Chapter Six

 

Cora dragged herself out of the cozy warmth of their shared sleeping bag at the first ray of light. The cold hit her like a slap. Her body had stiffened overnight. Every muscle burned, every joint ached.

From the face Eric made as he crouched in the middle of their crowded tent, he didn't feel much better.

She handed Eric the case with their meds so he could give Andrew his morning injection. When Eric pulled the sleeping bag down, Andrew opened his eyes. "Cold," he mumbled unhappily.

For a moment, both Cora and Eric froze.

"Andrew?" Cora knelt down beside him. "Andrew, are you awake?"

Andrew squinted and twisted his face away from the sunlight hitting his face. "Cold. Please." His voice was heavy and slurred, and he didn't seem to understand where he was or what was going on, but he was awake. With some gentle coaxing they even managed to get him to swallow a bit of warm, heavily sweetened tea.

Andrew curled in on himself after that, closed his eyes and fell back asleep. But it wasn't the deep unconsciousness of the previous night. Occasionally he'd stir a little in response to sounds or touches.

Cora hugged her arms around herself, trying not to let the almost painful feeling of hope in her chest overwhelm her. Andrew was getting better. If they could only get him down, he'd have a real chance.

If they could get him down.

Eric and she hardly talked as they packed up their equipment and secured Andrew on his makeshift sled. They both knew that the hardest part of the descent was yet to come.

"We should at least try getting down the South Face." Eric turned towards the East, facing the cliff, his face creased with worry. "It'll be a nightmare getting him down the wall. If there's any chance we can make it through the avalanche and avoid that… It was cold enough the past two nights, maybe the snow's frozen over enough that we'll be able to get through."

Cora hesitated. If they wanted to reach the Balcony today, they didn't have much time to lose. If they tried the South Face and had to turn back, they might lose hours they couldn't afford.

On the other hand, Eric was right about how hard this was going to be. If there was an easier way…

"Let's go have a look. We'll leave Andrew, the equipment, everything, go down and see what the snow is like. We'll move a lot more quickly that way. If it looks good, we'll come back up and get him. If we can't get through, at least we won't have lost too much time."

Eric unstrapped his pack before she'd even finished speaking. "You're more familiar with this part of the Rai Parvat than I am—lead the way?"

Cora swallowed the glad, secret spark of joy at finally having found a partner who'd take her suggestions seriously. They needed to hurry.

Leaving Andrew gave her an anxious pang. He'd be safe for an hour or two, packed up warmly and sheltered in the tent, and yet she still hated to let him out of her sight. But the faster they got down, the faster they could return to him.

They were barely past the next bend in the path when they reached the field of debris the avalanche had left behind: enormous loose piles of snow that covered the entire trail, strewn with rocks, a few scattered blocks of ice the size of trucks leaning precariously on the slope.

Cora carefully picked her way between the obstacles. The surface of the snow had frozen overnight. If she placed her feet with enough care, it proved able to take her weight.

Snow shoes would make it a lot easier not to sink through, but in snow shoes she'd take a tumble and probably break a leg the first time she hit a patch of ice. She'd have to make do with her boots and crampons.

Eric followed in her wake, taking care to place his feet in her footsteps. "You know, I'm glad we tried this—this might actually work."

"Don't jinx it," Cora was about to say, and then she heard Eric give a hiss of indrawn breath, followed by a loud crunch of snow.

When she whirled around to face him, she saw that the layer of frozen snow that had held her had given way beneath Eric's greater weight. He was buried to the waist.

Eric hauled himself out with the help of her outstretched hand, swearing under his breath.

"Maybe it was just a rotten patch," Cora offered weakly, knowing perfectly well that it was worse than that. This was exactly the thing they'd been afraid of: the fresh snow hadn't yet frozen firmly enough to safely carry their weight.

"Let's keep going a little further," Eric said, but he already sounded resigned.

They didn't even make it another thirty feet before the frozen snow cracked under Eric again, burying him to the chest this time. He smacked his open hand against the snow in frustration.

"Guess we'll be going down the hard way. I'm sorry, Cora."

"If you weren't so big and strong, we wouldn't have gotten Andrew down as far as we did. We'll manage somehow. Come on."

She caught both his arms and heaved, and managed to pull Eric free. He rolled to his back, sprawling in the snow, momentarily defeated. Cora bent down to kiss him, brief and gentle, letting herself take comfort in his presence for a moment. Eric wordlessly wrapped his arms around her.

