after him, bring him back home?”
“Does that seem like a course of action Nick would ever pursue?”
No. It didn’t. Not since becoming an adult. If she had chased after him, he would have dug in his heels harder. She slogged on through the uneven drifts between the trees.
“There,” Gryf said. “See it just between the two trunks ahead?”
The cube shelter was barely visible in the shadows.
“Is that it?” Sakura asked.
The poor woman’s face was drained of color. She must really love Nicky, and was terrified to find out what they would discover beyond the door. At least if it was bad news, Gryf would be there to help her hold it together and get everyone back to Center. It would be a challenge for both of them though. Their soul mate bond linked their emotions. Gryf’s love for Nicky was as deep as any brother’s, far closer than a brother-in-law. Much the same way she loved his parents as deeply and unconditionally as she’d loved her own.
“That’s it.” She stepped aside so Sakura could go first.
Sakura disappeared into the cube and Alex stepped through the doorway. “Oh, shit.” The words exhaled from her into the luke-warm air of the single room dwelling.
