“Okay, enough of that. Easton said he’d be back tomorrow. I don’t know if sleep will actually happen, but I’m going to close my eyes and think about what it’s going to feel like making it to the top of this mountain. People have done it before. I will too.”

Setting down the camera, River curled up on her mat, holding the radio tucked tightly to her chest, whispering to herself.

“I will too.”

• • •

As trips down the mountain went, this one couldn’t have gone fast enough.

After putting in a call to Ash—and hearing several times that she told him so—Ash had agreed to pick them up. Twelve thousand feet of elevation was about as high as she could safely land, and they knew of a spot to touch down there.

Easton had never been so glad he’d trusted his gut on anything as he was about calling the climb on these two. Jessie was done, both physically and mentally. The oxygen had helped Bree, and she was faring relatively well, but her pace was so slow, Easton was having trouble staying patient with her shuffling steps.

River needed him up there, not going the other way at a crawl.

Ben and Bree had bonded as they descended—now that Bree wasn’t focused on her filming. He spent the better part of his time helping her traverse the terrain, making jokes and telling wild stories to make Bree laugh. The pair’s spirits were high, but some of that might have been the painkillers they kept feeding her. High as a kite, she kept mentioning the stories she’d have to tell once she got back home.

Getting them both through the Veil was a challenge. The only positive was there wasn’t a client unclipping from the line and going off course on him.

“Are you okay?” Ben asked on their two-thousandth break to catch a breath. A break Easton knew was necessary but drove him crazy.

“Not really,” Easton told his friend. “I hate that I left her up there.”

“River’s tough, man. She can handle it.”

Yes, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t be up there too so they could handle it together. Easton had forced himself to accept they couldn’t set a tougher pace, but his skin crawled with the need to get moving, to get back up and get to River. She’d never soloed a climb before, and the mountain did strange things to someone when they weren’t used to being alone.