"Let's get going," he finally said.

Andrew was still asleep when they returned to the camp, and he didn't rouse despite all the jostling when they packed up the tent. Cora refused to let herself worry about that now. They'd done everything they could do for him up here. What he needed more than anything else was to get off this mountain.

 

***

 

So far they'd been walking side by side, pulling the sled together, but there wasn't any room to do that on the narrow ridge of the crossing.

Eric wordlessly reached for Cora's rope, and she let him take the lead in equal silence. Out of the two of them, he was inarguably the stronger one, and if only one of them could pull, it needed to be him. With every other partner, that concession would have stung, but with Eric, the division of labor felt only natural. There'd be other obstacles to face, and she knew he wouldn't mind letting her take the lead in a situation that played a little more to her own strengths.

Cora walked behind the sled, occasionally reaching down to steady it when it swerved on the slippery ice. On the exposed ledge, the snow was frozen hard enough that she'd unclipped her ice axe from her pack for some extra support, swinging the tip into the frozen ground with every step.

Eric's shoulders bowed as he strained against the weight of the sled on his own. The safety rope that connected his harness to hers went slack every time his pace faltered. Cora wished there was something more she could do to help.

It took them fifteen minutes to reach the most narrow part of the crossing. The ridge was maybe three feet wide here, steep cliffs falling away on both sides. Occasionally their steps dislodged a clump of ice which went tumbling down the side of the mountain in a series of hollow thuds.

Cora tried to keep her eyes away from the drop. A lifetime of climbing had left her almost completely free of vertigo, but there was something sickening about being that close to the edge with an unconscious person depending on them.

She breathed easier once the path widened again. There was enough space now that they could have almost walked side by side…

Except that was wrong, wasn't it? It had taken them almost thirty minutes to traverse the narrow part of the ridge on the way up, and they couldn't have moved any more quickly now, not with the sled slowing them down.

Her warning shout was drowned out by the crystal chime of ice shattering apart. Eric gave a yell of alarm as what looked like solid snow broke apart beneath his feet.

The treacherous cornice of frozen snow that had made the ledge look wider than it was gave way just slowly enough to give Eric a split-second of warning. He launched himself towards solid ground. His hands slid over the smooth ice, not finding any purchase, even as the falling snow dragged him inexorably towards the abyss beneath them. He dropped the rope that connected him to the sled so it wouldn't be pulled down along with him.

Cora's hand closed automatically around the rope that ran from Eric's harness to hers, even as she realized with the frozen clarity of horror that she wouldn't be able to stop his fall. Eric was taller, broader and more muscular than her. He outweighed her easily. Maybe Cora could have held him if there'd been anything to anchor herself to, but she was standing on slippery ice herself, completely exposed on the narrow ridge.

The second that line went taut between them, she'd be pulled over the cliff herself.

Cora's ice axe was already in her hand. A single swing of the razor-sharp tip would slice easily through the rope. Eric would fall, but she'd be safe. Andrew's sled was still safely balanced in the middle of the path; he wouldn't fall. But she'd have no way to get him down the mountain by herself. She'd have to leave him behind.

For a single frozen fraction of a second she could see it all too clearly: climbing down the mountain on her own, no one to slow her down, the route one she'd taken a dozen times: easy, quick, as safe as anything ever was in the mountains. She recoiled from the thought.

Ice cracked and splintered. Eric lost his last handhold, his eyes widening in horror as he fell.

No time left to decide.

With a scream of sheer terror, Cora threw herself off the opposite side of the ridge.

For a long, weightless heartbeat she was in freefall, the endless drop beneath her. Then the rope went taut, caught on the ridge between them, and arrested her fall. The impact swung her into the side of the cliff like a pendulum.

For a moment both of them hung there, balanced on the rope like two weights on a scale. Cora groaned, half dazed from the impact. And then Eric's greater weight asserted itself, and she was slowly dragged upwards by the harness.

Right now, her own weight and the drag of the rope on the ridge acted as brakes; if she let herself get pulled onto the ridge itself, she'd be dragged down the other side after Eric, sending both of them to their deaths.

Cora twisted around on the rope, swinging her axe and ramming the tips of her crampons into the ice covering the wall of the cliff. For a moment she was dragged along, and then the ice axe caught, the crampons bit in, and she could finally stop the upwards slide.

