The mention of Christian makes Dawn look up at the Raven’s Claw again. Warden follows her gaze. “He’s fine,” he tells her. “Like I said, he would have been cold last night, but he had shelter up there. But if he has any sense, he’ll come down to a lower altitude where it’s warmer, so we need to get moving, right?”

He’s smiling at her, the kind of smile that instantly makes her feel five or ten degrees warmer.

Hell, even Brandon and Evan aren’t looking at her like they’re secretly laughing, like Warden’s been telling stories while she’s asleep in his tent.

(They’re too busy throwing snowballs at her.)

Dawn sips her coffee, and the coffee is good. And for a moment she forgets she was ever worried about anything.

“Where’s Lucas?” she asks.

Kyla rolls her eyes. “He’s fine,” she says. “He’s in his tent. I just brought him coffee and breakfast.” She gives Dawn a look like woman to woman, like she knows Lucas is sulking and she knows why.

Dawn feels herself go red and changes the subject. “Did Alex leave already?”

It might be Dawn’s imagination, or it might not be, and even if it isn’t her imagination, it might mean nothing or it might mean more, but she thinks she sees a shadow cross Warden’s face for a second.

“He’s gone,” Warden says. He gestures down the trail, across the trench and to the ridge opposite, back toward headquarters. “He left for help early this morning. So as soon as we eat breakfast, we’ve got to pack up and go. Put some distance in before the rescue team arrives.”

Dawn shivers. She squints across the trench at the ridge on the other side, looking for any sign of Alex, like maybe footprints or the telltale yellow of his Bear Cub jacket, but she can’t see anything.

“Hurry up and eat,” Warden says. “I’ll pack our stuff and then we’ll hit the trail.”

The word eat reminds Dawn that she’s ravenous. She doesn’t know where the others found bacon, but she can smell it cooking, and she wants it.

And she forgets about Alex, for the time being.

Chapter 61

THE FIRST PART of Warden’s escape route is the same way they took to get up to the Raven’s Claw in the first place. They have to drop down into that very deep, narrow trench that separates the tarn from the ridge on which Dawn embarrassed herself by crying about her nana to Warden.

If they were going back to Out of the Wild headquarters, they would climb out of the trench and up onto the ridge and continue south.