“Under no circumstances, no matter what, are you to go into the Veil after us. I mean it, River. The ground is swiss cheese with crevasses, and visibility is next to zero. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll never come back out again. Promise me.”

She didn’t promise. Instead, River pushed up her goggles, holding his eyes. “I’m going to be pissed if you get hurt.”

The look he gave her didn’t make her knees weak…it set her on fire. “The feeling is mutual. I’m on channel four, same as last time. Try not to cause too much trouble while I’m gone.”

“Does that sound like me?”

“That sounds exactly like you.” Easton dropped a quick kiss to her forehead, in front of everyone. Bree was smirking at her as the pair headed out of the camp. River watched as they picked a trail, hiking steadily up the ridge until they disappeared out of sight.

River turned to her crew. “Does it bother anyone else that they left us here, possibly never to be seen again?”

“On a mountainside somewhere below a shrieking banshee of epic proportions? Nah, I’m good.” Jessie shrugged. “So, what are we doing first? Filming or setting camp?”

“Setting camp,” River replied immediately. “You never know when the weather’s going to turn. We need to have shelter.”

At this point, they could have set up camp with their eyes closed. Bree stuck close to her side, sharing in the tasks that one of them could have handled alone. Even though they had all been on top of one another since they’d stepped into Alaska, River appreciated her friend’s company.

Finally indulging the part of her unable to stop worrying, River turned to Bree. “Do you think they’ll be okay?”

“In the cauldron of pure evil?” Bree grinned. “Have you considered they could be headed down the mountain right now just to get rid of us?”

River had to laugh at the mental image. “Watch the whole Veil thing be an elaborate ruse to get a running head start.”

They finished setting camp, then went about heating up food at the edge of the dining tent. The marmot must have tried to follow the two guides, but whatever the Veil was had forced it to turn back. Returning to camp, it sat next to Easton’s tent, making high-pitched barking noises as it scolded them. Even though Easton had said not to, Bree snuck it a couple of bites of a granola bar.

“If it chokes on a peanut, you’re the one giving mouth-to-mouth,” River warned her. “It doesn’t like me.”

“You’re direct competition.” Tossing another chunk of granola between them, Bree added, “All’s fair in love and marmot war.”

“Well, we might as well film something,” River decided. “Unless you want to rest, Jessie.”