Chapter 4

I dragged my suitcase out of the villa.

The weather on Avenmore Island could turn without warning. What had been heavy fog earlier was now a sky of dark clouds pressed low by howling wind. A storm warning flashed across my phone.

I stood at the curb, about to call a cab to the airport, when something stopped me.

Mom's urn was still in the trunk of the bridal car.

The original plan had been to head straight from the ceremony to the airport and fly to Vindmark after the wedding. When I had gotten out of the car midway, the driver had taken it back up to the old chapel parking lot at the top of Summit Pass.

I flagged down a taxi and told the driver to head for the summit.

The wind was getting worse. Rain hammered the windows like gravel. Halfway up the mountain, the driver refused to go any farther.

"Miss, there's a landslide warning for the area up there. They could close the road any minute. You couldn't pay me enough to drive into that!"

I had no choice but to get out and walk the rest of the way to the parking lot through the storm.

Without the voice navigation on that old phone, I could barely make progress on the tangled mountain roads. The downpour blurred everything in front of me, and all I could do was feel my way through the mud from memory.

My phone was down to ten percent.

That was when I realized the portable charger from my bag was missing. Before I had left, Sabrina had offered to hand me my bag, pretending to be helpful.

A message from Isaac appeared on my screen.

"What are you doing on Summit Pass? The alerts are going off. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

I sent him a voice message.

"Isaac, I can't see the road. I can't find the parking lot."

My voice shook against the wind.

The chat went quiet for two minutes.

Then Isaac replied. "Stay where you are. Sabrina went out to pick something up and got lost near the bottom of the hill too. Let me get her first, and then I'll come find you."

I stared at the words on my screen, my back pressed against the cold rock wall.

The place where Sabrina had gone was only a few hundred yards from the villa, well within a safe zone. Meanwhile, the warning sirens above my head were still shrieking, one after another, urging everyone in the area to evacuate immediately.

He had my location. He knew exactly where I was.

Half an hour later, my phone dropped to three percent.

A new message appeared in the wedding group chat. Sabrina had posted a photo. She was draped in Isaac's oversized suit jacket, sitting in the passenger seat of his SUV with a cup of hot coffee in her hands.

The caption read, "Stormy night. Grateful to have you by my side."

Right after, Sabrina sent me a separate message.

"Wren, Isaac says you need to learn to find your own way eventually. He's too tired today, so we're heading back first. Stay safe out there."

I looked through the curtain of rain toward the winding road below.

A familiar pair of headlights lit up at the fork in the distance. Without hesitation, the car turned around and headed down the mountain.

He had not failed to find me. He had simply chosen not to come.

With trembling hands, I opened my chat with Dad and sent one last message.

"Dad, I think I took the wrong road again."

The screen flickered once and went black.

In the distance, a deep rumble rolled through the air. It was the sound of the hillside giving way, rocks tumbling and grinding, moving toward where I stood.

Just when I thought it was all over, the dead screen lit up for a brief moment. The last bit of battery held on just long enough to receive one final message.

"Don't be scared. Stay where you are. Dad's coming."

The phone went dark for good. The roar of the collapsing hillside grew closer.

In the darkness, I closed my eyes.

I knew there was no future left for me and Isaac.