I didn’t know what that meant, but I knew I had to find him. Assuming there was anything left of him.

I turned away from Bobbie and only then saw I was standing in a clearing. Pockets of little white flowers popped their heads above the green blades, bending with the grass at the wind’s command. The clearing gave way to a thick forest that looked impassable.

How was I going to find him in there?

“Stick to the path,” Bobbie said.

I glanced over my shoulder at her. She was reading my mind again. She gave me an apologetic shrug and thrust her chin forward slightly. My eyes followed the direction she indicated and I saw a break in the tree line. A path.

“Is he alive?”

“Like I said, he’s not my concern,” she replied. “Only and always you.”

“Then can you help me find him? That’s me too.”

“I am helping you. Stick to the path.”

I didn’t glance back. My only thought now was for Jamie. I started forward and within seconds I was running.

“Don’t wander off the path, Grace,” Bobbie called after me. “You never know what’s still hiding among the trees.”

I stumbled into the thick foliage, feet pounding on the dirt as I moved up the path. I had no idea how far I needed to go or if Jamie would even be here. But Bobbie hadn’t been wrong yet and she’d told me to follow the path. So I did.

After a full minute of running, I slowed to a jog. My lungs heaved painfully at the high altitude. I gasped for air, looking in all directions, trying to keep my thoughts off images of Jamie bleeding out or torn in half.

Something moved in the bush to my right, and I jumped to the other side of the path, crying out. Then I settled as a small fuzzy creature scurried out from the brush and hurried back into the forest. I clamped my eyes shut and shook my head.

What are you doing, Grace? What are you expecting to find? Jamie couldn’t have survived. You should go back to the cave.

When I opened my eyes, tears blurred the path before me. My thoughts continued to batter me, draining all the false confidence I’d used to get this far. Rooted to the ground on that path, I stared straight ahead. And it was that stare that rewarded me.

I caught sight of a slight movement in the forest ahead. A couple yards down, on the right side, just breaking the plane onto the path, lay a small heap of something. Something that was twitching. A dying animal was my first thought, but the way it moved was unusual.