Which meant that Eric's entire weight rested on her now, held only by the grip of her hand on the axe and a few spikes driven tenuously into brittle ice. Cora grabbed the handle of the axe with both hands, gritting her teeth. The straps of her harness cut deeply into her thighs and waist.

If she twisted her head around as far as it would go, she could just see the top of the ridge. Andrew's sled was still balanced precariously on the ice. Cora let out a breath of relief.

"Cora? You okay?" Eric shouted from the other side of the ridge.

Cora looked down into the bottomless drop beneath her. A thin layer of fog almost concealed the jagged spikes of rocks down below. Her entire right side ached where she'd been slammed into the wall.

"I'm fine!"

"Can you climb up?" Eric sounded as breathless as she felt. A shudder went through the rope as he moved.

One of Cora's feet started to slide. She swung her leg back and hammered the tips of her crampons more firmly into the ice.

"If I move, I'll dump us off this mountain."

"Can you hold me if I try to climb up?"

Well. She'd have to, wouldn't she. They had to do something, and fast. Her hands were tiring quickly. The second she lost her grip on the axe she'd get dragged to her death.

"Try it!" she called.

The rope juddered again, harder this time, and then there were a series of rhythmic jerks as Eric started pulling himself up hand over hand. Cora gritted her teeth and hung on.

"You okay?" Eric's voice was tight with strain.

"I'm fine!"

Her hands ached and cramped. Her left foot started to slide again, the tips of her crampons stuttering over the ice. But letting go wasn't an option now. She'd be fine; she had to be fine.

"Brace yourself!" Eric called.

There was a sudden hard pull on the rope that almost ripped her from the wall, and then the line slackened. For a moment, she was supported only by her grip on the axe and the wobbly hold of her feet on the ice, before the rope pulled tight again.

"Sorry! I'm up." Eric was still breathing hard.

Cora let herself lean her forehead against the cool ice and took a long, shuddering breath.

"Can you climb up?" Eric called.

"Yeah," she said. Not like there was any other choice.

You couldn't ice-climb properly with only one axe. Getting up the wall was an awkward scramble like this, one hand holding the rope, the other on the axe. Her crampons slipped in the brittle ice. Eric did half the work for her, hauling her up by the rope whenever she faltered. She couldn't have made it on her own.

By the time she was finally back up on the solid ground of the ridge, she was sweat-drenched and shaking, both hands trembling from exhaustion. She collapsed face-down on the snow, reaching for Eric. He lay down beside her and yanked her tight against his chest.

They kissed with blind, fumbling desperation, lips numb from the cold. Cora could feel her heart beating inside her chest, the thrum of her blood in her veins. Alive. They were alive.

Eric pulled back to rest his forehead against hers. "I can't believe you did that, you crazy woman," he whispered, his voice low and raspy with something like awe.

Cora laughed shakily. "It worked, didn't it?"

Their breath mingled between their faces, a cloud of frost in the dry cold air. Cora tilted her head, brought their lips back together. It was so good to feel Eric like this, real and alive in her arms, after coming so close to death.

"We need to keep moving." Eric's voice was heavy with reluctance.

He was right, of course. Cora could already feel herself stiffening up, and they couldn't afford to waste daylight. She dragged her tired, reluctant body back to its feet, every muscle screaming with protest. Eric took up the rope to the sled again, his face set with grim determination.

They trudged on, one step in front of the other. Finally, the path widened for real. Cora wordlessly stepped up to take the second rope, taking her share of the sled's weight.

The last thousand feet of the crossing were an awkward scramble down a steep, rocky trail. Andrew woke up with a yelp as the sled jarred and rattled over the uneven ground. And then they were on the East Face, crowded onto a narrow ledge, the steep cliff falling away beneath them.

Cora and Eric stood side by side, looking down. With the bolts Sasha's team had drilled into the wall it would have been a quick, easy descent if they'd been on their own. With the sled, they'd be lucky to make it down alive.

Andrew made a low, anxious sound. When Cora turned to look at him, she realized that he'd finally come fully awake. He was struggling against the sleeping bag and the ropes that held him tied to the sled.

"Andrew!" She knelt down beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're okay. Try and hold still."

His eyes focused on her face with visible effort. "What…"

"You're on the Rai Parvat. You got sick from the altitude. We're trying to get you down."

Andrew's gaze was already sliding away again, his face turning vague with confusion. "Too hot," he slurred. He'd managed to work one hand loose and was tearing clumsily at the top of the sleeping bag.

