Another double! Hope you enjoy 🤗❤️

Chapter 63

I awoke in a tangle of sleeping bag and discarded clothing. An already lucid Bard rustled the pack behind me, and I turned to find a granola bar held out. "We should get moving." Something didn't seem right about him– more tense and less warm than he'd been throughout the night.

"What's wrong?"

He offered me a grim smile. "Its going to be harder now that the storm came through."

"How so?" My chest tightened. I sat up straight and looked at him.

Bard started to say something, but paused. He scanned my face, sharp eyes searching, then turned back to the task of packing up. "It's nothing. Everything is fine." He grabbed the end of his sleeping bag and rolled it up. "Let's go."

I untangled myself from the second bedroll and got dressed as he packed it. We worked in silence, him setting us up to leave, and me slowly eating my breakfast with a sense of dread swimming through my chest. We weren't safe. I could tell by the way he was acting. But he wouldn't say it to me.

He wants me to feel safe, even if I'm not.

Bard grabbed his pack, then hoisted mine up and handed it to me.

I hesitated and searched his face.

He tilted his head and offered a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "You're safe, Jessie."

I nodded and took the bag from his hand. I wasn't. We weren't. But if he wanted to pretend we were, I didn't see what difference it would make.

Rain is an amazing thing. Harsh storms even more so. The funny thing about rain is, when it mixes with dirt, you get mud. Where there is a lot of dirt, there will also be a lot of mud. Thick, sticky, foot plopping mud that continuously reaches its muddy hands out, and tries to steal the shoes right off your feet.

That was exactly what happened after the storm. Not only were tree limbs, debris, and all other forms of obstacles scattered within our path, but every so often I'd run into another patch of said mud and be forced to struggle through.

It helped that Bard didn't seem to be having any easier a time with it. Even the amazing wild man himself wasn't impervious to everything.

We travelled like that for hours before the rain started back up, and Bard's mood darkened more and more with each step.

He didn't speak. Irritation seemed to seep from his pores and deepened the lines on his face. His lips thinned, jaw tightened and flexed, and he searched. Constant. Eyes sharpened and shifted about as if the devil himself would pop out at any moment.

It unnerved the fuck out of me.

When Bard barked over his shoulder, and pushed me to move faster, I broke. "What the fuck is wrong!"

He didn't slow. "We need to move. Another storm is about to hit, and we need to get to the next shelter before it does."

I picked my pace up to a run, caught up to his side, then fought to keep up with him as I stared at his profile. That wasn't all. What he'd said was enough to warrant alarm, but he'd been like this since before we left the cabin. I thought over everything I'd noticed about him, and it didn't take a genius to figure it out. "You can't track them, can you?"

His hands fisted at his sides. "None of that fucking matters if we don't get to the shelter before this storm hits." He lifted his face to the dark, angry clouds in the distance. "I'm more worried about that right now, Jessie."

The confirmation felt like a bucket of ice dumped over my head. Not because of the storm. I had no doubts in Bard when it came to Mother Nature. He'd keep us safe from her, and she'd keep him safe in return.

But he didn't know where they were. Drake could be staring at me right now.

He could be hunting us.

My gaze darted around the area, watching, straining to see any signs of my nightmare. Bard pulled me along, either unaware or unconcerned of my panic.

A roaring echoed in from the distance. "What is that?" I asked, still struggling to keep my footing while being dragged along so quickly.

"The river," Bard gritted out.

That's when I saw it. An angered mass of watery rapids rushed past us as it cut through the Earth, both terrifying and awe inspiring in its fury.

"Fuck!" Bard exclaimed, dropping my hand and clutching either side of his head. He swung a fist out and slammed his knuckles against  the nearest tree.

I jolted, then hurried over to him and laid a hand across one of his heaving shoulders. "What is it?" My voice shook.

Bard gripped the tree. "The river flooded out our path." He scanned the area along the bank. "There should be another one, but we need to move." He grabbed my hand and jerked me forward, dragging me behind like useless dead weight.

