I scrunch up my face trying to figure it out but it’s too hard to think. I let my body weight fall against it and it holds me. That’s much better. My legs don’t hurt anymore. I can lie here tangled in the rope. Just for a moment until I can remember what I’m doing and have the energy to do it. Sleep will help. That’s all I need.

A noise keeps bothering me and when I look down I see that there’s a person huddled at my feet. Her shoulders shake and I think I should be doing something. I should have a weapon. I think I remember that much.

I push at the body with my foot, not wanting it near me. It rolls and I’m confused because it’s me on the ground. But I’m not on the ground, I’m tangled in the ropes—and then I remember my sister.

A shock of fear jolts through me, focusing the moment. My sister. I fall to my knees and grab her coat. “Abigail!” I shout. Her eyelids flutter. I scream at her, my throat raw with the force of it, until she looks at me.

“Gabry,” she mumbles, and I shake her again.

I get right in her face when I yell, “Fight!”

“No.” She bats at me and I slap her. I don’t even feel it, my fingers are so numb. Her eyes open and she frowns.

“Go away.” She tries to pull out of my grasp but I tug at her until she’s standing.

Wind howls fierce, blustering over the river and coating everything white. I shove my sister up the ladder, forcefully wrapping her hands around the rope when she wants to give up.

We make it to the platform and it’s empty. Sleep—pure blissful warm sleep—calls to me and I want nothing more than to follow.

“Come on!” I heave her down the platform and across the island, our bodies stumbling into each other as the wind blows at our backs. No one tries to stop us—everything’s too howling wind and frozen ice.

Her feet drag and I shake my head to clear it. To focus. It’s freezing. It hurts.

In front of me’s a tall building and I aim for it. Just one more step, I scream at myself. I can take just one more.

She’s limp in my arms now and I’m shaking her to keep us both warm. Finally there’s a door. A familiar door and I sag against it, forcing it open. My sister tumbles inside to the darkness and I shut the door and then I slide to the ground.

It’s warmer here. No wind. At last, I’m allowed to sleep.

Chapter XXIX