With that, Evangeline didn''t wait for Finn''s reply and stormed out of the cave.


    The rain had lightened, but the sky was still terrifyingly dark, lit only by a faint, sparse moonlight.


    Evangeline had nowhere to go. She didn''t dare wander too far, but she didn''t want to go back inside either.


    Finn''s words had angered her, and her earlier outburst had been driven by a mix of fury and frustration.


    But thinking it over, she suddenly wasn''t sure what she was so angry about.


    If their roles were reversed, she would have made the same choice.


    In fact, she already had before.


    Was Finn as angry then as she was now?


    At that thought, Evangeline''s anger subsided.


    But even with her anger gone, the practical problem remained. What should they do next? If they were to leave, how would they even manage it?


    Evangeline paced back and forth.


    As she fretted, her eyesnded on the lush trees and the dense vines snaking


    around the base of the mountain. An idea shed in her mind.


    Before she could think it through, a loud "thud" echoed from nearby.


    The sound was close.


    Evangeline jumped, the hair on her arms standing on end.


    She instinctively tried to step back, but her legs seemed to disobey, frozen to the spot.


    What was that?


    A wild animal?


    But she hadn''t seen anyrge animals in the area these past few days.


    Evangeline didn''t dare move. After a long moment of silence from the direction of the sound, she mustered her courage and forced her stiff legs to take a few steps forward.


    As she got closer, Evangeline saw a beam of light where the sound hade from.


    A shlight?


    Had the rescue team run into trouble and decided to drop supplies since they couldn''t get down?


    Several possibilities raced through her mind.


    Realizing there was likely no immediate danger, Evangeline grew bolder and walked toward the shlight.


    After Soren Fawkes fell, he had tried


    to save himself multiple times, but the momentum of his fall was to


    great for him to get a grip on anything.


    Amidst the dizzying, tumbling chaos, an unknown amount of time passed before he finally came to a stop.


    His consciousness was a blur, his body so racked with pain it was almost numb. He couldn''t move.


    "Ah!"


    After what felt like an eternity, a sudden scream pierced the silence.


    Soren forced his eyes open.


    Through his blurry vision, he saw Evangeline sitting on the ground not far away, holding what used to be his shlight her eyes wide with terror as she stared at him.


    Evangeline?


    Had he found her?


    But confusion quickly tempered the immense joy in his heart. Evangeline was alive?


    The searing pain coursing through his body told him this wasn''t a dream Soren suspected he was hallucinating, that his desperation to find Evangeline had finally conjured her image.


    He blinked hard and looked again.


    But Evangeline didn''t disappear.


    The shlight beam fell on her, illuminating her familiar, clear face. She was even


    wearing the same red dress she''d had on before the fall.


    Who else could it be?


    But after a fall from such a height, how could she look so unscathed?


    A momentter, a new thought urred to him.


    Or maybe he was dead.


    To think that the first person he would see after death was a very much alive Evangeline.


    That was good, he supposed.


    Much better than seeing her body.


    Soren tried to speak, to call her name, but with all his strength, he could only manage a muffled grunt.


    Then, he saw another man emerge from the darkness beside her.