Cora groaned. This wasn't terribly uncommon in people with hypothermia. The body got confused. Cold could start to feel like heat, and people would try to strip down in the middle of the ice and snow.

It was all progress, of course; even if he was still confused, at least he was awake. But they really didn't need this right now, with the worst part of the climb yet to come. He certainly wasn't coherent enough to do his own climbing, and if they needed to carry him, they needed him to be still.

"Andrew! Look at me."

His blurry gaze focused on her again. She gently squeezed his shoulder. "You need to stop moving, okay? We'll get you down this mountain, but I need you to hold still for me."

For a moment she didn't think she was getting through at all. Then Andrew finally relaxed. "Okay," he mumbled.

Cora sat down heavily in the snow, tilting her head back to look up at Eric. "How are we going to do this?"

Eric clipped his harness to one of the bolts in the wall, anchoring himself. They rearranged some of the ropes around the sled so he'd hopefully be able to lower it down without unbalancing it too much.

Cora fixed another rope to her own harness. She'd be rappelling down beside the sled, both to help keep it steady and, more importantly, to help keep Andrew calm. He settled down whenever she talked to him, but the moment her attention turned elsewhere he became agitated again. It was clear he couldn't quite keep track of what was happening yet.

She caught Eric's eyes one last time, both of them side by side on the ledge, already strapped into their gear.

He wasn't sure this was going to work, no more than she was. She could read it in his eyes. But he wasn't going to say so, not when they'd already decided this was the only chance they had.

We'll have to try; no other way down. She didn't want to say the words, either. It felt like it would jinx them to admit out loud how desperate the situation was. But she could tell Eric knew what she was thinking. He gave her a wordless nod.

The next three hours would forever be a sort of hazy nightmare inside her memory. Rappelling down wasn't really that hard, physically. But that only meant that she cooled down fast, now that her muscles weren't working as much. Her fingers went stiff, then numb. Her grip kept slipping on the rope.

Andrew dozed off several times, only to startle awake and panic when he found himself strapped down and swinging in the air on the sled. Confused as he still was, he couldn't manage to hang on to her explanation of what was going on for more than five minutes at a time.

Cora couldn't exactly blame him. God knew anyone would be terrified, waking up like that. But that didn't make it any better, having to find some way to calm him down while hanging halfway down an iced-over rock wall over an almost bottomless drop, knowing that if she didn't get him settled quickly enough, he might struggle himself right out of the sled and onto the jagged stones below.

There weren't always good places to rest within a rope's length, either. Some of the ledges were barely wide enough for one person to stand, nowhere near enough room to fit the sled, which meant she had to go down first and get the sled clipped to the nearest bolt with her numb, frozen fingers. Then there was nothing to do but wait while Eric rappelled down to them, getting steadily colder and already dreading the next section of the descent.

And yet it worked. Slowly but surely, they were getting down.

She hadn't really let herself think about this part of the climb; she hadn't wanted to admit her doubts to herself. But if she was truly honest with herself, she hadn't believed they'd be able to pull this off. The thought had nagged at her, somewhere deep down, like a splinter in the back of her mind. All through their rushed climb and the whole miserable first part of the descent, some part of her had expected this to be the moment where their rescue would fail.

But it worked. They couldn't have done this without Eric's shifter strength. They couldn't have done it if the two of them weren't somehow able to work so seamlessly as a team. But they were doing it.

The last few pitches were the worst. Cora's entire body shook with cold. Her fingers had become so stiff she could hardly manage the ropes anymore. Andrew alternated between coherent moments where he'd watch her anxiously but silently from the sled, and confused restlessness.

But then the Balcony finally came into sight beneath them. Suddenly everything felt easy. Cora was grinning during the last few meters. And then her feet touched the solid stone of the wide ledge, and Eric gently lowered Andrew down the last few inches. Cora laughed, falling to her knees, tilting her head back to watch Eric coming down. She let out a shout of triumph that echoed off the side of the mountain.

Eric landed beside her and immediately yanked her into an embrace, lifting her from the ground to whirl her around. They fell against the cliff wall together, both of them dizzy, panting, still laughing.

"We did it," Eric said.

His arms were tight around her. She leaned in and kissed him, felt his smile against her lips.

"We did it."

She reached blindly for the radio at her hip, pressed the button and held it to her mouth. "Basecamp, this is Cora."

She waited for the burst of static that would herald the response; nothing.

She pressed the button again. "Basecamp, come in."

Silence.

