Amber keeps falling. Keeps rolling over rock, down, down, down toward the snow and the lake far below. She doesn’t make it all the way, though. She slams into a boulder like halfway down, and just lies there.

She’s too far away to tell if she’s moving. She’s just a green Gore-Tex speck against all that jagged gray. You can’t see her face, or even really how she’s situated. But it’s obvious that she’s probably dead.

The wind keeps roaring in Dawn’s ears.

She keeps seeing Amber’s face, right before she fell.

For a long time, that’s all she can see.

It’s Lucas who snaps Dawn out of it.

“We gotta get across,” he says, shaking Dawn by the shoulders. “What if she’s still alive? We gotta get her some help!”

She’s not alive, Dawn thinks. Weren’t you paying attention? She fell like a mile, and she bounced.

But Lucas isn’t waiting for an answer. As Dawn watches, he crosses the narrow ledge quick and lithe, like a cat. Makes the other side with no problem and turns back and looks at her like he’s surprised she hasn’t moved yet.

Even Brielle’s on the other side already. Everyone is waiting for Dawn.

Shit.

The rest of the Pack stands on the other side of the ledge and yells at Dawn to hurry up and get across, while at the same time they’re stealing glances down the north side of the Raven’s Claw, searching the snow and the rock for where Amber lies, broken.

Dawn tries not to look to her left.

(Don’t look down.)

She tries to ignore her heartbeat and just focus on Warden and Lucas and Alex on the other side.

She closes her eyes and just runs.

And she makes it.

Chapter 45

NOW, THE WHOLE GROUP is together again.

And most of them crowd around Christian.

“What do we do?” Dawn asks the counselor. “You need to call for a rescue, right? You need to call back to headquarters now.”

Lucas and Alex and Brielle and Kyla are more or less saying the same thing. Brandon and Evan don’t seem to give a shit; they’re peering over the ledge toward Amber and kind of nudging each other and giggling about something.

Warden watches Christian like he’s waiting to see what the counselor wants to do.

“Break out the radio, man,” Lucas is saying. “Make the call.”

Christian looks terrified. Like he’s shitting bricks, like he’s realizing Amber is dead and he’s out of a job. And he’s probably going to get sued.

He sets down his daypack and starts rooting inside.

Then he stops.

“Amber has the radio.” He gestures over the edge. “It’s down there.”