**CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “The Spine of Ice”**

  The ridge rose before them like the back of a sleeping beast, a narrow spine of ice-coated stone cutting across the mountainside. Snow scoured the surface in biting gusts, stinging Anna’s cheeks and turning every breath into fire. Lukas clung to her hand, Lena to the other, and together they climbed the small slope until the valley fell away beneath them in a white, swirling abyss.

  The ridge path was barely three feet wide. On one side: a drop into jagged rocks. On the other: a steep slide into a forest crawling with infected.

  Anna swallowed hard. “Stay behind me. Step exactly where I step. Do not stop.”

  Lukas nodded, eyes sharp with fear and determination. Lena pressed closer, shivering.

  Behind them, from the treeline they’d escaped, a sound rose — not a moan, not a scream.

  A howl.

  Long. Piercing. Answering itself across the valley in a chorus of broken voices.

  Lena’s hand tightened painfully in Anna’s. “Mama… they know where we are.”

  Anna didn’t look back. “Run.”

  They sprinted along the ridge, boots slipping on patches where the snow thinned into slick blue ice. The wind tore at their coats, ripping Lena’s braid loose. Lukas slipped once — Anna caught him by the coat collar before he plunged sideways — then they kept running.

  Below them, through the storm, infected shapes moved along the forest floor, tracking their heat from far below. Pale heads turned upward. White eyes followed their figures along the ridge like wolves watching prey on a cliff.

  But those below weren’t the biggest danger.

  The biggest danger approached from behind.

  A thudding, jerking sound grew louder. Snow flew in sprays with each unnatural lurch. Something climbed the slope behind them — fast, too fast, too wrong.

  Anna risked a glance.

  And her blood went cold.

  It was an infected — but not like Jonas, and not like the one they’d killed in the woods.

  This one was huge. Broad?shouldered. Torso swollen and knotted with black tendrils beneath the skin. Its jaw unhinged wider than humanly possible. Its limbs moved with terrible coordination, tendrils visibly pulling muscles into unnatural positions.

  A Brute.

  “The parasite found a strong body,” Anna whispered.

  And made it stronger.

  The Brute roared — a thunderous sound that rattled the ice itself — and charged.

  “Run!” Anna screamed.

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  They bolted along the ridge.

  The Brute thundered after them, each footfall cracking the ice crust. Snow cascaded down the mountainside with every step.

  Anna slipped — Lukas steadied her — the three of them ran in a tangle of fear and instinct as the wind howled like a warning.

  The ridge narrowed further.

  Ahead lay a break — a gap in the ridge where a sheet of ice had collapsed during the storm, leaving a five-foot drop they would have to jump.

  “Lukas!” Anna cried. “Can you jump that?”

  He looked at it, eyes wide — fear flickered — then he swallowed and nodded. “Yes.”

  To Lena, her voice softened. “You’ll jump with me.”

  Behind them, the Brute roared and sprinted faster, limbs jerking, arms pumping like pistons.

  Anna pushed Lukas forward. “Go!”

  He ran to the gap.

  Jumped. Landed hard on his knees. Scrambled up. “Mama! Hurry!”

  Anna scooped Lena up and sprinted. The Brute’s footsteps cracked the ridge right behind her — one slip and they’d all fall.

  She leapt.

  Snow blurred around her. The wind tore the breath from her lungs.

  She hit the far side — dropped to her knees — Lena tumbled into Lukas’s arms.

  Anna looked back.

  The Brute skidded to a stop at the gap.

  It stared across at them, chest heaving, jaw hanging in a grotesque snarl.

  Then—

  It backed up.

  Anna’s breath froze.

  “It’s going to jump,” Lukas whispered.

  The Brute roared—

  —and leapt.

  The world slowed.

  Its massive body sailed through the storm, tendrils whipping behind it, white eyes locked on Anna.

  It was going to make it.

  Anna dropped Lena.

  Grabbed her axe. Lifted it. And as the creature reached the far side—

  The ice beneath its landing foot cracked.

  Lukas shouted, voice breaking, “THE SNOW BANK—USE THE SNOW BANK!”

  Anna saw it — a drift of loose powder where the ridge had been undermined by wind. If the Brute hit that instead of solid ground…

  Anna kicked forward with all her strength, slamming her boot into the snow bank beside its landing point.

  The snow collapsed.

  The Brute’s weight came down—

  —and the ridge gave way beneath it.

  Ice shattered.

  The Brute plunged downward with a bellow that shook the air.

  Its claws scraped at the edge — missed — and the monster tumbled into the abyss, crashing through pine branches and vanishing into the white chaos below.

  Silence followed.

  Then distant cracking.

  Then nothing.

  Anna collapsed to her knees, panting.

  Lukas threw his arms around her. “Mama—you did it!”

  Anna pulled him and Lena close, trembling with adrenaline.

  She whispered, voice hoarse:

  “No, Lukas… you did.”

  If he hadn’t seen the snow bank— If he hadn’t shouted— If he hadn’t thought—

  They’d be dead.

  They clung to each other on the narrow ridge as the wind screamed around them.

  Lena whispered into Anna’s coat:

  “Mama… if they can grow stronger… what comes next?”

  Anna stared out over the endless white valley, heart heavy.

  “I don’t know, child,” she whispered. “But whatever it is… we aren’t stopping here.”

  They rose.

  And ran.

  Into the storm. Into the uncertain dawn. Into whatever waited beyond the frozen ridge.