Cora slowly lowered the radio. It lay black and silent in her hand. A thin crack ran from one edge of the casing to the other. There was a little light that should have turned green when she was broadcasting. She pushed the button again. The light stayed dark.

Cora ran her thumb across the crack. "It must've gotten damaged when we fell from the ridge."

Her lips felt numb. They'd come this far. They couldn't fail now.

Eric gently took the radio from her hand. He frowned down at the damaged casing, turning it back and forth, and then he tugged one glove of with his teeth. He winced as the icy wind hit his bare skin.

Eric pried the casing off and studied the radio's insides. It all just looked like a bunch of circuit boards and incomprehensible electronics to Cora, but Eric seemed to have some idea of what he was looking at. He twisted two of the little wires together and did something to one of the fiddly bits sticking out of the circuit board before he popped the casing back on.

"Try it now." He handed the radio back to Cora and hurriedly yanked his glove back on, flexing his fingers with a wince.

Cora tentatively pressed the button. The green light stayed dark. She lifted the radio to her mouth. "Basecamp, this is Cora."

Silence. Her stomach churned. She swallowed against the lump in her throat. Her voice wanted to crack.

"Basecamp, can you hear me?"

There was no way they'd be able to get Andrew down the lower part of the East Face. There were several trick passages below the Balcony that were a challenge even with a team of capable climbers. No way to carry anyone else along.

Static.

Cora jerked, almost dropped the radio as she frantically brought it back up to her ear.

"Cora, this is Tashi, do you copy?"

The transmission was crackly and broken up, but even so, Tashi's worry and relief came through.  Cora had never been so glad to hear anyone's voice in her life. She caught Eric's hand, squeezing it hard. His fingers curled tight around hers.

"Tashi, we're on the Balcony, we've got Andrew, can you come—?"

"I'm on my way. Tashi out."

Cora clipped the radio back to her harness with shaking hands.

"Hey," Eric said gently. He sounded worried. "You okay?"

He brushed her face with one gloved thumb. Her cheeks were wet, Cora realized. There were tears running down her face, warm trails that instantly cooled to ice.

"I'm okay. I'm just, I—" Her voice cracked.

"I know," Eric said. "Me too."

He drew her in for a hug. Cora threw her arms around him and yanked him in tight, burying her face against his chest. They'd made it. Tashi was coming. They'd get Andrew out of here alive.

As if he knew she was thinking of him, Andrew was getting restless again, struggling out of his sleeping bag so he could sit up. Well, no reason not to let him, now; all they had to do was sit tight for another hour or so until the helicopter arrived.

By helicopter it wasn't far from Basecamp to the Balcony, and the weather was calm and clear. The problem was the thin air at altitude. A helicopter could stay in the air up here as long as it was moving, because the wind of its passage generated extra lift. But once it set down and that extra support went missing, the thin air didn't provide enough resistance to let it lift off again, especially with the extra weight of a second person on board.

But Tashi knew what she was doing. If she thought she could get Andrew off the mountain from here, Cora had to assume she was right.

Cora and Eric would have to make their own way off the mountain, of course. With the weight of all four of them inside, the helicopter would definitely never get off the ground. But that wasn't the part that worried her. Without Andrew to worry about and with Eric by her side, the rest of the climb would be child's play in comparison to what they'd already managed to do.

Eric put up their tent while Cora sat down in the snow beside Andrew, leaning against the cliff wall behind them. Now that he wasn't tied down anymore, he'd calmed down a lot. He was staring down at his gloved hands.

"You all right?" Cora asked.

For a long moment, Andrew didn't answer. She wasn't even sure he'd heard her. And then he lifted his head to look at her. Suddenly, his eyes seemed clear and focused.

"I almost died."

"Yes," Cora said gently.

"You saved me. They left me behind, but you came to save me."

"Oh, Andrew. I'm sure they didn't mean—" Cora started, a little helplessly. She was blisteringly angry at Carpenter and Everhart, but that was nothing compared to what Andrew must be feeling; it was his own uncle who'd left him behind.

But Andrew's gaze was already sliding off, his expression turning vague and distant again. He slumped backwards against the cliff wall, asleep.

She sighed. Eric helped her maneuver Andrew into the tent, which Eric had put up in the most sheltered corner of the Balcony.

Eric had unrolled their mats and sleeping bags. "We should probably spend the night here. It'll be dark in an hour."

Cora nodded. The Balcony was a little more exposed than she really liked in a shelter, but inside the tent they'd be comfortable enough, and both of them needed the rest.

