Elusion by Claudia Gabel

Author:Claudia Gabel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

A few hours later, my head buzzes and my palms tingle with thin strips of kinetic energy. I push back the fur-trimmed hood of my white parka so that I can look up at the sky, which is a lemon yellow, lit up by an electric blue sun. Each molecule of tension that lingered in my body is being soaked up by the spongelike hold trypnosis has on my emotions, and I feel absolutely protected here.

Best of all, I have someone by my side. Someone who I really want to trust—and who looks amazing in a thick winter coat.

Josh and I are now inside the Mount Arvon Escape, perched on a narrow plateau off the mountain, towering above patches of fluffy cinnamon clouds. Everything around us is covered in glittering cherry-blossom-pink–colored snow, and the sun is giving off a magnificent spectrum of sheer rainbow-tinted light. Way, way down below are two rippling rivers of grape that wind their way through a valley that appears to be made out of layers of delicate eggshells. In the distance, the rivers fuse together into a glistening purple lake.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” I hear Josh say, his voice utterly breathless.

I inhale the cool, crisp air and exhale a turquoise-colored mist. “It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Josh smiles as he unzips his black down coat to reveal a red flannel shirt. He stares at the snow-covered trees, the frustration from earlier completely gone from his eyes. “Why’d you pick this Escape again?”

I bend down, running my gloved fingers through the pink, fluffy snow. “There was a reason,” I say. “I just have to think about it for a minute.”

“Take your time,” Josh says, throwing a backpack on the ground. “I have to figure out what this is for.”

As I watch Josh dig through the bag, setting out pieces of climbing gear, I concentrate hard on the sense of purpose that’s niggling at the back of my thoughts, which are still pretty gauzy at best. I try to grasp at my most recent memories, but it feels like the inside of my head is covered in the same layers of soft, delicate fur as the outside.

Josh holds up a large, sharp, J-shaped ice tool and smirks. “Cool, huh?”

Suddenly, a recollection is triggered. I’ve seen that object before, not more than a few months ago.

“Ah, now I get it. I was here with my dad right before he died,” I say, rolling a handful of snow into a big gumdrop-looking ball.

“So are you retracing his steps?” Josh asks.

“That seems like the logical thing to do, right?”

“Logic doesn’t matter here; that’s why everyone loves it.”

I smile at him. “Hey, you should be thanking me for figuring out why we’re in these mountains.”

Josh laughs, playfully throwing some snow in my direction. “Yeah, well, I wish I remembered what we’re supposed to do here. Other than climb something.”

Believe it or not, that particular detail has stayed with me. I don’t know how, but maybe my last visit to Elusion solidified it in a dark corner of my mind.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.