Dawn wants to cry. The Pack’s only competent counselor just fell, probably to her death, and she took the radio with her, and now they’re all lost on top of this stupid mountain with no way to contact headquarters for help.

They’re fucked.

They’re so fucked that all Dawn wants to do is curl up in a little ball and cry until someone else solves the problem.

(And she almost does.)

But then she remembers.

“The rescue beacon,” she tells Christian. “Where is it? Amber said you guys have the radio and a beacon. So where’s the beacon?”

Christian blinks, like he’s just waking up. He looks in his daypack again. The rest of the Pack watches him, waits.

Then Christian sighs.

“It’s down at the tarn,” he tells her. “I left— I forgot it. In my tent.”

Dawn wants to shove him off the edge of the cliff. But there’s no time. She turns to Lucas and Alex, about to enlist them to help her run down and find the beacon.

Call in the rescue helicopter.

Save the day.

But it’s at exactly that moment that Dawn hears Alex gasp. He’s staring down at the north slope toward Amber.

Pointing.

“Holy shit, guys,” he tells the Pack. “She’s alive.”

Chapter 46

SHE’S ALIVE.

“She moved,” Alex is saying, excited. “I swear to God, I saw her moving.”

Dawn strains her eyes to stare down the north slope of the Raven’s Claw to where Amber lies on that big boulder, a couple of hundred feet below. She fixes her stare on Amber’s green Gore-Tex and tries to make out if Alex is telling the truth.

Dawn’s eyesight is okay but it’s not superhuman. She can still barely tell it’s Amber down there. She’s thinking Alex didn’t see what he thought he did. Like, maybe the new guy got overexcited.

She’s thinking there’s no way Amber could survive that fall.

But then, as she’s watching…Amber moves. It’s not much, but it’s unmistakable. Amber’s green jacket shifts slightly. She raises one arm above her head and waves, just a little bit.

Just for a second or two.

Then her arm falls to her side again.

She stops moving.

There’s no time to waste.

Lucas is already starting up the trail to the summit. “We gotta get down to camp,” he tells the others. “Hit that beacon and hope they can send a chopper by nightfall.”

Dawn’s right behind him. Alex, too. Even Brandon and Evan are hauling ass.

Only Warden and Christian haven’t moved. Christian’s staring over the edge toward Amber, then back toward where the Pack is ready to move.