They were heading into the woods now. Jaya put her arm around Daph’s waist and squeezed. “I’m sorry.”

“Nah, it’s all me. I was weak and wrong and stupid, and I’m paying the price now. As I should. I don’t even know how I’m going to go about making amends for this one, but I’m going to try.” She hopped over a log in her path and kept walking.

They wound deeper into the encroaching forest, along a path that was usually dirt but was now covered in snow and ice. Jaya looked up at the pines above them, her pulse picking up. She knew this path. “Where are we going, Daph? Isha?”

Isha turned to look at her. Her brown parka matched her eyes exactly, both of them a darker shade of amber in the faded light of early morning. “We’re taking you to see Grey.”

Jaya stopped short. “No. He doesn’t want to talk to me.”

Daph’s face was serious. “Well, okay, maybe that’s true. But he’s willing to let you say your piece.”

Jaya’s breathing quickened. “What?”

“I texted him about thirty minutes ago.” Daph shrugged. “He didn’t sound too pleased about it, but he’s open to it. He wants to give you the chance to say what you need to say.”

Isha gestured to their right. “He’s up there.”

Mount Sama. Grey’s mountain. She turned to look at the towering rock, dark and hooded and silent. “He’s up there,” she repeated in a whisper.

Isha gave her a quick hug. “Yeah. And I really think you should go talk to him. You’ve come all this way, Jaya. Just do it; get it off your chest.”

Jaya nodded. She could make her amends now, if Grey would let her. She could try to convince him that she’d never laughed at him behind his back; that she really had fallen for him. She could spare him that small amount of pain, at least, before she reconciled herself to being Kiran’s soon-to-be fiancée. “Thank you,” she said to the both of them.

Daph rubbed the back of her head. “It’s the least I could do. Thanks for trying to have my back before. Wish I’d listened to you sooner.” Impulsively, she leaned forward and gave Jaya a hug. Jaya was so surprised, it took her a moment to return it.

Isha kissed her on the cheek.

“I love you,” Jaya said to her, her voice catching. “You know that, right?”

“Better than I know anything else,” Isha said solemnly.

Jaya gazed at her and then at Daphne Elizabeth, her heart brimming with love and pain, jostling for space with the trepidation and anxiety already there.

“All right, all right, now get going,” Daph said, shoving Jaya gently away.

Jaya turned to go, and Isha said, “Hey, Jaya?”

“Yes?”

“Good luck. I hope he hears you.”