Page 152 of Crucible
My side of the frozen island gives, and I fall through the ice so fast I don’t make a sound.
The freezing temperature of the lake immediately sinks into my bones and cuts off my shout. The drugs in my system have finally kicked in, relaxing my muscles so that I can’t fight myway back to them. It’s as if the mountain had given me one last chance to accept the eden it had offered me before deciding to devour me instead.
While the water pulls me down, and the darkness awaits me at the bottom, my eyes remain locked on the surface and the last of the sun’s rays, illuminating the hole I fell through. I fight past the heaviness to keep them open, and when the light suddenly blinks out, I assume that I’ve lost.
Allowing myself one last gift before I’m lost forever, I picture their faces one last time—Thorin, Khalil, and Seth. I imagine them surrounding me like they always seem to until all I feel is them. The cold becomes a distant memory while the drugs keep me docile. It keeps me from fighting the water pulling me down.
Keeping the image of my three mountain men firmly in mind, my eyes finally start to close when the sunlight at the surface suddenly returns, and I see him.
He cuts through the current-less water like it’s…well, water.
Our gazes find each other through the endless dark, and he swims faster. I can’t swim, but somehow, I use the last of my strength to reach out a hand to him. I’m losing my fight with consciousness almost as fast as I’m losing the air in my lungs, but I hold on.
I cling to life until I feel our fingers graze, and then I keep holding on when Thorin links them together. He uses that tenuous connection to pull me closer and locks his arms around me before pushing us both back toward the surface.
Who could love a monster?
As it turns out, I can.
I can love, crave, and forgive three of them because they’remymonsters.
I’m claiming them.
It’s what I was going to say before I fell through the lake, and now it looks like I’ll get my chance after all.
“Fuck, he got her!” Khalil shouts the moment Thorin and I break through the surface.
Khalil pulls me out of the lake while Seth helps Thorin, and then the two of them hover while Thorin catches his breath, and I expel the water from my lungs.
It’s not a pretty sight.
The moment I’m done, Thorin uses the last of his energy to pull me on top of him and scans my face for proof that I’m really alive before dropping his head back with a heavy sigh and staring at the sky.
I rest my cheek on his chest and just listen to his heart as it beats wildly under my ear.
Why am I still conscious?
Worst roofie ever.
“I-I-I’m s-s-s-s-o c-c-coooooold.”
It’s all Seth needs to hear.
He lifts me off Thorin’s chest and into his arms, and I burrow into his warmth. Khalil gives Thorin a hand up, and then the four of uscarefullyget the fuck off the ice before we press our luck.
I swear this damn mountain might be sentient.
Each encounter with death feels like a trial, and each time I pass, it doesn’t just make me stronger. It brings me closer to the men who insist on keeping me.
Khalil shakes his head as we go and steals glances at me until I’ve had enough and grumbles, “W-w-what?”
This cold is not only making me grouchy, it makes me want to die.
“You’ve got nine lives, Goldilocks.”
I snort as I lay my head on Seth’s shoulders. “D-d-dea-a-a-ath ca-ca-can’t ki-kill me. I’m-m-m- Aure-Aurelia Geo-Geo-George.”
Thorin sighs his exasperation.
