How did Brent end up going up there with her? Did she bribe him to spot her like she bribed Dale? After this morning, I can’t see Brent helping her even if she paid him. Unless he helped her as a way of getting back at me. But Brent isn’t like that, is he?

And why was Heather there? She never goes to the glacier.

“What about Dale?” I say.

“He’s in the hospital,” Curtis says.

“What?”

“Broke his hand in the fight last night. A bad break, according to Heather, so he’s waiting to see a specialist this morning.”

“That’s awful.” So that’s the end of Dale’s season—and quite possibly some or all of his sponsorship deals.

“Urgent call for Brent Bakshi!” the commentator says. “If Brent is here, could he please sign in and collect his bib.”

I look around. The crowd at the bottom hush as they, too, look around for him. Where the hell is he?

“We’re also waiting for Curtis Sparks and Dale Hahn.”

I nudge Curtis. “You’d better sign in.”

Curtis doesn’t seem to hear me. He stares off into the distance. I can’t see the clock from here, so I look around for someone to ask and there’s Claire Donnahue, snowboard and helmet plastered with Casio stickers.

“Do you know what time it is?” I say.

She pulls back the cuff of her glove to reveal a silver Baby-G. “Nine thirty.”

“Thanks.” Half an hour till my heat. I turn back to Curtis. “You are competing, aren’t you?”

He unzips the top of his jacket and slips his hand inside to touch his shoulder. Wincing, he heads off to talk to the guy at the sign-in desk.

He returns without his bib.

“Aren’t you competing?” I say.

“Nope.”

I look at him in shock. “The bouncers last night?”

“They finished it off, but it’s been playing up for a while.”

Another wave of guilt hits me as I remember how he yanked me during yesterday’s race. “God, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not the end of the world.”

But from the look on his face, it is.

His sister has clearly done something, because he’s in utter turmoil. He gazes up at the glacier. Shadow spreads up the slope as a cloud drifts by, and the mountain bruises violet before my eyes. What exactly went on up there?

CHAPTER 53

PRESENT DAY

I pat the mattress behind me. Curtis isn’t there. Hot pain spears my knee as I sit up. I bite back a scream.

“Morning.”

And there’s Curtis by the window. Thank God.

But he looks worried. “Clouds are coming in.”

“Snow?”

“A full-on storm, I reckon.”

I stand and stagger off-balance as more pain zings up my leg.

Curtis is across the room in an instant to steady me. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”