“By the time help arrived, I’d already decided. I told them I wanted to stay. Asked them not to mark the location. They thought I was joking. I wasn’t.” Silence settled between them, filled only by the waterfall. “City life never suited me,” Liam added, softer now. “Out here, it does.” He stood and motioned for them to follow. “Come on. I’ll show you the way back.”
The hidden passage was exactly as he described—narrow, unmarked, easily overlooked. It curved upward through the stone, eventually opening onto the cliff face above their original route. The mountain, once again, looked ordinary. Before they parted, Nora glanced back toward the dark seam in the rock. “You’re sure you don’t want help?” she asked.