Chapter the Very Last
Dana and Sam lay curled together on the foam pads and sleeping bags they’d pulled out of the tent to enjoy the afternoon sun. The heavy snows that would soon be closing the North Cascades highway hadn’t yet arrived. For the moment, they were safe in a high-meadow campground by Lake Ann and no one else was around.
The sun had left the evening cool, but the ground warm. Mount Shuksan arrowed its red rock and snow-covered face high to the north. It still glittered in the last rays of the sunset; a shining torch reflected across the still waters. The reflection was so perfect it was possible to believe that the lake was the entry to another world, the mountain continuing down into the netherworld.
He held her close and rubbed her back, his strong hand sliding beneath h
