Spirit Mountain by J. K. Drew, Alexandra Swan Page A

alive?” I dared to ask, glancing up into Logan’s face, inches from mine. His warm breath coated my skin, causing me to shiver at the contrast of cold and warmth.
    He leaned down and softly kissed my lips, lingering for a while as our cold noses pressed into each other’s cheeks. When he pulled away, he whispered, “I think we are because your lips feel warm.”
    “I can’t believe we made it.” My words came out in an almost incomprehensible stutter. “It’s so cold.”
    Logan stood, pulling me up with him. The catches in his voice and trembling body made my heart race at the deadly magnitude of our situation. “Where are we?” he asked.
    Darkness consumed us. But when we turned, we saw the twinkling lights in the town below. The iridescent lights cast a yellow glow. “T-th-this m-must be Spirit Mountain.”
    Logan wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to his body. “We still have a problem—a big problem. How will we get down the mountain? There’s no more portal. We’ll freeze if we stay here a full night.”
    I tried to process my thoughts, but the cold kept threatening to shut me down. “D-do you have your cell phone?”
    “Yes.”
    “Turn on the flashlight app.”
    Logan handed me his phone. “W-what t-t-time is it?”
    He pressed the light on his watch. “According to my watch, it’s 9:53. We lost an entire day.” His voice trembled out of control.
    “M-my aunt and uncle check on me every night at 10:00 p.m., remember?”
    He nodded. “That’s right.”
    “Let’s hope this works.”
    From the top of the mountain, I used the flashlight on Logan’s cell phone to flicker light toward my bedroom below. I couldn’t actually see inside my bedroom, so I could only hope my aunt and uncle would somehow figure out that the light was from us. After thirty minutes, we wrapped ourselves in each other’s arms and lay down near a rock to keep the wind from our bodies.
    Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d already resolved to taking my last breath on that mountaintop. Even if my family saw our flashing light, what would they do? I’d seen a flashing light on the mountain once and had thought nothing of it. I could only hope that because we’d lost an entire day, they would be searching my room for clues and then they’d see papers left behind about Spirit Mountain. That was all I could hope for.
    The cold clawed at my insides, making me sleepy. I feared falling asleep because I knew the chances of waking up were slim. “Logan?”
    “Yeah,” he said.
    “Should we sleep?”
    “At least, if we sleep, nothing hurts.”
    “I can’t feel my body anymore. My feet and legs.”
    “The feeling in mine are gone, too. It’s crazy to know how and when you’re going to die, isn’t it?”
    “Will you hold me the entire time?”
    Logan tucked me in closer to him. Both of us lying on our sides, our stomachs, behind layered clothing and jackets, against each other. “I won’t let go. I promise. I won’t.”
    Emotion rumbled through my body as sobs pushed forward. Tears ran down my face, but I couldn’t feel them. “I don’t want to die.”
    “Beth, we don’t have the equipment to get down this mountain and even if we did, we don’t have the light. If I had one wish, it’d be that we were warm in our beds right now.”
    I ran my glove over my face. “I can’t feel my face.”
    Logan whispered in my ear, “Cover your face in your jacket. Bury it and let your warm breath help circulate blood to your face. And then, we sleep.”
    I knew what that meant. Logan wanted us to sleep to take away our pain. He wanted us to die peacefully, rather than in the torment of our own brains with the thoughts of the things we’d yet to accomplish. Why put ourselves through the agony of watching our lives slip away? He was right. It’d be easier this way. I closed my eyes and let myself fall asleep.

 
    Chapter Twenty
     
    My eyes fluttered open in the warmth of a hospital bed. I glanced at Aunt Vine,