The Inheritance Book 1

Ch 37 Searching: Mirabelle Davenport [Monday, Week Three]

Mirabelle fought the urge to turn and see if Hannah was following her. Not that it mattered much. Either way, Mirabelle would come out on top.

If the bitch sat and waited, Mirabelle would get back to the castle first and be the hero by getting her and maybe even the other girls rescued–if they hadn't been found by then.

And if Hannah followed her, well, that would prove Mirabelle was the smart, dominant one, rightfully in charge.

She climbed higher. Good thing this side of the mountain wasn't nearly as steep or dangerous as the other side. As long as she didn't run into any more wild animals, she would be okay. Maybe she should make more noise? But that was Hannah's idea, so she couldn't do that until she was sure Hannah hadn't followed her.

Thinking about how fun it would be later that night, when the crisis was over, to tell Kellyn all about the hell she had gone through, kept Mirabelle motivated to push on. She practiced different ways of explaining how the mountain lion had stalked them and got them off course, all the extra exhausting hiking she had to do, and what an annoying bitch Hannah had been the whole time.

Kellyn would be forever grateful that Mirabelle had suffered all this in an effort to save her.

Of course, she would leave out certain details. There was no escaping the fact that it was her own decision to go out in search of the boys, but pretty much all the bad things that happened after that were not her fault.

Kellyn would understand that even if Mirabelle wasn't successful in the whole rescue-mission thing, at least she had tried. And gone through hell in the process.

Focusing on those kinds of positive thoughts--just like she had learned to do throughout her entire fucking life--helped Mirabelle to ignore her exhaustion, the obnoxious deer flies, and the sun burning her face.

Mirabelle was proud of herself. She hadn't looked back once. Hannah was there though, she could hear her. She wasn't singing like before, but she was making enough noise to keep the big, bad, scary animals away from both of them. Good for her, Mirabelle chuckled.

Finally, she climbed over the last hill and reached the rocky, mostly bald top of the mountain. She had done it a lot quicker than she thought she would. The sun was lower in the sky, but there was still plenty of daylight left. At least it wasn't so hot now. The fresh, cool breeze across her sweaty, sunburned face brightened her mood. Everything was finally working out.

She looked around, but the treetops from the pines growing below blocked her view. She just needed to find a spot with better visibility so she could find the castle.

Mirabelle started across the rocky mountaintop with Hannah not far behind. She wasn't going to acknowledge her just yet though. She wanted to figure out where they were first so she could smugly point down to the castle and give the bitch an "I-told-you" smirk. Hannah would then have to apologize and give Mirabelle the respect she deserved.

A few yards away was a huge boulder with no trees directly below it. The perfect spot to search from, as long as it was stable. Mirabelle went over and circled around the massive gray stone, pushing with all her strength to make sure it wouldn't go crashing down the mountain, taking her along for the ride.

When she was satisfied that it wasn't going to roll, she set her pack down on a smaller stone and started climbing. When she got to the top, she stood up tall and searched the countryside.

Where was the castle? It should be easily visible from here. But there was nothing but more mountains and forests as far as she could see. An uneasy feeling jabbed the edges of her mind.

She sucked in a deep breath and took a moment to push it away. No cause for alarm just yet. They had obviously hiked up from a different direction, and were probably around on the back side of the mountain. No big deal. All she had to do was just follow around the perimeter of the mountaintop and search from every vantage point. It's not like the castle had disappeared. She would find it.

Mirabelle picked her way over the rocks and around patches of low, scraggly bushes, searching every inch of the countryside as she went. Where was that damned castle? Nothing looked familiar. They seemed to be surrounded by taller mountains on every side.

About an hour later–it was hard to estimate how much time had passed–was a sight that made her heart drop down to her knees. Up ahead in the distance was the huge boulder she had first climbed.

Something was very wrong.

Where in the hell was she?

It took a moment for the horrible truth to sink in. This was a completely different mountain than the one they had climbed with the group that morning.

A wave of panic swallowed her up.