He rips his goggles off. His cheeks are an angry red that I know isn’t just from the cold.

I feel my own face flaming, too—anger and shame in equal mix. My hands are shaking. I would have pushed her. I really would have.

He hauls himself upright. The movement makes him grimace and touch his shoulder. Oh God. Did I make him hurt it even more?

“Why, Milla? Why did you have to do that?”

I could tell him how Jake thrashed me at every sport we ever played and became a rugby star even before he finished school. How Dad didn’t notice me after that because it was all about Jake. How I need to show them I’m good at something.

But it’s no excuse.

Curtis shakes his head. “You’re just as bad as her.”

There’s nothing I can say because I know he’s right.

And the worst thing of all? Saskia is a speck in the distance, streaking past the finish line. She’s beaten me, yet again.

CHAPTER 43

PRESENT DAY

With Curtis’s arm around my waist, I limp out of the restaurant.

Picturing the rusty blade of that ice axe.

I want to tell Curtis about it, but what if it was him who took it?

“Wait here,” he says, and enters the kitchen.

He opens a drawer. And looks up at me in shock.

“What?” I say.

“The knives. They’re all gone.”

“What?” I limp over to look. “Shit. They were here earlier while I was making dinner.”

Curtis slaps his palm down hard against the counter. The sound makes me jump. So someone has taken the axe and a whole stash of knives and left the rest of us unarmed.

A terrible thought strikes me. “I hope they haven’t taken our snowboard stuff as well.”

“Good point.”

We hurry along the corridor. So far the power has remained on, but I’m braced for it to go out again. We reach the main entrance, where I’m relieved to see our things are still there. I cram my gloves and goggles, harness and transceiver into my pockets, tie my boots together and sling them around my neck.

Curtis fits his and Brent’s snowboard boots into the bindings and lifts both boards. “Can you manage?”

“Yep.” I pick my board up. As I do, I catch sight of Dale’s board, leaning alone against the wall. And that’s when it really hits me.

Curtis is looking at it, too.

“We’re not going to see him again, are we?” I say shakily.

He presses his lips together. “I don’t know.”

Silent and somber, we head to the dorms. When we reach my room, I dump my snowboard on the floor and cautiously push the door, cursing once again that I can only lock it from the inside. Anyone could have been in here. Could still be in here, even.