Page 36 of Beneath the Mountain Sky

WILLOW

Lightning flickers across the jet-black sky, the crack of thunder rolling so intensely behind it that it shakes the cabin and rattles the glass in front of me.

It’s the kind of storm that always sets every nerve in my body on edge and makes my stomach turn. The kind that sent me running into Killian’s arms for comfort and safety, even though I knew the power and awesomeness of the squall wouldn’t touch us in this place.

But I don’t move back from the window.

Not even as the sky rips open and the driving rain pounds the glass.

“Shouldn’t they be back by now?” I chew on my bottom lip, then wince at the bite of pain where it’s split, releasing it as I glance at Raven, where she sits in front of the fireplace, enjoying the fire we started when the temperature started to drop as the front moved in. “It’s really coming down out there.”

The maelstrom swirls outside, the wind buffeting the cabin, rain pounding the roof and soaking the ground.

Raven offers me a tight smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes—well aware of my storm phobia and how uneasy I would be regardless of the current situation. “I’m sure they’ll get back soon. The McBride brothers know better than to be out on the mountain this late, this dark, in this kind of weather. The storm probably just slowed them down a bit.”

That fact alone makes the small dinner I managed to eat threaten to come back up.

“Come sit down.” Raven waves me over and pats the spot beside her on the couch. “You’re going to drive yourself crazy standing there, watching for them.”

It isn’t them.

It’s him.

As much as Connor and Liam became like my brothers over the years, they aren’t the ones I’ve spent every moment thinking about since I got out of that bathtub and was very—embarrassingly so—disappointed to see my best friend in the kitchen making me tea instead of Killian.

Thunder rolls again, making me shudder.

I release a heavy sigh, then wander over and plop down next to her, wincing at the pain in my side and pressing my hand against it. “Shit, I have to stop doing that.”

Raven offers a soft smile. “You keep forgetting that it actually hurts.”

“I know…”

And as the day has worn on, the aches and pains have started to return with a vengeance.

Those blissful moments of relief the hot bath offered wore off the longer we waited for Killian. The fact that I refuse to take any more pain medication doesn’t help. But I can’t bring myself to.

I hate the way it dulls my senses, makes my brain even foggier than it already is.

It’s bad enough not having any memory of the last year of my life, but not being able to think clearly isn’t something I would be able to handle right now. As it is, I feel like I’m teetering on a tightrope over McBride Falls, and all it would take is one swift wind to blow me right off it and back into that water that almost took my life.

Raven hands me one of the books from the stack next to her on the end table. “Here. Something to do instead of worry.”

I glance down at the title.

Wuthering Heights.

I snort. “You think reading about the tragedy of Heathcliff and Catherine is going to make me feel any better?”

Her laugh floats through the air. “Better than this one.”

She shows me the front of the book she’s had open for the last couple of hours.

Romeo and Juliet.

I roll my eyes. “Not much better.”

She grins and returns her attention to the book. I watch her for a few minutes, reclining in the corner of the couch with her feet up and eyes on the pages in front of her.