They sat side by side in companionable silence, shoulders brushing. After her third cup of tea, Cora's hands had finally warmed up. Eric was slumping a little, his eyes slipping closed.

At first the sound was so quiet she wasn't sure whether she'd imagined it. But then Eric's head snapped up, his eyes narrowing in concentration, and she knew he'd heard it too: the distinctive sound of rotors, still far off but rapidly coming closer. Tashi was coming.

Andrew was sleepy but cooperative when they woke him up. All three of them huddled against the cliff wall.

The helicopter came down in a roar of noise that drowned out all other sound. The rotors whipped up a flurry of snow. Cora winced and twisted her face aside, huddling deeper into the hood of her parka.

They'd marked what they thought would be the safest place to land, a smooth stretch of snow in the middle of the widest part of the balcony. But Tashi set the helicopter down a good bit closer to the edge of the Balcony. Cora nervously eyed the looming drop just behind the runners.

The spinning blades slowed but never quite came to a halt. Tashi opened the cockpit door and leaned out halfway.

"I gotta stay on the controls! Can you get him inside?"

They strapped Andrew into the co-pilot's seat, where Tashi could keep an eye on him. As Cora was closing the last buckle, Tashi caught her by the arm.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I've got a lot to tell you when we get down, but—yeah."

"I'm glad. I was scared out of my mind for all of you." Tashi shook her head. "I can't believe you pulled this off."

"Me neither," Cora admitted.

Even, now, she couldn't quite let herself believe that things were going to be okay. But there was nothing more she could do. Now it all rested on Tashi's skill as a pilot.

She shut the door to the cockpit and ducked out from under the spinning blades, which quickly picked up speed again.

For a moment, nothing happened. The engine whined with strain. The whole helicopter vibrated, but it didn't move. Tashi's face was calm and focused. Her hands moved quickly over the controls.

"Come on," Eric muttered. His hands were twitching by his side as if he wanted to reach out and physically give the helicopter the extra push it needed.

The helicopter gave a shuddering heave, rising into the air for a single short hop before it sank down again. Cora clenched her hands inside her mittens.

The helicopter made another hop, another… Each time it failed to make it off the ground, the ball of anxiety inside Cora's chest squeezed into a tighter knot. What she hadn't realized was how close the helicopter had gotten to the edge, until Eric sucked in a startled breath beside her, shouting out a warning.

Tashi ignored him. She raised her hand in a wave and tipped the helicopter straight off the cliff.

Eric dashed forward with a shout of alarm. Cora caught him by the hand before he could get too close to the edge. "Wait."

The helicopter dropped like a stone along the cliff wall for almost three hundred feet, nose down, picking up speed as it fell; and then the rushing wind of its passage gathered beneath the spinning rotors, and it abruptly leveled out. Tashi turned it around, the rotors skimming terrifyingly close to the cliff wall. For a moment, a flurry of powdery snow almost obscured it. And then it emerged from the cloud, heading west towards Basecamp in a straight line.

Sunlight caught on the last flakes of snow as they slowly floated down, until the air seemed to be filled with glittering crystals.

Eric's hand tightened around hers.

"She did it."

"She did it," Cora confirmed. "We did it. He's gonna be okay."

They fell into each other, kissing wildly, desperately. Cora clutched the back of Eric's jacket, clinging to him. His arms were tight around her shoulders, both of them trying to pull the other closer, as if they could somehow manage to get their skin to touch through all their thick layers of clothing if only they tried hard enough.

They stumbled blindly towards their tent, neither of them willing to stop kissing long enough to look where they were going, and fell through the tent flap still entangled. They zipped the tent closed, their hands tangling, and rolled onto the mats together. Eric landed on his back and immediately reached out to pull Cora on top of him.

They yanked at each other's clothing, peeling layer after layer of jackets and sweaters and shirts away in a tearing hurry, until finally they were skin to skin. Both of them shuddered, sighing with relief. The layers of discarded clothes ended up piled on top of them, sheltering them in a cocoon of warmth.

Cora pressed her naked chest to Eric's, felt his heart beating against hers. Their kiss had gentled. Cora slid her lips against Eric's, her tongue touching his, their bodies talking without words. You're here. You're alive.

And yet even this didn't feel close enough. There was a hungry pulse between her legs, her body aching for him.

