“Grace?”
“Nick?” she stood up.
He ran to her and hugged her, then pulled the headlamp off her head so he could see her face clearly.
“What—what just happened?” she asked. “Where’s Annie?”
“You—” He blew out a breath. “I thought you fell with her.”
Grace looked aghast. “She fell?”
“You turned off your headlamp and I didn’t see—”
Grace shook her head. “I didn’t. I was sitting on the—” she looked around and swallowed, “—edge of the stairs. And then I was sitting here.” She looked behind her at the rock against the wall. “I thought— It was like one of my dreams.”
Nick swept the room with the light from the headlamp. Pops’s twisted walking stick leaned against the wall next to their daypack. The shotgun, his handgun, and his sat phone lay on the ground beside it.
But the only passage t
