Andrei’s POV
It took hours to reach a point on the mountain where I could mindlink my Beta again.
I had to pick my way down the mountain carefully, avoiding new snowdrifts and patches of ice that rendered the path I’d taken up unusable already. By the time I managed to reach an outcrop of rocks about halfway down the mountain and felt the strange bubble of… whatever it had been keeping me from contacting Natalia suddenly pop, the sun was already beginning to rise.
Not that it mattered, of course. The snow rendered everything a constant pale white. It was still early, not even close to dawn, but this high up, I could see dawn breaking on the distant horizon. The sun’s light was a welcome reprieve from the bitter darkness, but it was distant and cold, as if even its golden rays feared tou
