“I stashed our bags at the edge of the woods. We just need that note and we need to leave.” What he doesn’t say is “before you cause any more trouble.”

“Okay, let me see….” I scan the woods, mentally planning the best route to the tree and twisting my mom’s ring on my finger. If I can navigate these woods with a blindfold on, then I can definitely do it with only a little moonlight. “I’ve got a plan, but it’ll require us climbing through a few branches that are much thinner than the ones we practice on at the Academy. You okay with that?”

He nods and I exhale. Sneaking out to go see Emily was one thing, but sneaking into woods that might have a Strategia in them is something else entirely. My pulse is racing and I’m sweating under my winter coat.

I weave us through the familiar forest, going around areas that are overgrown with brush and littered with fallen branches. Even so, our steps aren’t completely silent. It’s impossible to avoid making noise in the dark when there is so much leaf and plant debris on the ground. And every crunch we make zings through me like a jolt of electricity, making me feel increasingly worse that I put us in this position.

I lead us around a patch of particularly thick brush near my house and our steps get louder. Ash touches my arm and brings his finger to his lips. I stop moving. He scans the forest and my heart pounds so hard in my temples that my vision blurs momentarily. Does he hear something? See something? I desperately want to ask him, but I have no intention of talking, given the possibility of exposure.

I take the most deliberate steps of my life, counting them off as I go, like there is a magic number where this horror ends and we get out safely. We’re still a good couple of hundred feet from the cluster of large trees that grow close enough together that we can climb from limb to limb. At least when we’re off the ground, our sound and visibility will be reduced. When I count off eighteen steps, a particularly dry leaf crunches under my boot. I freeze, holding my breath.

One excruciating second passes and I scan the trees around me. I cautiously lift my foot, but before I can take a step I hear a faint hum and Ash pushes me to the ground so fast that I barely get my hands under me to break my fall. As I land in a pile of cold leaves, there’s a telltale thud as an arrow strikes the tree in front of me. The arrow hits exactly where my chest had been only a half second earlier.