That was the only good-bye the four of us got. Within seconds, Bales had disappeared into the forest. I turned toward Gabriel, but Cady stepped between us. “You’ll go with Saskia and Kira?” she asked Mac. He nodded, and Cady spared a single glance at Gabriel. “You’re with me.”

Before I could formulate a reply, Cady drew a plastic bag out of the pocket of her cargo pants. Inside was a plain white T-shirt.

Jude’s.

I stared at it, unable to draw my eyes away as Cady let Pad get the familiar scent. Moving robotically, I took it and offered it to Saskia next. And just like that, we were off.

Mac was a silent companion. He kept pace with me as my K9 blew past us both.

“You didn’t bring your dog,” I said as minutes ticked by and the silence of the forest overwhelmed me.

Mac said exactly what I needed to hear. “We’re not looking for a body.”

My eyes threatened to leak. “Thank you.” I heard a tremor in my voice, but I didn’t have the time for or the luxury of breaking down. Mac believed Jude was alive, believed that Ness wouldn’t hurt him.

I could believe that, too.

Focus. Listen. Feel. Mountains and underground caverns weren’t my territory. Waterfalls and rivers weren’t home. But this was a forest—the ultimate forest—and I would be whatever I had to be, open the door on any memory and every instinct, to bring Jude home.

As I pushed onward in the direction Saskia had gone, I found myself wanting to say something. “I told Jude about you.” I wasn’t sure if that was a confession or a statement. “I told him that you were his father.”

“If I’d known…” Mac replied, his voice lost to the massiveness of the wilderness around us. “If I could have been there, I would have.”

I hadn’t been sure until that moment that I would ever be able to look at Cady and not think about the way she’d kept my past a secret. But now? Now I knew that when I looked at her, I’d think about what—and who—she’d kept from Jude.

“He’s loyal.” Suddenly, I needed Mac to know that. “Funny. Stupid when it comes to girls. A total geek.” I managed a smile that almost broke me. “He loves too easily and gives too much, and he’s never even heard of a glass that’s only partway full.”

There was a sound like a crack. Mac lunged at me, grabbed me, twisting our bodies to the side. A massive branch crashed to the ground, an inch away from my face.

An instant later—if Mac had moved an instant slower—I would have been dead.

“Kira.” Mac’s tone was urgent. It was another second or two before I realized why. A dog was barking in the distance.