“What if she dies and I never get to see her again and it’s all because I was too much of a freaking selfish bitch to go see her?”

Now the tears really are coming, and Dawn wipes them away, angry and embarrassed, and tries to stomp past Warden and continue along the ridge. But Warden puts his arm out, touches her shoulder, and it’s gentler, not rough like when he fixed her straps yesterday.

“Hey,” he says, and he waits until Dawn meets his eyes again. “You’re going to see her again.”

Dawn wipes her eyes again, hates herself and her stupid tear ducts. “I’m still a freaking Bear Cub, dude. I could be here until Christmas.”

But Warden doesn’t blink, those green eyes serious and concerned and really freaking pretty. “We’re all getting out of here,” he tells her. “You’re going to see your nana again, I promise.”

The way he says it?

Dawn actually kind of believes him.

Chapter 36

THEY MAKE BASE CAMP on the shore of a little glacial pond, literally in the shadow of, ahem, Fart Mountain.

Amber calls the pond a “tarn,” but whatever that means, it’s about the size of a swimming pool and the water is freezing cold. So is the air, for that matter; everyone bundles up in whatever they have in their packs, and they all sit by the fire wrapped in their sleeping bags when dinner is done.

The campsite is surrounded by gigantic boulders strewn everywhere. There aren’t many trees at this elevation, just alpine grass and small, uh, lichen plants—thanks, Amber—clinging to the steep hillside. The Raven’s Claw rises straight above them, reaching so high into the twilight sky you have to crane your neck almost straight up to see it. The summit is another half mile from where they’re camped, and from here, the climb is mostly vertical.

“Hopefully the weather holds,” Christian says. “It’ll be a real pain in the ass if it snows while we’re up there.”

“It’s not going to snow,” Amber quickly assures them. “If the last weather report is correct, we might see some rain tomorrow evening, but we’ll be down from the summit by then.”

She smiles at Dawn, reassuring. Dawn forces a smile back, even though she can’t look at the counselor without wondering if Warden really is hooking up with her, and feeling kind of stupidly jealous about it.

Shut up, she tells her brain. You have bigger problems right now. Tomorrow, you have to climb half a mile into the sky.

Lucas keeps his distance tonight.

He’s probably been watching Dawn and Warden hang out all day, and he’s jealous, too. He might have even seen how Dawn started crying and Warden was there to comfort her.

Or maybe he’s just tired, and as scared of climbing Fart Mountain as Dawn is.