By the time the light began to fade, I was fairly certain the mountain was mocking us. It loomed in the distance exactly as it had that morning: tall, jagged, and impossibly far away, like it hadn’t moved an inch closer despite the fact that we had been walking for hours.
“This is a joke,” I muttered, dragging my feet forward as another gust of wind bit into my face.
“It has to be. That thing is not getting any closer.”
“It is,” Everest said from somewhere ahead of me, his voice calm in that deeply annoying way of his.
“Just… very slowly.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“Would you prefer I lie?”
“Yes,” I said immediately.
“Tell me we’ll be there in an hour and that there’s a warm bed waiting for us.”
There was a pause.
“…there is not.”
“See? Useless.”
The cold had settled in hours a
