63. Fable

Chapter 63

Fable

T he mountains are capped with snow, but it's not quite winter yet. It's coming, and soon, the cows will be home, but until then, we prepare for the cold. We'd come up the mountains on a Sunday, when no one has to work.

"Are you sure about this?" Rhett asks as he stands beside me. "We don't have to?—"

"I've never been surer about something in my life," I answer. I look down at the urn cradled in my arms. "She would have wanted this. She would have wanted to be free."

I'm dressed in a pretty dress, simple, but comfortable. The wind sweeps it around my knees, caressing me, making me feel as if I'm not alone. Beside me, Trent, Rhett, Gunnar, and Colt stand, all dressed in their button-down shirts and nicest jeans. Trent even wears his cowboy hat today instead of the ball cap he usually wears, but there's a single smear of grease on the edge of it where he hadn't caught it. When I'd woken up and asked them to come with me, they hadn't hesitated.

We'd come to the place Rhett brought me to scream, the top of the Green River Basin. It feels like the best location, where she can travel far and wide, free as she'd always been in life.

In front of me, the Green River Basin stretches, perfect, safe. This place has become my home, and I never expected that. I was never supposed to be out here, never supposed to find another family, but Jinx brought me here. She's the reason I found them, the reason I can stand here feeling more whole than I've felt in a long time. I wish she were here, but she can't be.

" I'll always be with you, Everhart ," her voice whispers in my mind.

I glance up, the image of her standing in front of me on the edge of the cliff making my throat thick.

"I miss you," I choke out. "Every single day. I miss the shit out of you."

She smiles but doesn't speak.

"You were right," I say around the tears in my throat, my cheeks growing cold when they start to fall. Four pairs of hands touch me, offering comfort. "You were right all along, about being here. About everything." I shake my head and hold the urn in my hands. "I just wish you were here to see it." Rhett wraps his arms around me to help hold me together. "You'll always be my sister, my best friend."

I can't help feeling as if this were her last attempt at bringing me home, that she'd organized all this from the afterlife despite knowing she couldn't have. She's been with me the whole time, even if she really hasn't been and this has all been one long PTSD hallucination.

"I wish you could stay with me," I rasp. "But I know you can't."

Her image flickers and my heart throbs painfully. She glances at the men holding me, supporting me, and smiles. " You don't need me anymore, Everhart. They'll take care of you until we can see each other again ."

A sob slips from my throat as I pop the lid off the urn. "I'll see you in the afterlife," I choke out. "Wait for me there."

" Of course, Everhart. I'd never go to Valhalla without you ," she replies, her eyes shining.

A hand squeezes mine three times, and I look down at Rhett's hand. Another hand squeezes my shoulder the same. Another on my forearm. And another on my hip. All three times. I'd told them on a whim, and now here they are, destroying me and supporting me all at once.

I lose it. Right there on top of the mountain, surrounded by the men I found my home in.

"I love you, Everhart," I say, and turn the urn over. I watch the ashes fall from the urn and whip into the wind, flying away, free as the birds Jinx always envied. They hold me tighter as it swirls away, as we watch until it's empty.

In front of me, she smiles and lifts her hand in a wave before slowly fading away. Her voice echoes one last time in my mind, even though she's gone. I collapse into the arms of my men, letting them hold me as I sob, as I release the pain I've been carrying since the wreck.

" I love you, too, Everhart ," she whispers. " I love you, too ."