Eric quickly slipped on a condom, and then Cora reached down and closed her hand around Eric's cock, guiding him. Both of them groaned when he slid inside her. It felt like a circuit had closed between them, right and perfect and inevitable, a thrumming connection running between their bodies.

Cora leaned her cheek against Eric's, the two of them breathing together. She rocked slowly on top of him, small movements, just feeling him beneath her, his strength, his warmth, the perfect feeling of his thick cock inside her.

The desperation that had driven them together had eased the second they'd joined. Now all she wanted was for this moment to go on and on.

Eric smoothed his hands down her back. She arched into the touch like a cat, luxuriating in the pleasure of feeling his skin on hers. Eric slid one hand down between them, his thumb stroking over her clit. It was like he'd lit a fire inside her; all of a sudden, the urgency was back. Cora moaned, rocking her hips harder against his. Eric met her with equal eagerness, thrusting up inside her in a fast, hard rhythm that was exactly what she wanted.

Her hands tightened on his shoulders. Eric cupped her ass with both hands, guiding her to a slightly different angle until every thrust of his cock sent explosive sparks of pleasure down her nerves.

Cora hunched down, kissing him blindly. Eric pressed his thumb against her clit and thrust up hard inside her. She threw her head back and came so hard the world seemed to go white around her. She felt Eric shudder and come, his cock twitching inside her.

They collapsed together in a tangle of limbs. Their pile of jackets and clothing had gotten spread all over the tent by their enthusiasm; Cora shivered at a cold draft on her naked back. Eric pulled one of the sleeping bags around them for warmth.

Cora lay her head on his chest and listened to the steady, reassuring sound of his heartbeat. Eric gently combed his fingers through her tangled hair.

The feeling of connection hadn't ebbed, even as she'd let him slide out of her. She still felt almost preternaturally aware of him, as if there was a thread running between them; as if he could've been anywhere on Earth and she'd be able to lift her finger and point right to where he was.

They lay like that for a long time, drifting but not quite asleep. Cora felt like she could've stayed like this forever, safe and warm and content inside their little cocoon while the wind howled outside the tent, unable to touch them.

The radio gave a burst of static, startling her abruptly awake.

"Cora, this is Tashi. Can you hear me?"

Cora frantically fumbled the radio out of the pile of their clothes. "Cora here. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, we got down all right. I just dropped Andrew off at the clinic. The doc's already had a look at him, he says he's going to be just fine."

Cora blew out a breath of relief. Eric's arms tightened around her, hugging her closer. He smiled.

"Everhart's gonna be fine, too, by the way. They've already discharged him. He and Carpenter were both around when I brought Andrew in. Looked pretty guilty."

Well, they should be, Cora thought, but the thought felt too petty to say aloud. She could only hope Carpenter had learned something from this.

"I'm glad everyone's all right. Keep us updated."

 She put the radio aside and lay back down beside Eric, curling contentedly into his arms.

 

***

 

They took their time on the way down. They had all day, no reason to hurry now. The climb was challenging, but with bolts already in place on the wall to secure their ropes and with Eric by her side, Cora found that it was exactly the kind of challenge she loved. Eric and she traded happy grins every time they switched off as lead climber.

Tashi and Josh were waiting for them when they finally reached the Basecamp. Eric pulled his nephew into a hug, while Tashi drew Cora a few steps aside.

"I was watching you on the last part of the climb," Tashi said, the side of her mouth twitching into a mischievous smirk. "It's good to see you've finally found a partner who can keep up with you."

Cora hesitated, suddenly struck by the fact that, despite all that had happened in the past few days, all that they'd shared, they hadn't actually done any talking about the future. She had no idea what was going to happen to their newfound partnership. Her job had her moving all over the world. Eric would have to go back to Colorado soon.

It wasn't like she hadn't had this problem before. Every relationship she'd ever had had ended in the same way: in the end, her traveling had been too much. Even the guys who'd seemed to appreciate her adventurous lifestyle, who didn't mind her love of the mountains, had eventually made her choose.

It's just too much, Cora, you being gone all the time. I thought, now that we're getting serious…

They'd always just assumed she'd settle down with them, as if it was a given that she'd give up her job, give up everything she loved, to stay put and make a home in the suburbs somewhere. She'd tried to compromise, she'd tried to travel less; it had never been enough. They'd all left her in the end.

The thought of Eric leaving knocked the breath out of her. It felt like someone had reached right into her ribcage, to that secret place where she still felt warm and happy every time she thought of him. As if someone had taken the thrumming thread that connected them in her mind and yanked.

