She opened her eyes and saw the cave cast in the deep, gray gloom of early dawn. Memories shot through her, horrifying recollections of the mountain lion’s screams rolling off the walls of the cave, of how the predator had stalked them all through the night like a living nightmare. Sweet memories of the boy holding her and containing her fear also crowded her brain. “Jake?” “I’m right here,” he said, and again, he stroked her hair. Her eyes clamped shut at the sound of his reassuring drawl. His voice and his embrace had become her touchstone during that terrifying, seemingly never-ending night. Several times, she’d felt her very being fraying and splintering upon hearing the shrieks of the mountain lion resounding so close to them, sensing the animal’s feral hunger and imagining its sharp, white teeth. Then Jake would speak to her in that even tone of his, prompting her to tell him more about Lord of the Rings, or reassuring her that they didn’t have long now.