The thickening mud by the bank almost made it impossible to walk, but Bard continued to push. The land steepened, rising up above the river, and my feet continued to slide out from under me as we climbed the incline.

When the Earth finally leveled out again, Bard abruptly stopped and stiffened. "Fuck!" he roared.

"It's gone too?" I eyed the steep drop to my right, and the deadly river at least twenty feet below.

Bard nodded once and scanned the area again. The sky rumbled, and as if it had been a warning, the clouds opened up, and rain poured down in the gallons upon our heads.

Bard gripped me. "I'm gonna fix this," he shouted out over the rain. I wasn't sure if the words were meant for me or himself. "This way!" He lead me along the bank, faster and more desperate.

My feet couldn't keep their grip. They sunk in the deeper spots and slid off on the more shallow areas.

Bard yanked me up each time I fell and aggressively pushed onwards.

The rain beat down on us in heavy, stinging lashes. It drenched my clothes and made it even more difficult to stay upright. The ground grew more slippery, until Bard began losing his footing as well.

"There's a cave ahead!" Bard yelled over his shoulder. "If we can get to it, we can hunker down there!" He didn't look back for a response.

The path narrowed, and the Earth to the opposite side of us ross up until we were walking along a cliff face.

If possible, Bard's pace increased. "It's there! We're gonna make it! Just a little further, Tequila!" he called back, the tension evident in his voice.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Karma pulled through this time. She decided for once not to be a total bitch to me.

As if in response to my thoughts, the ground collapsed under my left foot, and the mud was too slippery to grab onto.

I fell off balance, and the force of it sent me over the ledge. Bard still had my hand and hit the ground on his side. But he didn't let go, not even a little. His grip was tight– eyes wide, and panicked.

He flipped onto his stomach and pulled his knees up beneath him, and his slippery fingers were the only thing keeping me from plunging to the river below.

"Hang on! I'm going to pull you up! Can you get a foot hold?"

His jaw was set, and his muscles bulged and strained. Each time he'd pull, his feet would slide. There was no chance, not with the ground so soft. He couldn't leverage himself.

I tried to dig my feet into the cliff, but it was the same. Still, I kept fighting, desperate. Each time my feet slid free and wildly kicked the air.

Bard grunted and pulled again, harder this time. But the slick ground stole his balance, and he fell into a sitting position with his arms out in front of him.

He can't do it. I'm going to fall.

I looked over my shoulder and whimpered. Far below me the river raged, calling upwards, taunting me, laughing at me.

"Don't look down!" Bard barked, fighting to get back to his feet, pulling with all his strength.

He looked so desperate. So determined. So scared.

We'd only just begun.

My heart broke.

"Bard!" I called out over the roaring sounds of the river and the storm.

He ignored me, continuing to pull, only sliding himself further towards the edge.

"Bard!" I screamed.

"I've got you!" he called back. He came dangerously close, then forced his feet back a few steps, only to slide back down again.

My throat constricted, but my fear of the drop was gone. "You'll fall too!" I shouted. "Just... let me go!"

"No!" Bard roared. "I'm pulling you up! You love me?" He yanked hard, sending himself back to the ground. "Fuck!" He stood back up. Sweat beaded his forehead. His arms quivered. "You love me? Show me!" He pulled again, but it was no use.

He'll let himself go down with me...

I looked down again. My whole life flashed before my eyes, much like the day I'd fought to end it, only this time, I felt regret. I had something worth staying for. Something to lose.

I looked back up at Bard, accepting my fate, accepting the inevitable.

I can't take him with me.

I love him.

I'd give my life to save his.

He was nearing the edge again, dangerously close to sending us both down.

He wanted me to show him.

So I did.

My eyes met his, and he knew.

"Jessie! Don't you fucking dare! I love you dammit! Hang onto me!"

"I love you!" I called one last time, then I wrenched my hands from his and fell for the last time. I fell for him, down to the fate karma had for me all along.

Ahhh! Oh no! Talk about a cliff hanger- literally 😂😂
Next upload Sunday morning, sooner if I can get some comments here >>
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