"Cora?" The smile dropped off Tashi's face. She reached out to support Cora by the elbow. "Hey, do you need to sit down? You've gone all white."

"I'm—" Cora cleared her throat. "I'm okay," she managed.

And then Eric was there, his face concerned. He wrapped his arms around her, and she gratefully curled into his support.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine."

Eric didn't look convinced, but he didn't press her, as if he could tell she didn't want to talk about it in front of everyone else.

"Cora, this is Josh, my nephew."

"Nice to meet you," Cora said.

Josh was looking back and forth between them, one eyebrow raised.

"Eric, did you—"

"Josh," Eric said sharply, cutting him off.

Josh looked confused, but whatever he'd been about to say, he swallowed it down after a significant look from Eric. "I guess we won't be flying home on Wednesday, then?"

Eric swallowed hard. "That's actually what I—Cora, can I talk to you for a minute?"

He pulled her a few steps to the side. "Cora, I—Maybe it's too early for this, but—Will you come to Colorado with me? At least for a few days? There's good climbing where we live, you'd like it, and—" He swallowed hard. "I'd like you to meet my family."

The heavy weight lifted off Cora's chest. They wouldn't have to part yet; they'd have some time to figure things out.

"Of course I'll come."

 

THREE WEEKS LATER

 

"We're going to have to talk about this," Cora said quietly, even though that was the last thing she wanted to do.

She and Eric had climbed up the little hill that overlooked his family home in Colorado. She leaned against the railing that surrounded the top of the hill, Eric by her side, close enough that she could feel his arm brushing against hers. The afternoon sun was warm on the back of her neck.

They'd spent the past three weeks here. Eric's family—his pack, as he called them—had been lovely. Cora hadn't had a family since her parents had died, many years ago. Getting to be a part of his, the welcoming way his parents, his sister and his pack mates had immediately treated her, had filled a hole inside her that she hadn't even realized was there.

And then of course there was Eric himself. Every time she looked at him, it felt like her chest filled with warmth. She couldn't imagine leaving him. And yet she knew she couldn't stay.

In three days she'd have to go back to Nepal. Her clients had booked and paid for the tour long in advance, and she couldn't just cancel on them now.

Her job took her all over the world, that was part of why she loved it so much. If she wanted to stay with Eric, she'd have to give that up. The thought had torn and nagged at her for weeks now.

She'd had to face this decision before, in previous relationships, and it had always seemed clear to her: no man had ever seemed worth giving up doing what she loved. But with every day she spent in Colorado, with every day she spent with Eric, it became harder to imagine walking away from him. What she'd felt for her ex-boyfriends already seemed liked a pale shadow of her love for Eric, and with every day the feelings grew stronger. Cora felt tears sting the corner of her eyes.

"I know you have to leave," Eric said, turning to face her. He took her hand. "Cora—I want to come with you. Will you let me?"

Cora's breath caught in her throat. She swallowed hard. "You can't just leave your job and go traveling with me," she said—forced herself to say, even though there was nothing she wanted more.

"I could help with your expeditions. You've been talking about taking on some bigger groups—you're going to need a second pair of hands."

She could have used a second pair of hands for a long time, truth be told. Unfortunately… "It's not going to work, Eric. The business doesn't bring in enough to pay for a second person." Especially not someone with Eric's skills. Still, it hurt to say the words. She wanted this, wanted it more than she'd ever wanted anything in her life. No one had ever offered to give up anything for her. No one had ever wanted to come with her.

"I didn't become a ranger for the money." Eric shrugged his shoulders, as if the need for a salary that paid the bills was something you could just shrug off.

Maybe for him it was. Cora looked down at the enormous sprawl of his family's home. It was a beautiful, three-story stonework building probably better described as a mansion. As it turned out, Eric's family, and Eric himself, weren't exactly hurting for money.

"But you love your job."

God, why was she even still arguing this? Eric had offered her everything she'd ever wanted on a silver platter. But she couldn't accept, not when it meant making him unhappy.

"I became a ranger because I wanted to help people. I can do that from anywhere." Eric put his hand on top of hers, a strangely tentative touch; he was usually so sure of himself.

"I want to stay with you. Will you let me?"

The tears that had threatened this entire time finally spilled over. Maybe this was a stupid idea; maybe it wouldn't work. But if there was a chance, didn't they have to try?

"Yes," Cora said. "Of course I want you with me."