Colton, we’re fifteen miles or so from the Hackuuh mountain base, north of Rennington. He has us heading south; he says we’re forty miles from getting to Route 10 to Normansville. Does that help?

The directions mean nothing to me as someone who never ventured out of the valley until recently. I try to focus on details and not the overwhelming emotions he’s passing this way, or the way my heart rate is pounding sky high and my legs are trembling at being connected to him. It’s a bittersweet agony, and I’m totally helpless to defend myself from it.

The Hackuuh? You’re not that far, goddamn it, Lorey. You’re the...