Page 120 of Snow

She twisted awkwardly, stretching one arm behind herself until her fingers finally found the problem. A screw sticking out from the metal had snagged the fabric near her waist.

“Found it.”

“Good. Take your time.”

“I would really prefer to take absolutely no time.”

That earned her a quiet laugh, which was probably exactly why he had done it.

Nova worked the fabric free, and the second it released, she sucked in a relieved breath and started moving again.

“I’m free.”

“Good. Keep going, sweetheart. You’re almost there.”

A few feet later, a faint square of gray appeared ahead of her, and Nova could have cried from relief.

“I see the other vent!”

“That’s it. Keep going.”

She moved faster now, reaching the grate and immediately shoving against it with one hand. Naturally, it refused to move.

“Oh, come on. You cannot be serious.”

She hit it harder, felt it shift, then shoved again with everything she had. The grate finally gave way and clattered loudly onto the floor of the storage room.

Nova poked her head through the opening and looked down, immediately spotting a stack of boxes directly beneath her, which was good. What wasn’t good was the distance between her and them. It was just enough to make her stomach drop, and her instincts immediately voted against every possible way down.

“Snow?”

“Yeah?”

“If I break something, I’m blaming you.”

“You’re not going to break anything.”

“You are very confident for someone who cannot see how far down this is.”

“Nova.”

“Fine. Fine.”

She turned herself around as best she could and lowered her legs through the opening, gripping the edge with both hands until she was hanging beneath it. For one second, she considered trying to find a more graceful solution, but graceful had left the building sometime around the moment she crawled into an air duct.

She let go.

Nova hit the stack of boxes hard enough to crush several beneath her before rolling sideways and landing on the floor with a grunt. Pain shot through her hip, and she stayed there for a few seconds, staring up at the ceiling while she took inventory.

Nothing seemed broken. Her hip was pissed, her ass wasn’t particularly happy either, and she had a feeling tomorrow morning was going to be unpleasant. Assuming they made it to tomorrow morning.

That thought got her moving.

She pushed herself upright and hurried toward the hidden door, only to stop when she saw that the shelving unit had been rolled back into place.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Nova grabbed the side of the shelving and shoved, but between its weight and everything loaded onto it, the thing didn’t even move an inch. She tried again before realizing she was wasting time and immediately started unloading it instead. Boxes hit the floor first, followed by containers, tools, and anything else she could grab. Something filled with metal fittings crashed and scattered across the floor, but she didn’t even bother looking at the mess.