Deep Love That Comes Too Late novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Snow
The roar came from above, like thunder peeling away from the clouds.
We were on the north slope of Cordón Blanco, at twenty-eight hundred meters, skis on and the sky clear.
There were four of us: Tobías, my boyfriend of five years, my cousin Ignacia, a guide from the resort, and me.
Six weeks until my wedding.
"Avalanche!" the guide shouted.
The snow tore down from the ridge with a white roar.
Tobías screamed my name.
I turned toward him.
Then I felt a hand on my back.
A small hand, strong, with long fingers.
Ignacia shoved me with both hands, full force, toward the edge of the slope.
"Sorry, cousin," she said in my ear, and it didn't sound like sorry.
I fell sideways.
The world became a mass of cold and noise.
It dragged me.
I spun three, four times, my face full of snow.
I slammed into a rock and saw stars.
Then, the weight.
A white slab covered my legs, my chest, my head.
I stopped hearing.
I stopped seeing.
I spat, and the snow in my mouth stuck to my lip like cement.
I was buried.
I moved one hand.
There was a hole the size of a fist in front of my face, with a little air that smelled like ice.
Above, far away, I heard something.
Footsteps.
Muffled shouts.
"Tobías!" I tried to scream. "I'm here!"
My voice came out like a thread.
But he must have heard me.
I'm sure he heard me.
I heard him speak with horrible clarity, just a few meters from my grave.
"Nacha, are you okay? Are you hurt? Look at me!"
"My arms..." Ignacia sobbed. "My arms hurt."
"Easy. I'll get you out of here."
"And Isa?"
There was a silence.
"Isa has her helmet and her skis," Tobías answered, in a voice I didn't recognize. "The rescuers will come for her."
And he left.
I heard the footsteps move away over the snow, farther and farther, with the sound of a man running while carrying something in his arms.
I was left alone.
I don't know how much time passed.
I slept.
I woke up.
I slept again.
The cold stopped hurting.
That scared me more than the pain.
I thought about my mother and the wedding dress stored in a cloth bag.
I thought about Tobías's laugh when he taught me to ski.
I thought: it's over.
And then the snow glowed.
A soft white light, coming from nowhere, filled the hollow in front of me.
"You're not alone," a voice said.
It wasn't a man's or a woman's.
It was clear, ancient, like the sound of a glass full of water.
"Who are you?" I asked, without moving my lips.
"The one who watches from above. The one who sees those left behind."
The Moon Goddess.
My grandmother used to name her in the countryside, when the light went away.
She said she ruled the tides and the lost.
I never believed in her.
"I can keep you alive," the voice said. "Seven days, under the snow, without hunger and without cold. Until they come for you."
"And what do you want in return?"
"The most valuable thing you have."
"I have nothing."
"You have a love."
I closed my eyes.
I saw him whole: Tobías's face, his hand on the back of my neck, his voice reading me messages before sleep.
I also saw his back, walking away.
"When they pull you out, you'll have six more nights," the voice said.
"On the sixth, with the full moon, I'll take the love you have for him."
"And also your memories with him, the good and the bad."
"You'll forget everything that man was to you."
"Why?"
"That's the price."
I thought about what he had said.
Isa has her helmet.
"I accept," I said.
The light went out.
On the seventh day I heard a bark.
Then shovels, voices, and a gloved hand that pulled me out of the ice with enormous strength.
"I've got her!" a man shouted. "She's breathing! She's alive!"
I opened my eyes.
I saw a brown face, with a beard, and black eyes full of terror.
"I'm Lautaro," he said. "From the Andean rescue corps. We're getting you out of here."
"Yes," I whispered.
They wrapped me in blankets.
They carried me down on a stretcher to the base.
And there, under the clinic lights, in the white hallway, was Tobías.
His shirt was clean and his eyes were furious.
"Look at her," he said to someone I couldn't see. "She's fine. She's perfectly fine."
He came up to my stretcher.
"Ignacia has her arm in a sling because of you," he said. "She says you pushed her first."
I looked at him.
"You should be grateful Nacha didn't hurt her hands. She's a cellist. If anything had happened, only dying in that snow could have paid for it."
The nurse stifled a gasp.
"The wedding is postponed," he added. "Until you think about what you did. When you're ready, we'll talk."
He expected me to scream.
To cry.
To make a scene.
I saw it on his face.
I just nodded.
"Okay," I said.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend